my ds has this problem too. I get the blank stare when I ask him to show me body parts. We are starting to work on it in ABA.
Yes my son had a similar problem. his was understanding pronouns which from what i understand is pretty common . This is just an example of how a child with autism might be confused with prounouns.
If i said to my son, Michael touch your nose ( and modeled this for him by touching my nose) He might very well think that i mean for him to touch MY nose. Because in his mind, the word YOUR, can only mean ONE thing. To him, the word YOUR is used for everyone else, NOT himself.
tell me if this makes any sense to you Thanks so much for all of your input. We are very interested in ABA and VB. Unfortunately, none of the therapist that are currently working with Justin are formally trained in those techniques. May consider hiring an ABA therapist out of own pocket. In the meantime, I'm doing as much reading as I can about the different therapies, diet, supplements, etc. This is all so new and there's so much information. Just trying to absorb it all for now without getting too overwhelmed. Must say, this website has been a wonderful resource. So nice to know we're not the only mommy and daddy with a "special" child. Thanks again.One of the first things we did with our guy was imitation. ABA will work
wonders with that. In the meanwhile have you tried a game of do this?
Silly things like put a napkin on your head (after you say do this)
Some time kids will imitate fun/silly things. Just use the phrase
"Justin do this" and see where it gets you. It sometimes help if another
person is there with you as well who will model the imitation.You can hold your hand over his as well--and do it for him. Example: Put a straw in the cup. Then say, "do this" (keep it simple) and put your hand over his, pick up the straw and put it in the cup. Helps tons, especially when you can't get eye contact or attention.
Imitation is one of the first things he will learn in ABA or VB.
That said, Jaden is getting better at imitating when we tell her to, at four years old. She didn't do it at all at 2, and started some at 3, without ABA or VB. We use a lot of Floortime, ST, and school!
For tose of you whose children do not imitate, there dre 4 DVDs called "Watch me learn".In the DVD no 1 there is a "Simon says" game and apparently some of the kids who did not imitate when watched this part started imitating. I think it worths if you borrow this DVD from your local library and watch it with your children.
THey have just started really imitating, I always got the blank stare. We just kept doing it and kept doing it and did hand over hand. I would say touch your nose, and then I would take his hand and say touch your nose as I touched his nose with his hand. ABA works on this alot and they mimic everything he does now. They do have a hard time with any fine motor movements, like thumbs up. I would just keep working on it. I can not tell you how frustrated I use to get cause it seemed like I would repeat things a hundred times and they just weren't getting it and then one day it all clicked into place.
Hi,
Newbie here with a question. Justin, my 2 year old, was just diagnosed with PDD-NOS this past August. He's currently working with Speech therapist, OT, and Special Ed teacher a couple of times a week through our wonderful Early Intervention program. Right now his biggest challenge seems to be his inability to imitate "on command". That is to say, if he sees his older brother playing with a toy that looks fun, he will imitate the activity with no problems. However, if I were to touch my nose and say, "Justin, touch your nose", he looks at me with a blank look like he simply doesn't understand. I know that a lot of this is a communication issue, but as his dev. pediatrician stated, he doesn't understand social reciprocity (ie- I do, then you do).
I guess this is my very long winded way of asking if other parents have experienced the same problems and if so what strategies they used to try and improve these imitative skills. I thank you so much in advance for any suggestions.
My ds is also 2 an is having a hard time imitating. One of the things that our therapists have suggested to do is to imitate him. This starts to build the social receprocity. My ds loves it when he is in the high chair and we do everything that he does. He does something then looks at us to see if we are going to do it to. He still has a hard time imitating his therapists and it may have something to do with motor planning problems. Good luck