Monday, December 20, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Words and what they mean
I have an autistic child. He's 9 now and he's the most concentrated child you will ever meet. He can look at bugs for, well, ever and talk about what he saw for hours.
When he was 4 he didn't talk. He only had about 20 words he would use over and over. They didn't mean much, they were out of stories we read to him or TV shows he loved. We had many therapists we were seeing to help him out of this world of his and into ours. We speak French at home. My husband and I are both from French speaking parents but, for some insane reason, English was my prefered language growing up. We had English speaking neighbors (it was forbidden to talk to them as they were not Roman Catholic) but the little girl next door was my age and we both liked to skip rope. So we first started communicating with sign language and a little gibberish but easily moved to words and sentences and what do you know? I could speak English!
Well, fast forward about 30 years and here I am with this kid who won't talk. Suddenly It dawned on me, French is the language of therapies, school, demands and requests. Let's make English the language of fun and play and just fooling around. So here I am, on the floor with him trying to get him to engage in play (floortime) and I just blurt out : I'm a little tea pot short and stout, here is my handle and here is my spout. And I get this look of amazement and bewilderment, just like the look of a deer in headlights. Now I sing to him in French all the time, this is not the first time I sing to him. And he just says : ENCORE! (MORE) So I say : you want more song, yes? and he answers : YES! Sooooo. I admit, I created this monster. He now speaks English with his friends (he has friends!!! When he speaks English, he's much more concentrated and easier to understand, the sentences flow more and well, let's face it FART is much more fun than PET. And little boys whoever they are love farts.
And so does this mom.
No French lesson today. I didn't run in 2 weeks, my back has been in spasms and, well, I have to rest for now.
Hope you are all running strong, talk to you soon!
When he was 4 he didn't talk. He only had about 20 words he would use over and over. They didn't mean much, they were out of stories we read to him or TV shows he loved. We had many therapists we were seeing to help him out of this world of his and into ours. We speak French at home. My husband and I are both from French speaking parents but, for some insane reason, English was my prefered language growing up. We had English speaking neighbors (it was forbidden to talk to them as they were not Roman Catholic) but the little girl next door was my age and we both liked to skip rope. So we first started communicating with sign language and a little gibberish but easily moved to words and sentences and what do you know? I could speak English!
Well, fast forward about 30 years and here I am with this kid who won't talk. Suddenly It dawned on me, French is the language of therapies, school, demands and requests. Let's make English the language of fun and play and just fooling around. So here I am, on the floor with him trying to get him to engage in play (floortime) and I just blurt out : I'm a little tea pot short and stout, here is my handle and here is my spout. And I get this look of amazement and bewilderment, just like the look of a deer in headlights. Now I sing to him in French all the time, this is not the first time I sing to him. And he just says : ENCORE! (MORE) So I say : you want more song, yes? and he answers : YES! Sooooo. I admit, I created this monster. He now speaks English with his friends (he has friends!!! When he speaks English, he's much more concentrated and easier to understand, the sentences flow more and well, let's face it FART is much more fun than PET. And little boys whoever they are love farts.
And so does this mom.
No French lesson today. I didn't run in 2 weeks, my back has been in spasms and, well, I have to rest for now.
Hope you are all running strong, talk to you soon!
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