With autism, pronouncing words and sounds can be an issue. But often the
delay is in expressive and/or receptive language. Expressive language
delay means the person has difficulty expressing themselves. In Eli's
case, he can repeat almost anything you ask him to say. But he cannot
easily string HIS OWN words together inside his brain to form sentences.
Eli often scripts, which means he quotes lengthy passages of movies,
songs, etc. Then he uses these quotes to communicate. For example, if he
wants to leave, he may say, "Let's get out of here!" He has learned
this phrase from a scene from Toy Story.
Eli uses an iPad with a communication app called Proloquo2go. There are icons with pictures for almost any word you can think to say. Eli easily navigates in and out of folders to create his OWN sentences. For example, after visiting Urban Air (a trampoline park), he spent the next week typing, "Ride in van to trampoline with park and playground."
Proloquo2go also has pre-programmed sentences, which Eli has begun to script and then use appropriately. For example, he can verbally say "My address is 55 Brittany Lane, Atoka, TN 38004" because he has pushed that button so many times he has it memorized. We all cheered when he appropriately scripted, "I need to use the bathroom"!
And then there is receptive language delay. This means the individual hears what you are saying, but their brain is having a hard time understanding or unscrambling it. Eli does fairly well with receptive language, except for when he doesn't want to obey! But if you encounter a person with receptive language delay, you should give them time to respond. Don't immediately ask again, let them think about it. Then maybe ask a second time. Eli does FANTASTIC with this when we type what we're saying into Proloquo2go because he can push the sentence over and over and look at the pictures as it reads it aloud.
There is so much more to be said about communication, but hopefully this little snippet will be of help to someone out there.
Eli uses an iPad with a communication app called Proloquo2go. There are icons with pictures for almost any word you can think to say. Eli easily navigates in and out of folders to create his OWN sentences. For example, after visiting Urban Air (a trampoline park), he spent the next week typing, "Ride in van to trampoline with park and playground."
Proloquo2go also has pre-programmed sentences, which Eli has begun to script and then use appropriately. For example, he can verbally say "My address is 55 Brittany Lane, Atoka, TN 38004" because he has pushed that button so many times he has it memorized. We all cheered when he appropriately scripted, "I need to use the bathroom"!
And then there is receptive language delay. This means the individual hears what you are saying, but their brain is having a hard time understanding or unscrambling it. Eli does fairly well with receptive language, except for when he doesn't want to obey! But if you encounter a person with receptive language delay, you should give them time to respond. Don't immediately ask again, let them think about it. Then maybe ask a second time. Eli does FANTASTIC with this when we type what we're saying into Proloquo2go because he can push the sentence over and over and look at the pictures as it reads it aloud.
There is so much more to be said about communication, but hopefully this little snippet will be of help to someone out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment