Using Language

[Guest guest]

Isaac's getting better at this language stuff. It is so hard, and his

language issues are so complex, but again, he surprised us this week. He

has a flashcard for a shadow box thingie of a white small dog. Apparently

my therapists think it's homely. Many times, they have said, " What it is,

Dog? " and then got the echoic and then did the transfer. Often the

therapists say, " That's right, it's a dog, an ugly dog. " (Guy therapists

are prone to elaborating on the cards.)

So, this week, " What is it, Dog? " Isaac echoes a pretty good dog

considering that the D sound is hard for him. " It's a ___ " and he fills in

dog. They try again,

What is it? " and Isaac obliges and says, " dog, " without the prompted dog,

and then, " What color is it? " and the person is ready to prompt, " white " if

needed. Isaac looks and touches it and says, " ugly! "

ROFL OK, so he was not correct in regard to the color, because officially

" ugly " is not a color. However, he has picked up one of the identifying

factors of the photograph by himself. LOL

Then this week, he's been answering, " cup " to do the echoic to tact transfer.

Then he had gotten a pretty good, " red " out when asked what color. He even

offered, " it's a red cup " all by himself when asked, What is it? Of course

it sounded like one long slurred word, and then when surprised with a cup

of a different color, he started to answer, " red " but then he said, " a

cup? " instead of the color. He's just beginning to try to figure things

out, not just spit out carbon copied versions. On Tuesday some school

official people came. The good thing was when Isaac was doing the cup

module again, the therapist asked, " What is it? " and paused, and Isaac

said, " Cup. " He usually does not need the echoic prompt for this word now.

Then the therapist said, " What color cup? " and Isaac looks at the picture,

scrunches his face, and says, " Puhple " which it was. I admit I clapped

vigourously and cheered. He had never said it independently before without

being fully prompted.

However, Isaac still has a great deal of trouble learning new words, and he

is severely limited by his motor speech production problems. Still, I am so

proud of his efforts. Imagine, if a walk across the room felt like a climb

up Mount Everest. Sometimes, I think that is how hard it is for him to

answer reliably, consistently and understandably when he is working with us.

Jennie