Loving Language In Any Form

I love language and communication.  Now, language is different than speech.  Basically, language is rules of communication and speech is the verbal utterance of those rules.   There isn't a parent out there who didn't smile, smirk, giggle, or outright laugh the first time their little one tried to say the word "spaghetti".  How long did you adopt their version of "psketti"?  I cried the day that my daughter learned how to say the complete name of the bridge that we went over everyday and stopped calling it the "dumb bridge."   When my little man was first learning to use his verbal capabilities and language together, the outcomes were often funny to me as his mommy. Here is a very early "sentence" he said when I asked him if he had a good night, "(James)  Bath... I have bath... all done bath...I James... sleep...bed sleep all done". 

Our kids are so funny and every family who has a child and Mr. Potato Head has this picture (Laugh out Loud and Often.  I hear it burns calories!!)

And another; James:  Mom, get up…Get up of bed  Me:  Why?  James:  Get me to eat


And my all time favorite from the early years:

(James)            Cows

(Me)             I see the cows.

(James)             Cows eat

(Me)             Yes, the cows are eating

(James)             Cows eat……………….. grass

(Me)             Yes, the cows like to eat grass

(James)             Grass yummy

(Me)             The cows think grass is yummy

(James)              Grass yummy?

(Me)              Grass is not yummy for James.  Pizza is yummy for James.

(All of the above examples were when he was about 4 years old)

Now, don't get me wrong and I hope you don't take this as if I am making fun of my son's disability.  On the contrary, I choose to find joy in his attempts to communicate!  Yes, I laughed during each exchange and hopefully I didn't bruise his tender psyche but today he is capable of finding humor in everyday things he does and does and does and does....(those of you on the same perseveration parade as me will understand this).  Now, 4 years later his communication, language and speech skills have truly skyrocketed and we have conversations like the following that happened just a few weeks ago... " you know mom, the smaller the delomirator the bigger the piece" (Yikes, fractions in second grade but I wouldn't have wanted to miss that gem for anything!)

I understand that not everyone who is reading this has a verbal child like I do and that is where communication comes in.  Find a way, sign language, pictures, PECS, APPS on your phone or IPad, doesn't really matter what method you use.  I promise you incredible joy when you start sharing joy and laughter with your child.  I started with silly pictures: a pig wearing a dress, a dog driving a car and talked my son through the picture and showed him why it was funny.  Humor, like just about everything else with our ASD kids is something that may need to be taught. Our family used to sit down and watch "Whose Line is it Anyway."  Crazy comedians doing improv turned my blank-faced little man into a humor junkie rolling on the floor trying to catch his breath!  Is the show appropriate for your family?  I don't know.  Was it appropriate for mine?  YUP!  It got the job done and although he didn't always understand most of the speech, he certainly understood the communication of physical humor in the sketches! 

So what do I want you to take away from this blog today?  Find time every day in between your driving to this and that therapy to stop and be goofy!  Sing a silly song, look through a silly book, make faces, doesn't really matter.  Show your child how much fun laughter is and before you know it they will likely be laughing along with you!