Conversational Language

Conversational Language

Abby and Emma are at the age where they are constantly on their phones.  Not talking of course.  That is so last decade.  On their phones streaming music, watching vines, commenting on Instagram, tweeting on twitter….ugh, it never ends.  And in frustration I yell at them to put the stupid phones away.  “10 more minutes!” they yell back and I think, gratefully, that at least Coleman doesn’t always ask for 10 more minutes, at least Coleman isn’t stuck on senseless apps on an iphone.  And then I look and see him over on his computer, tapping away at different youtube videos, stop/start, stop/start,  stop/start.  Over and over again.  And I wish Coleman would just go on a phone and tweet on twitter. J

Really, though, we are seeing some good progress in terms of communication from Coleman.  While his recent testing surely didn’t reflect progress, we can see changes here – they are small, but they are certain.   Over the past several months in particular, he has been trying to get the words out, trying to initialize spontaneous speech.  His problem seems to be in word order.  It’s like he has the words in his head but they are jumbled up and he can’t quite figure out how to arrange them in the correct order.  He knows when he doesn’t have it right, but struggles to make the proper adjustments.

For example, one day I took Coleman to the doctor, and after the appointment Billy met me to bring him home, while I went to work for the afternoon.  I said to Coleman as I left “I have to work for just a short time, ok?  Just a short time and then I’ll be home.”  When I came home later he said to me “Did you have a short good…” and then corrected “Did you have a work good short…” and then, after a couple of more tries, finally “Did you have a good short work?”  I was so ecstatic – it was completely spontaneous, and he was so close and had the words and thought process right.  IT was such a big deal, I was all over him about what an amazing job it was, how brilliant he was, how proud I was of him…He was probably a little confused by my over-exuberance. 

Another example was over Easter.  Billy bought a big beautiful Lily plant home and we had it on the kitchen table.  When I came home from work Coleman said, “I brought some plant to share, do you want some?”   It was a play on one of his Max and Ruby scripts about lemonade sharing, but he was intentionally talking about the plant, wanting to know if I had noticed it and if I liked it.  I made a big deal about how gorgeous it was, how it had such a wonderful scent, and how happy I was that he was sharing it with me.  He looked smugly happy and proud, as if he himself had actually gone out and bought it. 

And then one night in the tub, as I squeezed out the cloth, he said “You use the face to…” and then “You face wash…” and then “You use the cloth and wash face.”  “YES!!!  Yes you do use the cloth to wash your face!!! GREAT JOB!!!!” I exclaimed.  Again, proud happy smile. 

So, lots of progress in speech, although it was not apparent in his testing.  That said, there is still plenty of scripted speech.  Ok mostly scripted speech.  Things like “Rule of life number 4: if you want to hide your baby brother, change his diaper first” (from Olivia), “I don’t have time to talk today. I can’t be late for school.  Today is show and tell!” (from Little Bill), “Ok but if you want to be a pirate, You have to listen and do everything I say, got it?” (said with a pirate accent from The Backyardigans “Pirate Adventure”), “There are two uninvited guests at this dinner party!” (from Max and Ruby), “Peter! How can you be thinking about food at a time like this!!” (from Peter Rabbit), "I'll tell you a story from when I was young and lived in Africa" (from 64 Zoo Lane) and so many, many more.  Coleman still recites these phrases pretty much all of the time, usually speaking word for word in time with whatever show he happens to be watching.  Sometimes, though, he just walks around repeating these phrases, as if he is actually the person in the show.  Still, we are seeing progress.  The tiny breaks of real thought, real words, real phrases, many formed perfectly and others mixed up a bit, but definitely there.  And we are very excited about this.  It’s the first steps toward conversational language. 

Last night, we were in the kitchen, and I was looking over the calendar for the week, figuring out who needed to be where and when.  It was late, and shocker (not) it was getting past what should have been Coleman’s bed time.  He turned to me and asked in a frustrated tone “Is it time for bed yet?”  Gulp.  Ok, I thought, listen to the child.  “Yes!” I said, “Let’s go to bed, it’s late” to which he promptly yelled “NO! Ten more minutes!”  J