I'm pretty sure that's not a technical term, but I remember reading a while back about how children with autism exhibit "swiss cheese" development. The idea was, compared with their NT peers, kids with autism often have at the same time, areas where they are quite advanced and areas where they are significantly delayed.
We've seen that with our twins, and we're seeing it with Little Bitty. While other kids his age are doing the 6 or 12 piece puzzles, he can breeze through one with 36 pieces in a few minutes. He can recognize / read some words (ok, mostly names of Thomas characters, but it's a start) and the other day he even spelled the word "Thomas" all by himself! He can count at least to 20, and knows his letters and shapes.
On the other hand, most kids his age can speak clearly in short sentences, express thoughts and ideas, create elaborate pretend play scenarios, and color with ease. Little Bitty still struggles to express even basic wants and needs. He's doing better every day, but so much of his speech is still babbling, and it's hard to figure out how much of it really is babbling vs. actual words that we just don't understand. Yesterday I felt so bad because I could tell he was trying to tell me something, he kept repeating the same word over and over but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it meant. :(
The words that we do understand are still often approximations of the word, although there are some words he can say pretty clearly. It has only been in the last few months that he's started imitating. That was a huge step! When he wants something, he is still more likely to try to physically manipulate those around him than to talk (like today, he wanted me to color so he kept jamming his marker into my hand and pushing my hand to the paper).
I know based on the cool stuff he can do that he's a bright guy. But sometimes I find myself wondering just how big our communication gap is, how much does he really understand? Just when I think things are going pretty good, we have a conversation like the other night. It went like this:
LB: [screaming, having a fit]
me: I... want... [that's the prompt for him to fill in the blank which he doesn't always do, sometimes needs a LOT of prompting]
LB: "crwah" [that's Bitty-speak for "cran," his word for cranberry-apple juice]
me: Ok, you want some cran?
LB: [shaking his head] NOO! [he starts screaming again]
me: Ok... let's try again. I... want...
LB: "treh" ["trains"]
me: You want your trains?
LB: [shaking his head again and giving me the 'what is wrong with you woman?!' look] NOO!!
me: Ok... I... WANT...
LB: "D-D?" [DVD's]
me: Do you want me to get your DVD's?
LB: [looking at me like I was an alien] NNNOOOO!!!
me: I'm confused
LB: digga digga digga... diGUH diGUH diGUH!!!!! [he returns to his screaming fit]
Sigh. I'm pretty sure he knows what "no" means at this point (as compared to "yes"), and I know he knows what "cran," "trains," and "DVD's" are. So why the contradiction? I can only guess it was the result of a tired, cranky Bitty who probably didn't really know what he wanted, and so he just kept saying the names of his favorite things. But somehow when he heard me repeat them back, he knew that wasn't it so he just got more upset. Eventually, after another hour or so of screaming, stripping down (totally, when he gets really upset he doesn't even want his pull-up on), rolling around on the floor and trying to kick the door down, he finally settled down and went to sleep.
Thank goodness he was in a better mood when he woke up the next morning.
Monday, September 1, 2008
"Swiss cheese" development & frustrating conversations
9/01/2008 Posted by danetteLabels: autism, communication, meltdowns, progress, speech, words
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6 comments:
Sometimes I think the 'stripping down' is an expression of removing constraints. Other times it's just really annoying!
For us the echolalia confuses the issue immensely. The perfect script that sometimes pops up to exactly match the situation.
It's a mismatch to confuse us all that's for sure.
Cheers
p.s. I would mention in passing that we experienced the 'strip down' approximately every 45 to 60 minutes to coincide with water drinking from the tap [x 2 ] as well as the 'protest' stripping down.
I tell you this because in part it helps explain the lack of clothing around here, and also because now, several years later, we experience it far less. [it does change, honestly]
Best wishes
I think they all have days like that sometimes. He must have been really tired. My daughter used to say, "digga digga", when she was little and it meant tickle tickle. Too cute.
@Maddy - thank you!! the stripping thing is new for us, our older boys didn't really do that, or at least not to the extent that Bitty does. I'm glad to hear it gets better, I'm tired of wrestling with him almost every time he needs to get dressed!
@Bobbi - how cute! It's kind of an all-purpose word for Bitty. My older boys used to say a lot of digga's too, not so much now but sometimes when they're singing (they sing to themselves a lot) I'll hear a little digga digga in their songs :)
My son will be 3 on Christmas Eve, and he has a speech delay. He has not been diagnosied with PDD or anything else at this point, and does have spontaneous speech. However he does do the "digga digga" thing, and I wonder why he does it. Another child's parent from daycare told me that his daughter loves my son and always talks about him, but now she also does the "digga" thing at home. I wonder if it will stop when his speech increases?
Great blog!
Beth
www.poopersonline.com
@Beth - I know the "diggas" have decreased quite a bit as each of my boys have progressed with their verbal skills. But they haven't completely disappeared though. With my twins, who are 7 now and very verbal, "digga" is no longer part of their speech but I still hear it when they are playing. Just the other day I heard Bearhug singing "digga digga" to himself (loudly, because that's the only volume he has, lol) while he played. I had to smile, because it reminds me of when he was younger and said it all the time :).
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