Adverts for Autism – it’s a dog’s life
Echolalia is a common feature of autism. Quite often it can also be a stim, a self stimulatory behaviour. Some people find this very irritating. I am one of them. However, just as I begin to feel my ire rise, I remind myself of a few pertinent facts. [*]…………..
“And now a word from our sponsors,” he beams as he pirouettes across the carpet on tippy toes.
It’s a heavy burden indeed. Was that a Kansas accent?
“Only $19.99 plus shipping and handling!” he pipes as he careens from trampolene to sofa without missing a beat.
Whatever shall we do? That must be a New York accent.
“Call now while stocks last,” he chortles as he completes a perfect backwards roll.
It’s such a heavy price to pay. That fast talker can’t be Canadian?
“Don’t change the channel coz we’ll be righttttt back,” he hollers as he goosesteps Mario style, rigid as a stick. My fuse seems shorter than usual. I have no idea what accent that is, his range is far too great.
He has more zip and zing than the Energizer Bunny.
This is the true cost my friend. The true cost of a new dog, who seeks out new excitements, no matter how well hidden, a power surging searcher, a sniffer hound that eats the remote control, so we are unable to skip the advertisements.
[*] And to the person who searched ‘methods to stop echolalia,’ I would add……..echolalia has it’s place, especially when someone emerges from the realms of the non-verbal, especially if there is poor or weak muscalature. It’s all great practice. Most of the time it is harmless. Phrases you might prefer not to hear will pass given time. They enjoy it and if you can tune in to their phraseology you may well be able to use this skill to your advantage. This mimicry is also a gift as it can help them pick up on current phrases of their peers…….I could go on………but some people are unlikely to be convinced.
So don’t worry if you’re running a bit short in the patience department, as an overly developed sense of humour, may get just as far.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:12 am
“echolalia has its place” – oh definitely! The 4 year-old I’m working with has only in the last couple of months really started echoing what we say – and we’re delighted even though she clearly doesn’t always understand what she’s saying. We know now that she is physically capable of making the sounds – and we weren’t sure of that last school year! She’s attaching meaning to more and more sounds, and we know more will come. In the meantime, if she echoes what we say, at least we know she’s paying attention and not just floating along tuning out everything around her.
Actually the best one was one day when she was annoyed by my constant focus on her and she turned around and yelled at me “You go your room!” Clearly echoing something she’d heard, not understanding that the context (school) was wrong, but knowing at least that it’s something you say when you’re angry and want to be left alone! That was huge!
January 8th, 2009 at 7:31 am
This just took me back about 10 years…we didn’t have a dog, but Evan was saying the exact same things! Now he has moved on to one word phrases that grate my nerves. Random things like “Moo”.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:54 am
Your boys constantly amaze and amuse me, Maddy. Just wait ’til Thatcher start with the echolalia, too!
January 8th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Hahaha. This is why I love your posts. My son is currently in the “But wait! There’s more!” and “That’s not all!” phase. He also walks like Mario and does the “peace sign victory stance” when he’s happy about something.
You bring up a very important thing with echolalia and scripting. I can only speak for me, but echolalia and scripting were the basis of my son’s communication. He still relies heavily on scripting mostly, but he’s talking. He’s communicating. It is what it is. Is it irritating? Sure. But it’s communication.
I can’t tell you how awesome I felt, last summer, when he scripted something from Spongebob and a group of nearby kids knew exactly what episode he was echoing, and wanted him to carry on. That kind of acceptance and socialization was so good for his self esteem. Those kids wanted to be with him, and he was loving it because they showed interest in something he was doing. So often in therapies, the play is unnatural and directed. It’s nice when it happens naturally.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Ah, echolalia. I have also thought of it as practice. It’s like someone learning to play the piano and you can’t stand listening to their plunking and plinking day in, day out. But after a long time of that, a song emerges, sometimes one that they have composed themselves. And there will still be plenty more plunking and plinking as the years go by. But also, more songs.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I’m so glad you posted this. My son does this constantly. And if I don’t answer him or respond to his statements he gets louder with the repeating. UGH. I find myself getting so frustrated. I just need to remember he can’t help it. It’s normal for him. It’s very hard not to get frustrated.
My son this week has taken a liking to repeat commercial verbatim at the top of his lungs while jumping up and down. Does he ever run out of energy or stop talking? LOL. Only when he sleeps.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
LOL echolalia certainly has its entertaining moments. Evidently my daughter overheard me say “scared the s**t out of me” once because that was one of her phrases for awhile. Oh how fun it was.
Cuuuuuute pics!
January 9th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
Echolalia and scripting were the basis for Patrick’s communication as well. It’s kind of funny, in my younger days I thought that when he learned to use intentional language the echolalia would stop. Um, well, not so much. Instead he now talks twice as much!
January 9th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Commercials are so popular for that sort of thing! KayTar still quotes them to us fairly often, even though she doesn’t script much anymore.
January 11th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
[...] around the blogosphere lately. One point in particular that I keep thinking about was from Maddy’s post, in which she mentioned that someone had found her blog by searching “methods to stop [...]
January 12th, 2009 at 5:44 am
I agree … my son used to repeat a lot of movies and tv show, commercials, etc. and I used to thing Ugh, how is he going to make friends doing this…but it has helped him perfect communication as he got older–now 14, his conversational skills are so much better and he doesn’t repeat commercials as much anymore.
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