Don't Ask Questions

Once again I have been blown away by our SLP. Speech and Language Pathologist. I have felt very stuck lately with communication with Alex and frustration has been rising like the tide. When she handed me a Little People play set of a wedding and asked me to play with Alex while she watched behind the glass I knew I was in trouble. In fact I blanked. Froze up and really wanted to cry and throw up the white flag yelling, "I can't!". I can't play with him in front of Her. She always knows how to connect, and lately I have been at a total loss. Well, I muddled through and it was extremely painful. She did not yell at me, or correct me, or even hit the nail on the head just then. She simply said I was aiming too high. I was thinking "wedding" (actually: recent-renewal-of-vows-how-did-she-know-and-how-do-I translate-this?????) and she was thinking "sit on chair, have girl sit on chair". Alex tuned right in when it was sitting a Little Person on a chair. In our next session she busted me for asking questions. Big time. I have fallen back in the habit of asking lots of questions of Alex, which is a big No-no. Basically it is the most stressful thing you can do to a kid with communication difficulties. Or it is simply quizzing him on things he already knows, which is not productive. And back to those communication difficulties, it has really hit me that although Alex knows a ton, and is very smart, general conversation and long sentances are completely foriegn languages to him. Unintelligable. Which is why he repeats odd things that don't make sense. It is like hearing a great cool french phrase and repeating it, but not understanding it. So, even though I know he is really smart, I have to remind myself that he is not yet fluent in English. By toning my verbasity down considerably in the last day I have increased communication with my little bug 90%. Hallelujiah.

So, if you want to know more about how to communicate with kids with autism and language delays check out autismgames.blogspot.com and Tahirihs recent posts. Her insights are amazing.

ps More on the big weekend wing ding soon...