Thanks, Karrie. I think I get it but have more questions
I can't speak for anyone else here. Adam's vocal stimming is different than your typical echolalia. When he is echolalic he can be doing many things to include playing, actually trying to communicate with me etc. His vocal stimming is different than echolalia. His vocal stimming is not words at all. It's sounds that are really different in pitch and repetative in nature. Some of these sounds i swear to god don't even sound human. LOL And when he does them he is not focused on anything at all.......just the way a child will physically stim with hand flapping etc. When he is echolalic he is not in his own world. I do not consider my son's echolalia to be stimming. Sure his words when he is echolalic are repetative in nature becasue he is copying something that he has heard but he is still focused and he doesn't use echolalia as a self soothing measure. Now his vocal stimming is very much used just the way other children in the spectrum will use hand flapping, finger flicking, light switch flipping, etc. (too many different stims to name) LOL It's a comfort measure to some extent for him I think. MY son also sings certain comercials on tv that he has heard...or nursery rhymes while he is playing. I don't consider that stimming. He is still very alert and aware of what is going on around him. So hard to explain what i'm talking about here. LOL I guess when he seems to be stressed.....understimulated....overstimulated, etc, is when he will actually do his vocal stimming.
Karrie
How can I tell the difference between when my dd is "off in her own world" and just playing? She is my only child, so I honestly don't know. Her neuro told me to try to engage her when she's "off" so I do, but I can't help but think that sometimes singing a song is just singing a song, not a vocal stim!!
I think I can tell the difference. There are the times when she is playing with some sort of toy and reciting a video or singing a song (but couldn't that just be playing too?) and other times she is making up her own dialogue/scenarios or mixing dialogue/singing with her own stuff. Sometimes she walks in circles or spins and recites videos, which definitely seems "off". It also seems like there are times when I try to engage her, where she doesn't want to engage and goes right back to what she was doing, starting right where she left off. It's like she's "unreachable" at those times.
One thing the neuro said she had going for her was that when she does go "off in her own world", she can come out of it and be very lucid and engaged when she does so I should take advantage of that and build on it.
I think because she is vocal with the singing and reciting that it doesn't quite seem like she's off in her own world, it seems like she's just playing. But then she would do it for hours on end without my intervening, so that doesn't seem right for a 3 year old. I guess I'm just having trouble distinguishing the difference and knowing what to do about it. Any ideas? Thanks.
My son plays by himself a lot. More so than my other two children did. He also can be echolalic while playing by himself. Now for instance right now he is in the room with me but playing by himself and he is echoing various different things right now. Just a second ago he was saying "this is adam's new bed" Which is echoing what i told him last night because I just set up a different toddler bed for him because the new baby is due in Aug. So I looked at him and said," that's right adam...that IS your new bed." And he looked at me and smiled and no longer is echoing that phrase as of right now. Earlier he was echoing the baby bottle pop song from that commercial while he was playing so I looked at him at eye level and starting singing with him. He laughed and again he looked at me and started dancing. (which is lucky becasue usually i'm not aloud to sing at all..LOL) Both instances he is alert and not in his "own world". Even though he plays by himself....playing itself is a constructive passtime for him. NOW.......when he is vocaly stimming....he usually is just sitting there but usually walking aimlessly around, not looking at anything in particular or doing anything in particular that could be considered as constructive in nature at all, and he has a look on his face that I would call a "dead pan look" He seems to be ignoring everything around him to include, me, his toys, or anything that is in the room. He will be occupied with the vocal sound that is comming out of his mouth alone and nothing else. These are the times when I re-direct him to do something else. I don't consider him playing alone to be in his own world becasue he is still responding to me when I interact with him.
Now about NT children....I have 2 older kids that are NT. And it just depends on the kids personality to whether they spend long times playing by themselves or not. My oldest son never gave me a break and was always in my lap constantly. And when he did play on his own he kept comming back in the room to "check" to make sure where I was. My daughter on the other hand was MUCH MORE independent. But the same was true to some extent....she would occasionally "Check" on me to make sure I was still around. Adam (Pdd-NOS) is 3 and it wasn't until he was over 3 that he actually started that "checking" thing. My other two did it even when they were toddlers.
Now about the echolalia and language development. My older children had a VERY short time frame that they repeated things that I said. And yes it served as a tool in learning language. With adam it is not just a stage because it is lasting a long time. But i can honestly say and so does his speech pathologist that his echolalia IS making it possible for him to learn more appropriate language. I dont' know if it is serving another purpose though. I also have noticed that the more appropriate language he learns and uses....the less echolalia he is using. So to me at least it seems that echolalia is not unlike what my NT children did for that very short period of time except for with adam it is delayed and prolonged.
Karrie
I agree w/ Karrie. (keeping in mind ds hasn't been dx'd anything yet) When Aiden does what seem to be vocal stims, it is just weird or high pitched sounds repeated over and over. Example is while he was in the stroller at Target, he was rocking back and forth making the same nonsense sound over and over for about 15 mins, meanwhile he was also twisting his fingers. No matter what I say he doesn't stop unless I were to completely redirect him like taking him out of the stroller or something then most times he will stop. Of course ds doesn't say many real words yet so who knows what vocal stims he will do once he gets more speech. Just waiting for eval at this point. Got video made. Sent paperwork. Made phone calls. Waiting is fun for someone impatient for answers lol. Best wishes Sally.
Amber
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