Exclusive and Elusive

One of the strangest things about a speech delay is the effect it has on a parent.

Lucky parents like me, notice that ever so gradually over time, the delay has diminished. They are less non-verbal. They have oodles of words. They can stick a whole stack of them together to form what resembles a first class sentence.

The stutters and stammers are less frequent. The diction is poor but comprehensible to anyone who is sufficiently motivated and interested. Yet their meaning……….is so often mysterious.

This could be a fatal flaw for a parent, but I say, if in doubt, just jump in with both feet.

“I wanna go mushroom surfing!”
“Uh, uh, uh, finish getting dressed first and then you can go mushroom surfing.”

“Mom?”
“Yes dear?”
“Now you are beed dah Super A Plus!”
“I am? Really! I don’t think I’ve ever had an ‘A’ for anything, let alone a Super or a Plus, for that matter.”
“Well…..now you are be!”
“B! I’ve been demoted already? I only just had the A. What did I do wrong?”
“Not ‘B’……’be’”

“D’ya know……ya can git…….. hedgehog pants?”
“Um…..no…..actually I didn’t know that. Do you want hedgehog pants?” I can think of few things more painful than knickers full of prickles.
“Japan.”
“Japanese hedgehogs? I didn’t know Japan had any hedgehogs? Porcupines perhaps?”
“No. Japan is have sonic.”
“Er……sonic…….sound……um…..”
“Sonic, he is be from Japan.”
“Oh, I don’t think I knew that either. Oh! Sonic the Hedgehog is Japanese!”
“Yes! I am be want pants like dat.”

“Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Where it is be?”
“Where is what?”
“My……DNA is be?”
“Oh, your DNA is in every cell in your body.”
“In my hairs?”
“Yes.”
“In my nail?”
“Everywhere, every single cell has your own unique DNA.”
“I am like.”
“What do you like?”
“Unique.”


Posted on February 11th, 2008.
Tagged : ,


35 Comments

  1. peter:
    February 12th, 2008 at 12:30 am

    my mother has a slight lisp. she tells this story of how she was at work (shes a nurse) and a drug rep brought lunch for the office. someone had earmarked a bag for her group, but when she went to go pick it up, they were gone.

    she went about asking: “where my sack? does anyone have any sacks?”

    what people heard was: “wheres my sex? does anyone have any sex?”

    needless to say, its always a fun story to tell come christmastime ;)

    http://failsalon.com/

  2. Casdok:
    February 12th, 2008 at 12:43 am

    Isnt unique great!!!

  3. Robin:
    February 12th, 2008 at 1:05 am

    Sonic is a hedgehog? I never got that…

  4. Veronica:
    February 12th, 2008 at 2:51 am

    Does Sonic actually have pants?

  5. mid-lifer:
    February 12th, 2008 at 4:04 am

    Have given you another award…one good turn etc…

  6. Elissa:
    February 12th, 2008 at 4:05 am

    “Super A Plus”!!! Now that signifies one pretty great mum!!

  7. Mr. Bloggerific Himself:
    February 12th, 2008 at 6:14 am

    *Longtime fan of Sonic THE Hedgehog.*

  8. Angela:
    February 12th, 2008 at 6:47 am

    I love these conversations… and I did not realize Sonic was from Japan. I wonder if my little guy knows that?

  9. Angela:
    February 12th, 2008 at 6:48 am

    Just asked…he said he’s from TX. lol

  10. CircusKelli:
    February 12th, 2008 at 7:03 am

    Hee hee! Great conversations!

    Buddy’s speech is ever so slightly delayed — not enough to require special assistance (based on the evaluation we had last month). He’s four years old.

    We still get sentences like “I a boy.”, but we’re working on it.

  11. Bonbon momma:
    February 12th, 2008 at 7:03 am

    Super A plus!!! That’s a wonderful complement. I love the way your guys think.

  12. furiousball:
    February 12th, 2008 at 7:35 am

    Super A Plus does sound good. Sonic rules!

  13. Randy:
    February 12th, 2008 at 7:44 am

    What’s a little scary is when you realize that their receptive language skills are so much better than their expressive ones. Some of my oldest son’s first spoken words were of the four-letter variety. Can’t imagine where he heard those. Dum de dum dum . . .

  14. Vi:
    February 12th, 2008 at 8:47 am

    Okay, I missed something. What’s mushroom surfing?

  15. Suzy:
    February 12th, 2008 at 8:53 am

    Love the conversations……

    Suzy

  16. Madeline:
    February 12th, 2008 at 8:58 am

    Mushroom surfing is a ‘move’ on the Wii Mario something or other!

  17. Emily:
    February 12th, 2008 at 9:01 am

    I’ll tuck that away: “Eat all your supper and I’ll take you mushroom surfing in hedgehog pants.”

  18. Julie Pippert:
    February 12th, 2008 at 9:52 am

    How interesting. And what high praise for you!

  19. Melissa:
    February 12th, 2008 at 10:14 am

    Clever boys! And I love the picture of the hedgehog… I almost had my mom talked into letting me have one of those as a kid! :)

  20. liv:
    February 12th, 2008 at 11:22 am

    what i find to be interesting is that my son has learned to use a few choice words as filler to buy himself time between thinking and saying the thought. most sentences begin, “well, ackshually…”

  21. Mary Alice:
    February 12th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

    Unique is good.

  22. Tee:
    February 12th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

    We have a Wii but not the game that involves mushroom surfing. LOL. My kids like video game stuff, too.

  23. chelle:
    February 12th, 2008 at 1:28 pm

    I think you are super a plus for sure … too cute!

  24. Jocelyn:
    February 12th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

    Hedghog pants once caused me some nasty chafing.

    I switched to snakeskin after that.

    Brill post, as always.

  25. Kathryn:
    February 12th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    Yes. Sometimes all we have to do is listen. Although that can be a challenge in itself, right?
    Great post!

  26. jams o donnell:
    February 12th, 2008 at 3:33 pm

    A super A plus. That certainly is an accolade!

  27. hammer:
    February 12th, 2008 at 6:12 pm

    It’s funny to see it in print because my daughter speaks in a similar manner when she is in a rush. Right now I’m dealing with the frustration caused by complext thoughts and no way to express them.

  28. Lisa's Chaos:
    February 12th, 2008 at 6:20 pm

    Oh I love that hedgehog!! It’s so sweet I want to kiss it but I bet that would hurt.

  29. lime:
    February 12th, 2008 at 8:13 pm

    i am fully developed and entirely verbal but i do believe i could perseverate for rather a while on the phrase ‘knickers of prickles.’ it just sounds the way i imagine it feels!

  30. Janet:
    February 12th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

    Hedgehog pants you say? They do sound awfully prickly.

  31. Angela:
    February 12th, 2008 at 8:56 pm

    I do love the conversations you have with your kids and how you just go with it until you figure out where they are going with it.
    Thanks for the birthday wishes.

  32. eastcoastlife:
    February 12th, 2008 at 9:53 pm

    Sonic the hedgehodge was my son’s favourite cartoon character. Now he has other programmes to watch. ^-^

  33. Kim Malek:
    February 12th, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    Greetings. I was referred to you by “autism diva”. My name is Kim Malek from Trusera (www.trusera.com), a free invitation-only network of people who care about health and believe in the power of shared experience. It’s an exciting new venture with a simple starting point: To provide a safe and comfortable environment where people looking for credible, relevant health information can connect to the knowledge and experience of others who’ve “been there.”

    The Autism Spectrum community’s real need and demonstrated track record for sharing knowledge and support has made it one of Trusera’s first areas of focus.

    I’ve been reading your blog and wanted to reach out to you because you seem to share our belief in the power of sharing and creating access to actionable information. We believe creating the world’s largest network and repository of Autism stories/information will be extremely beneficial to those looking for knowledge, support and guidance in taking the next step.

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  34. Shellie:
    February 13th, 2008 at 12:44 am

    I find the way they express themselves fascinating. Like the hedgehog pants. I agree, they sounded prickly. One of my favorites my twins both use is Hot Doctor for helicopter, and a grasshopper is a grass hot doctor! It makes you look at things in a whole new way.

  35. Mary (MPJ):
    February 18th, 2008 at 9:35 pm

    Yay for unique (and for Sonic and Mario — they’re quite popular in our house too). :)

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