I say Burnt your finger, and Mummy says "Zac, have you burnt your finger?" in the worried voice. I say You HAVE burnt your finger, and Mummy comes to see my hands.Mummy says "Which finger have you burnt?" and I say This finger. I do not move my hands. Mummy says "Which finger, Zac?" and I say This finger, and I do not move my hands.
So Mummy touches my little finger and says "Is it this finger, Zac?" and I say No. She touches the next finger and says "Is it this finger, Zac?" and I say No. Mummy touches all my fingers and my thumbs too, and each time I say No.
Mummy says "Poor Zac. Is your finger still sore, or is it better now?" and I say Better now. Mummy puts her arms round me to give me a cuddle, and I stay very still and let her.
Poor Zac indeed - his "burnt" finger is a real mystery! For the last 3 weeks now he has been talking about a burnt finger. We don't know if he is just repeating something that he has heard (echolalia), for example a child at school who may have burnt his finger, or whether his finger really is sore for some other reason, or whether he has just discovered the word "burnt" and likes it! There is no mark on any of his fingers to indicate a burn, and we have gone through the ritual of touching each finger and asking if that is the burnt one many times now, and each time he says "no".
Language is still fairly new for Zac and, like many children with autism, he gets "you" and "me/I" mixed up. For example, if he wants a drink he will say "Do you want a drink?", because that is what he hears when someone asks if he wants one - it's pretty logical! Hence why Zac says "Burnt your finger" instead of "Burnt my finger".
Also, when responding to a choice of two words, he will invariably choose the last one he hears. For example, if asked whether he wants an apple or a pear, he will always say pear. If asked the other way around, he would say apple! So, when I ask Zac if his finger is "still sore, or better now?" he will always say "better now", but this is not necessarily the case.
We do hope that Zac isn't really in pain with his finger, and will keep an eye on it. But you can see how difficult it is for children like Zac to express themselves if they are suffering pain, and how hard it can be to diagnose a problem.
Key:
WHITE text is me, "speaking" as Zac
GREEN text is direct quotes from Zac
GREY text is background commentary or explanation
Hopefully he is ok, you would probably notice it more if it were serious :) but still very upsetting not to know for sure :(
ReplyDeleteWhen did Zac start putting two words together? how old was he? Lou Lou is almost mute with only the occassional single word 'popping' out. I have to be opptamistic (i cant spell) and say i do feel she will be like Zac and will progress from the single rare word.
Zac was a VERY late talker. His first word was "pib" - pig! The problem is his echolalia - since he started to be able to form words he has always copied what he hears. It's kind of an obsession with him, and is his main form of stimming, along with banging books, but there is very little understanding there, and people mistake the echolalia for real language.
ReplyDeleteHe will even copy foreign languages quite happily and accurately without any clue as to what he is saying! I would say 98% of what comes out of his mouth is echolalic and not meaningful. We occasionally get "Do you want juice" or something like that if he's desperate, and he will occasionally make a choice verbally, like apple or pear.
Hopefully more meaningful language will come with time...
He was non-verbal for a very long time (can't remember exactly when he started), so please don't give up hope with Eloise. You just never know. xxx
Dear Katie,
ReplyDeleteI'm Fair, Akmal's mom. Hope Zach's finger is getting better now. I agree with you that is difficult for children like Zac to express themselves if they are suffering pain. Your blog is inspiring, I surely revisit.