Does your child call you mom or dad? | Autism PDD
That's a sweet story, Tzoya.
Sarah started calling me mama only after ABA therapy taught her
We made pictures of everything in sight after that..and for some reason she could understand it better:) When she writes me stories or letters she calls me Shelley..it's funny:) Sarah started calling me mama only after ABA therapy taught her We made pictures of everything in sight after that..and for some reason she could understand it better:) When she writes me stories or letters she calls me Shelley..it's funny:) Mason now calls me Mom and my DH Dad...but for the longest time he referred to all adult women as Mommy and all adult men as Daddy...I'm glad that is over because I waited so long to hear that, I didn't like sharing!!
However when he is having a day that is more difficult/challenging for him - I have noticed that he will often call me daddy and not realize it until I say "Who am I?" He'll look up and go, "Oh. I mean mommy." It doesn't happen too often, but it is one of those indicators that we are most likely going to have a rough day (if I haven't figured that out by then!). When my son was really little I was mama, then I became mommy and now I'm mom. Sometimes I'm even MO....OM, depending on if he's ticked at me. When he was really young, I was still trying to go to school and worked as a cashier in the evening, after my husband got home from work, to help pay for what the scholarships I had didn't. We had one car back then, so my husband would drop me off and pick me up when I couldn't get a ride with someone else. One night they came to pick me up and I was just finishing up with the last customer, who was NOT a happy camper. He was po'd over the price of something and proceeded to keep calling me lady. Son heard this and for a few months I wasn't mama, mommy or mom, I was Lady, said with the same condescending tone the customer had used. I have a funny story around this. By age 2.5, my son was calling my husband "Daddy." But it seemed as though he was calling ME "daddy," too. I thought he thought that word meant "parent" and that there weren't two separate names for each gender. Over time, I realized he was saying "daddy" clearly for my husband, but his word for me, though it sounded like "daddy," was somewhat muddier, for lack of a better way to describe it. It sounded like "Duddy." Then it evolved further and was "Moddy." It was then that I realized that my son, who at about that time was found to have significant hearing issues, was not HEARING the "M" sound, which is soft. He always substituted the "d" sound when he could see someone's lips move but he really couldn't hear the consonant (vowels are easier to hear because their sound is sustained). Eventually, he began either hearing the initial "M" in "mommy" or began to read it on our lips. So he GOT the initial "m," but it took actual practice with a Teacher of the Hearing Impaired in preschool to know that the internal consonants were also "m's". By 4 he was able to pronounce "Mommy" properly, but the fact is that he thought he was calling me Mommy all along. I just didn't HEAR it that way. At age 16, he calls me Mom (except when he REALLY wants me, which is when he reverts to MOMMY!!!!!) Interesting to note, language acquisition research studies indicate that the sounds of "mama" and "dada" are used fairly universally across the planet... most babies when unhappy will repeatedly say "mamamamama", and when excited or happy, it's "dadadadada". Eventually, it boils down in to mama and dada, but, boy does it make it clear who gets the "good stuff" and who's there for comfort! At least in the beginning....
[/QUOTE] Ooooh, yes! As adoptive parents (no biological carrying, and no subsequent breastfeeding), we were positioned to make our parenting as androgynous as possible! we got SOOOOOOOOOO typecast, by Tuhina (you know, the AUTISTIC one), as to our roles as "mother" and "father!" There was no doubt in her mind, the individual roles we were to play in her life. Now, oddly, the kdis sometimes mis-call us Mama, or Daddy, but that expectation of how we are to handle them is definitely there! I get "Mommy" or just "Mom". If he thinks I'm not paying attention, I get my first name used. But he didn't use anything at all until about 6 months ago. And his first word was "sky" when when we went outdoors one day. Interesting to note, language acquisition research studies indicate that the sounds of "mama" and "dada" are used fairly universally across the planet... most babies when unhappy will repeatedly say "mamamamama", and when excited or happy, it's "dadadadada". Eventually, it boils down in to mama and dada, but, boy does it make it clear who gets the "good stuff" and who's there for comfort! At least in the beginning....
Here is a short video of Anthony saying my name. This was a day or two after his second birthday. Trinitys first words were dadee and followed by momee,she hardly ever said momee...until about 16-17 months she quit saying everything... recently she has started saying momee and daddee but to everybody and she will say one right after another. I love hearing her say mommee but it breaks my heart when she calls her sister mommee too. **on a positive note she started saying mommee and daddee shortly after the baby started saying mama and dada**hmm.....wonder where this will lead.... Jase sometimes says, "Mamamamama", but I am not sure if he means Mama. He will (at the same time everyday) start saying "Da da da da da", which I am pretty sure means "Daddy" to him, because he always starts right before Daddy comes home from work. 5 to 5:00pm, almost without fail. Any babbling he does is pretty low on consonants, actually. Mostly "n"s and "d's" with an occasional "b" or "m" thrown in. Right now, he's screeching "dye dye dah dah yah!" He's mad that he's having to lie down.
However, he does appear to have a hearing problem, and I would like to join the chorus about hearing tests. I had absolutely no idea there was an issue until that was done...I just thought it was part of the autism, as she mentioned. I would really urge folks whose kiddos are having language problems to have a hearing test, if nothing else just to rule it out! He said mommy for the first time last month. He was 39 mo. I have heard it a few times since then, but only at physical therapy where he is miserable. Never at home. He has called his brother by name for about 6 mo. This was his first and only word for quite some time. With the exception of specific sounds/words for the teletubbies, of course. Everyday when I pick him up at daycare, he runs to me and says "Heidi" all excited. He started doing this a few months ago. The day care providers name is Heidi. So, I am not sure that he knows that I am mommy. yes but its odd...she will repeat our older children, like at the dinner table, they will say, "mom?" and then ask a question. Jaden will interupt with "mom? babble babble babble"
Also, when she gets out of the car at school, the aide says, "Bye, mom!" and Jaden repeats that. Yes. My BB calls me Daddy (He says proudly), but he also calls everyone else by name as well. He can name all of his peers and teachers and...well...everyone he knows! "Dada" was his first word (and I have it on tape-much to my DW's chagrin
My guess is he really started using names functionally between the ages of 10 months and one year, but he has always been a chatterbox...jargon and proper use of words. Still working on, "Pragmatic Use of Language." Dada was the first word for Keith but.... he was holding and looking at.......a plastic Barney doll at the time !!!! lmao! He called me mama for years. I just loved the sound of it. It would make me melt.
Except, oddly: okay ,we are adoptive parents and have always tried to equalize our childrearing roles, but ... ALL THREE kids sometimes call me Daddy or Dada, and call Daddy Mama, at times. (I am not altogether unfeminine or anything either ... ). Both boys said Dada first. When my youngest was 7 months old, he crawled to DH saying "dada, dada, dada ,dada !!!" Mama came not too long afterwards. My little guy didn't say much else, but he did refer to DH and I by name regularly before he was 2. He was 4 or 5 before he called his brother, or anyone else, by name. Before age 1, I was Mama. Age 2 (and when he started one morning of Mothers Day Out), I became Mommy. Age 6, Mom. Interestingly, I was put on modified bedrest with my second pregnancy, so when DH got home from work, I'd immediately go to bed and he'd take over dinner, play time, reading stories, bath and bed. Suddenly, he was not Daddy, but DAMMY! Cole morphed the two names when his dad took exclusive care of him from 6PM on and on weekends. After I had the baby and began primary care again for Cole, my husband became Daddy once more. HEARING! Another opportunity here for me to honk an important horn. GET YOUR CHILD'S HEARING TESTED BY A LICENSED AUDIOLOGIST. There is a prejudice in the special education community that all language issues for kids on the spectrum are due to their autism. Not so. There are fewer kids with ASD who are diagnosed with hearing loss than in the general population. How can that be? Well, this situation exists because the professional autism community is biased in favor of thinking that ALL speech/language issues in a child with ASD are caused by the ASD and they poo-poo the possibility of hearing loss. Even audiologists will often allow a child with ASD to not fully complete a standard audiological exam (because of noncompliance) and then say "he seems to hear fine." SEEMS is not good enough. If you take your child to an audiologist and the audiologist cannot satisfactorily complete the exam or if the audiologist cannot tell you WITH CERTAINTY that your child's hearing is fine, INSIST on a brain stem test. It's an EEG that tests the brain's automatic response to sound. No cooperative behavior is necessary. The child is sedated (not anesthesized) because the exame take over an hour with electrodes on the child's scalp. It does not hurt at all, but it is lengthy. This test is definitive. If you suspect AT ALL that your child might have even MILD hearing loss, get him tested. In fact, if it were up to me, I'd have a brain stem test be part of the standard exam for young ASD kids. Even if a child has perfectly fine hearing, he most likely has auditory processing difficulties. An audiologist can also perform a CAPD test that can quantify the processing and a report will be written as a result that can be used to get supports, services, modifications or accommodations in school.
I could point to myself all day long stating "mama" but it never clicked till they used pictures of me..then she got i! 
CJ hasn't started writing stories yet. But he would call me by my whole name before he started saying mama. Our kids are similar but oh so unique in their own way.
Tzoya, you have me thinking. There are times that I think CJ may have hearing problems by the way he enunciates certain words and sounds. The ST said he will grow out of it, but I think it's more to it. I haven't had a hearing test done on him yet.
We always called our parents by name in my household (not mom or dad), not sure why.
Nope, still doesn't!
So is your child calling you by your name? If so, around what age did they start?
No. Colin (age four) will not spontaneously call me Mama. However, he has only recently begun to talk at all, and will say "mama" if I ask him to repeat the word.
He did spontaneously call out "mama" just once, when my husband was taking him to bed and he hadn't kissed me yet.
He's very attached to me, though.
How old is your son?
Edit: Oh, I'm sorry. I see now from your siggy that your son is five.
DD is 5 1/2, and she is 50-50 between Mommy and Mom, though I expect Mom to take over full time once she starts kindergarten in the fall
to get his attention so to speak. She will say mummy, like maymee, but
once again she uses them more like labeling us like she would another
object, not necessarily functionally.They have just started calling me mama maybe a month or so ago with real intent. THey have known I am mama for a long time, and they have called me mama in the past, but it wasn't with any consistency, like they didn't know they were suppose to call me anything. They mainly asked for mama and said mama when I wasn't here and they wanted me from what I hear from anyone who watched them. Mama was Nikolas first word, I don't remember how old he was maybe around a year and he knew what he was saying cause DH had him and was giving him a bottle and he sat up, looked right at me and said mama. So mama held him while he drank his bottle. But that was the first and last time for a really long time. I don't know if he lost it or not. But the 2 year old calls me mama all the time now and gets an immediate response, so they have learned from her that if they say mama mama will respond instantly. They are starting to learn how powerful language is and how easily and instantly they get what they want if they use it. It amazes me how much they pick up from her.
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