Autism-World

Q: Our 17 month old has been able to point to people and objects when named for several months but still doesn’t have a single word. Not even mama or dada. He does babble a lot though. It seems like he might try to say kitty and will sometimes say hi. He seems to imitate better than he used to but won’t intitiate anything. If we even mention the word popsicle, he runs to the freezer.

He will try and find his shoes if asked but doesn’t EVER intitiate or try to say words. He does see early intervention and a speech therapist but there hasn’t been any improvement with expressive language. He will point to what he wants and grunt.

We have bought the Baby Bumblebee and babble videos. He enjoys them but they haven’t helped him develop langauge. We read to him constantly and obviously talk to him a lot.

Do you have suggestions that worked for child in helping bring on expressive language to a kid that has pretty solid receptive skills? Thanks.

Answer:

If your son is indicating what he wants w points and grunts you need to do two things (1) set up as many possible situations as you can when he wants something andhas to indicate it to you. If he is thirsty, don’t just give him a cup of water. See how many requets you can get out of it??the cup, the water, etc. etc. and (2) start to “shape” those requests into more exact language.

If he wanted a cookie we would say cookie 4-5 times them hand him the cookie.

There are two good books relating to this. One is by Dr. Stanley Greenspan called teh execption child. The other is by Drs. Sundberg and Phardington (misspelled) and is called Teaching Verbal Behavior. You can also google sites on “Mand Training.”
The underlying idea is to build on the receptive langauge your son is acquiring and make expressive the gateway for him to be able to get whatever he wants.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 4th, 2007 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Autism Education Issues.