It is so unbelieveably cute how he described Fritos!! And it shows how well he is paying attention to detail in his every day world. As for my Ds, he did the same thing as your DS, but not often.
During my older son's evaluation, I remember answering a question on the Vineland about it. It went something like Does your child invent new words and rigidly insist on using them? I said no. I didn't think my son invented words more than most other preschoolers, and the rigidity part didn't apply at all. Both my kids have invented new words to a certain extent. My autistic son started calling octopuses "jambos" because of a line from a Dr. Suess book ("a jellyfish called Jimbo Jones"). My younger son has said things like "I got hurt on my hair" and calls plain milk "snow white milk." It's pretty cute, and certainly not one of the worst quirks we have to deal with... The official word for this is "neologism." Neologism is often listed alongside echolalia, abnormal prosody, and perseveration as potential symptoms of a qualitative differences in verbal communication (autism isn't just about delays, but also about differences). I found this quote today: "There is some evidence that children with autism have a stronger tendency to neologism than other children. But since they also tend to be literal users, it is rather easy to determine what they mean by observing their application of such terms in observable circumstances." Quote taken from: people.su.se/~kgl/Charity.pdf
asking for a cracker, he would say something like, "I want a snack, NOT from
the refrigerator and NOT wet. Crunchy from the big cupboard."
I am happy to report most of this has completely resolved itself with time
and a bit of language support at school.
My son C went from a completely non-verbal 3 year old to the talking machine. In fact, his only real stim is verbal stim (talking to himself). C is now 6 and talking at about a 4 year old level, but he talks constantly. While his vocabulary is growing, I've noticed some very idiosyncratic ways of speaking and am curious if anyone else has observed this. Some examples.
"Mommy, can we go again on big snowy mountain rollercoaster with scary monkey?" instead of asking the name of the roller coaster and then saying "Can we go on Expedition Everest again?" (He never comes out and asks the names of things he doesn't know, he just describes them. Fritos are "crunch crackers in orange bag that fold to make a letter C")
When his brother hit him on the arm yesterday he said "Mommy, Ryan make my skeleton hurt" while holding his arm and crying rather than say "Mommy, Ryan hurt my arm."
He'll say, "Mommy, can you help my seat belt" rather than "Mommy can you help me with my seat belt" or "can you put my seat belt on."
His manner of phrasing "works" in that it get the message across and it's usually crystal clear what he is trying to communicate. However the word choice, phrasing and sentence structure is often a bit odd. Anyone else see this?
I have been modeling what he would say if he'd say it correctly, and he eventually starts saying it correctly. It is so cute sometimes though!
Thanks everyone!
My son calls pop tarts "squares" eventhough they are rectangular. i've noticed that he has a hard time distinguishing square and rectangle, so "squares" they are.
Doritos are "red chips" because they are chips that come in a red bag.
He says "help the movie", instead of I need help with the movie ( like when its over and it goes into the bonus features menu).
Our vacuum has a removable extender, and he calls it a volcano? I still have not figured that one out. I was sick last Sunday, and so my husband let me "take the day off" by letting me sleep all day. He searched the whole house looking for something that resembles a volcano, and he had to break down and wake me up to find out what is this volcano he's talking about?
And Ritz crackers are "circle crackers" while grahm crackers are "rectangle crackers."
This is great!
My son called the lines on roads "VEE VEE'S". He used to call Guitars "doo doo's" as that is the way he interpreted the sound they made. He is 8 and knows the words for these things now. He used to call forests "bailey bee's" We have fun remembering these impromtu interpretations :) Flashing Christmas lights are "polywoly's" and the Christmas lights that don't flash are "Coserows"
When he hears or tastes something he will say "this looks like apples" instead of this tastes like apples. or "that looks like a siren" instead of that sounds like a siren. He also describes the functional words of an object and not the actual physical attributes of an object. I usually ask him "did you mean that sounds like a siren?" Oh yes he says! Yes that is what I mean.
YEp, my son did that too. He used to only want cerain Brands of food products, etc. He also STILL calls things by thier Band names insead of the general name such as: I am going to use the Dell XYZ instead of I am going to use the computer.
Anthony does this, too. He will ask for some things in a round about way. Like Mamakat's Jasper, he will ask for a snack from the cabinet. He knows what snack he wants (i.e. Cheetos) but he just asks for a snack from the cabinet.
Also, he doesn't call people "people" they're "humans".
Payne does the "round-about" talking is what his teacher called it...describes, but doesn't call it what it is.Yes.
Talking to himself mostly during play but sometimes when he is thinking about something. When he does this I interrupt him with "If you want to talk then talk to me" or "What did you say?" and he starts explaining something about it to me or just stop. I don't know if that's the right strategy ......
He builds that kind of descriptions for things like :
- instead of telling his brother to be carefull
- he is saying : "Don't go in the woods. You might get lost"
L
I found this quote today: "There is some evidence that children with autism have a stronger tendency to neologism than other children. But since they also tend to be literal users, it is rather easy to determine what they mean by observing their application of such terms in observable circumstances."
I LOVE THAT QUOTE. Was it Temple Grandin? Sure sounds like her.
T does it. My favorite being the building near my work that is white, with close-set, vertical slit windows ... the CRACKER-SQUARE BUILDING! Of course. It looked like a bag of saltines, lying on its side! We "got it" right off the bat. And decided that she was brilliant ...
Yes, Ali does this a lot. It could be Broca's aphasia, or an expressive speech problem. They understand what is being said to them but have trouble with speaking logically. It is caused by problems in Broca's area in the brain. It can cause as little as the insertion of a few incorrect words to as much as complete nonsensical, labored jargon.