Feb 09 2009
A few things we tried with my neice with autism.
My niece, who is asd, also was late in talking and very delayed in actually speaking whole words, most often dropping the end of words, like for ball it was ba. ect…
She also did not play appropriately with toys. Could not do a puzzle until age 3, you know the kind with 3 or 4 farm animals, could not put blocks into a container with different shapes with different blocks…ect…
She also was VERY clumsy, often falling onto things she was attempting to maneuver or play with.
To get her talking more we started with rolled up paper or magazines and an empty paper towel holder…we would first make sounds, things she already knew.
She called everything dada, EVERYTHING. Therefore, we began with dada. Then we would make sounds and make music out of the sounds. It was a game she loved to play. Then we added actual words.
Baby sign language. She had only a few basic and they were all her own. More was appropriate to more, but please was the sign for milk, ect. We just used what she adapted to. The words followed later, sometimes much later.
At 15 months, she still could not chew her food. Almost choked in foods not cut small enough to be soaked with slobber before swallowing nearly whole.
Over time she over came this as well
There is much mimicry and persistence involved in teaching her new things. But learning to adapt to her styles of learning and her attention span really helped to get her going in the right direction.
As an adult on the spectrum, I know how difficult it is to “stay in reality.” Often times I find myself in my own world. Getting any child to come out of this protective comfort zone, as you know, takes a very persistent approach.
My niece would not pay attention to faces, words, or even television. Stimulating her was a battle, as too much would cause a screaming, kicking, hitting, biting, act…meltdown.
I had full-length mirrors in every room; we used to dance in the mirror where she was more comfortable looking at people and their faces. It is here she would make eye contact. I guess not having the physical confrontation of a person was less stressful.
Your floor time sounds inspiring. I would recommend keeping things as basic as possible. When you are introducing new words, develop key phrases she already knows and add only one word at a time. Play sound games, where you use the phonics involved in different sages before bringing it all together.
I know of a boy on the spectrum that can only speak in syllables, sounding our each letter of the word, it is the only way he can talk. For instance, hi is hhhh i; you is ya oo uh, and bike is ba ih k! eh. It may be difficult to understand, but he does manage to reach out of his world into this one in his own unique way.
Much like the speech of Sondra, it is a way that some people adapt to a language that can be as alien to us as our lack of it is to you.
Gaining better spatial perspective of the world around her will help your child to be less clumsy. I was put into ballet when I was six because I was left side of my body week, clumsy, and a toe walker with an inability to even stand flatfooted. It did wonders for my balance.
Perhaps some of these ideas can help others on the spectrum…
