Abstract Language Problems | Autism PDD
Your son sounds about where my developmentally delayed son was at the same age. He could only say "uh-oh" when he was 2, and by 2.5yo he had quite a few single words. My son will be 6 in November, and he still has trouble with the "What did you do today?" question.
When my son was about your son's age he couldn't really answer yes/no questions. For instance, if you asked him "Do you want ketchup?", he would simply echo the word ketchup, and people would assume that meant he wanted ketchup, but he really didn't like ketchup, he just didn't know to say how to say "No". We also had to explicity teach to answer "yes" to questions. So for the question, "Did you go to the park today?", you will want to prompt him to say "yes". Fade your prompt as quickly as possible, go from having him echo you saying yes whild nodding your head yes, and then just nod your head, then expectant look, etc. My son's speech therapist used to use picture symbols for "yes" and "no" to help prompt him. Many times a visual cue can be extremely helpful for these kids.
For the "first drink juice than we'll go outside" problem you might want to consider making a "First/Then" board. This is simply a piece of paper or cardstock that has 2 squares next to each other, with "First" written over the square on the left, and "Then" written over the square on the right. You then put a picture of whatever activity you are going to first in the "first" square, and then put the picture of the 2nd activity in the next square. You can use velcro on the board and pictures or simply place them there. The first few times you should probably do 2 activities that follow each other closely and are very concrete. Like, first we will play with the ball, and then read a book. After that you can move on to, first we will eat lunch and then go to the park. The first/then board is also very helpful when you have an activity that the child does not like, because you can show them that it will be followed with an activity that they do like. You can see a picture of a board on page 7 of this pdf file: http://challengingbehavior.fmhi.usf.edu/docs/strategies.pdf
You can either take pictures with a camera, or use google images, or here are some links that have picture symbols:
http://www.childrenwithspecialneeds.com/downloads/picturesym bols.html
http://trainland.tripod.com/pecs.htm
Also, use books to help teach the concepts your son is currently having trouble with. This link gives some suggestions for doing so: http://www.autismteachingtools.com/page/bbbbbb/bbbbcg
I have been there (still there) w/Anna (almost 4 now). One thing that helped us w/it was signing "I want juice". Having her see the words as I said them helped it all connect for her....yet, we still hear "drink!" when she wants one but I won't respond to it because I know now she CAN say "I want drink please".
I remember all to well the repeating of the same word all day all day all day all day all day....you get the picture. (:
The worse is when we are driving somewhere so I now just flip on the old classics "dust in the wind" or some Led Zepplin and I just smile and go back to my highschool days. (: Ofcourse that is on a day I am not wearing my skin inside out.
mary
There is a large gap in between single words and "did you go to the park today?". On the receptive front - does he follow simple commands?- ie. sit down, come here, clap hands, open door, pants off. Work on those first then chain them- come here and sit down. pick up the car and put on shelf.On the expressive front- try to get him to pair a noun with a verb- want cookie, go outside, bounce ball, drink juice.
Sequencing is a hard concept for DS too. Our kids progress in baby steps. NT kids do too- it's just that they go these steps so quickly most people don't notice them.
Good luck- we are basically at the same stage. Mostly 2-3 word sentcences, and doing well with one step commands but still doesn't understand 2 step sommands very well.
I understand your impatience- I can't wait to sit down and have a conversation with Neel. Your son sounds like my son was at that age. Now he is six and has more pragmatic language, but still has trouble asking questions and understanding complex language. We have to keep it very simple and direct for him to comprehend what we are saying. I think a lot of it comes developmentally and probably some comes through good speech therapy. You have to just keep modeling the speech you want him to have. So if you want him to tell you about his trip to the park, then you have to show him how to answer. So you say "What did you do at the park?" and you know he won't answer so you model the answer for him, assuming you know from the person with him what he did at the park. "I went on the swings and slide" You hope he will echo this and you will have to do it over and over in every chance you have for that sort of question, but it does come eventually, or at least, it has with my son. Or you could have photos of the park and the things he can do there and have him point to the pictures b/c this is one of the first steps to language, receptive answering of a question. It is a complicated issue, but have faith in him and keep working with him; it is worth it in the end! LauraFor the longest time Jake would ask for things with single words; he would just shout out to the room "MILK!" We would always correct him and then ask "what do you say?" and he knew that meant he had to rephrase it as "I want milk." Then about a week ago he suddenly "got it" and started putting "I want" and "I want to" at the beginning of everything, but I'd say it took at least a year to get this far. Our next step will be "May I have some milk, please?" That might take longer
My 2.5 son has been diagnosed with a developmental delay. He uses single words to request things, i.e., drink, cookie, outside, sleep, etc. That is great as he had no language at all until he was about 2. My question is when will he be able to understand more abstract language, i.e., "did you go to the park today" or "first drink juice than we'll go outside"...etc? Maybe a better question is will he ever get to that point. His receptive language seems very poor beyond just requesting things or labeling objects.Also he sings, recites the alphabet, counts, repeats line from videos all day long...will this ever end? It can get very trying. Thanks for your feedback.
Is he in speech therapy? This is the key to opening up his expressive and
receptive language skills.
He is in speech, ot and DI therapy (modified ABA 11 hours per week.
My ds is 27mths and not dx'd yet. He has much improved in the last few mths w/ ST. He doesn't say yes or no yet, but he has shook his head for "yes" to things. It has helped so much. However, when he shakes his head it doesn't always means he wants it. Sometimes he just shakes his head yes regardless of the question. Like once I asked him something to test him and he shook his head for yes. Then I just kept asking questions like "do you like puppies" and he'd shake his head yes. That makes sense...until you get further where I start asking things like "is daddy a girl?" (shakes yes) "do you hate candy?" (shakes head yes). He LOVES candy. Ok maybe he's too young to understand diff between boy and girl. But what I'm getting to is I don't always think he understands what he is answering. When he wants something he comes up and starts pushing on my knees and grunts and often he will show me where something is that he wants like walking to fridge. It sounds like Aiden is similar to how srs-mom's child is. He isn't quite that far in how well he talks like few spontaneous words, but he can follow some commands. He has been repeating a lot now. Which is good because he used to never even do that. Now he has even repeated phrases sometimes. My dd said today "we're out of suckers" and ds started saying over and over "out of suckers" though it wasn't easy to understand but you could tell what he was attempting. I figure that's a start even if not spontaneous.
Amber
njdad,It is important to remember that unlike nt children our kids receptive language is worse than their expressive. In other words he can say more than he understands. It is great you are doing ABA and DI as that will probably be the best way to build his understanding. Now if you can carry out the principles in your daily life then he will improve more quickly.
If you set up situations around the house where he has to use language to get what he wants then he will be practising what he knows more. e.g. Put a favoured item in a clear container or out of reach so he has to say "Want ..." and prompt him with what you want him to say. It is important to remember that he will not progress to this level until he has the required precursor skills so you can build on them to teach this step.
Also Dr Kathy Ziatis, a speech pathologist here in WA says that our kids need to hear new concepts and words many more times than NT kids so it is important to pitch your language at a level where he is at but also just above so he can hear the next step. You can model back when he says "drink" what you want him to say "want drink".
She has written a wonderful paper which she presented at a world conference on Autism on teaching language in a pragmatically correct way that I based a lot of my daily activities with my dd on. I found that in conjunction with her ABA sessions that being aware of these issues helped her language to be more age appropriate now.
If you want a copy I can send it to you if you want to pm me your email as I haven't worked out how to paste it in a post. If Michelle wants to tell me how, I can paste it here. Help Michelle!!!!!!
My Jessi is the same way. you cannot have a conversation with her about anything abstract. She basically goes around the house labeling things spontaneously, she rarely ever ANSWERS anything you ask her.
I know that she knows a lot of stuff, but hte receptive language is so far behind.
Sarah
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