Re: Re: spanish

December 31, 2006

just adding my 2 cents as well. our son, 7, has autism & his main problem is

language, expressive & receptive. he has greatly improved in the last year or

so. my wife is hispanic & i'm a gringo. she's always spoken to him in both

spanish & english. the school district does NOT recommend it, but our theory is

you're making the brain exercise by bombarding them at all times. i myself did

not learn spanish until after i was thirty years old. they say when you learn a

new language later in life, you're actually using a different part of the brain

than your native language. so my thought (highly unscientific) is that if there

is a problem with one part of our son's brain, enough stimulation will exercise

maybe another part of his brain to get the fluency we highly desire for him. i

know before i was fluent, i'd memorize phrases to create conversations...over

time, it became second nature & now i'm told i'm undistinguishable from any

other native spanish speaker over the

phone.

bottom line---i would highly encourage it.

Re: spanish

My son loves different languages too. He has a Leap Pad learning system.

He learned all of the different phrases in all of the various languages and

can repeat and know what each phrase is, even Japanese. I got him the

Spanish/English leap pad book for his birthday. He picks it up so easily.

I think it has to do with the sensory integration problems he has. All of

his senses are hightened. He has a great ear for languages, music, ect. He

can pick out different instruments in the background, not just the melody.

Also, he seems to feel the way words sound in his mouth like they have a

texture. Weird I know. I would say to go with whatever your son's interest

is. Who knows what key might unlock the language explosion. It will keep

you on your toes though!!

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January 1, 2007

I have a German friend who always spoke to her children in German while her

husband spoke to them in English. The children learned both languages just

fine. I was amused when my friend and I had lunch one day and her daughter

(around 4) said to her mom, " I didn't know you could speak English " . So I have

to agree that learning both languages is a wonderful gift to a child and they

more easily learn another language at a young age. Perhaps it is easier to

think in both languages when exposed so early. I don't know if it is more

challenging to a child with autism since language is such a challenge to many of

our children. But with diligence, I would think anything is possible.

Maggie

[Texas-Autism- Advocacy] Re: spanish