Michele Lee

I know this isn’t a big deal to most of you, but earlier when I asked my son to put a dish in the sink for me (because he was going that way) he looked at the plate and asked “What have you ate, Mom?”

I didn’t know whether to answer him or squee first. This is a big deal because autism impairs language and communication. Using past perfect tense is a huge step. Heck, using past tense is a huge step!

There has been such a big change in him this summer. I can really see the work at home and school paying off. He has a mastery of language that he just didn’t have years ago. To put it in context two years ago he only spoke in full sentences about 30% of the time. Sure he could do it, but he didn’t naturally form sentences and often had to be encouraged to do so. He rarely had anything that could be called an opinion. This summer he’s requested specific gifts for his birthday (and can tell us how old he is going to be), he’s told us that he wants to do for his birthday (have cheese pizza at Chuck E. Cheese), he requests certain activities (I mean, he ASKED to go see The Incredible Hulk, after years of having a meltdown at the mere mention of going to see a movie). It’s standard practice for us to sit around watching t.v. and talking about what we see. Now he not only joins in but he’ll start the conversations!

This is a huge, huge change from a boy who we were told not even three years ago should just “be put in a place for kids like him”.

Echolalia is a pseudo-tic, repetitive verbalizations. My son was tested for autism because he had severe echolalia. He’s only been nonverbal in on area of his life, after his first school kicked him out. It was so traumatic to him that he went nonverbal for a week or two. Then slowly he started talking to us again and the echolalia was a huge problem. It took almost a month for him to start talking to other people (in our presence, I don’t know for sure how much communicating he did with his new teachers). But he’s always had trouble with verbal or auditory repetition.

It’s like watching him act out something he’s seen on TV, or in a movie or video game, sometimes with physical actions, sometimes just the words, some times only the sounds, and always like his rewind button is broken. He’ll do the exact same sound or act over and over and over until he can stop. It seems to be part compulsion and part tic. This summer we’ve seen a significant decrease of the echolalia as well. When he does do it it’s usually when he’s in another room, or walking through the house. It’s quieter, it doesn’t last as long and more and more it’s something recognizable. It’s running a favorite like from a movie, or humming a theme song (his current favorite is the Pink Panther theme song) under his breath.

He’s also much more open to new experiences. Things like events at the library and going to the farmer’s market. He had never been to a farmer’s market before, but not only was he okay with going he was excited before we got there. He’s asked me about it several times since then, showing a lot of interest in watching (or helping) me cook.

I know that a lot of this might mean nothing to you, but this is some really amazing progress, a true triumph for our family.