Re: Does Hi Dad mean anything?

[Guest guest]

My grandson is eight years old, nonverbal, and potty training remains a work in progress.

Yesterday, he said "Hi Dad" spontaneously, as his father unexpectedly opened the door, catching him completely by surprise.

Having him say "Hi Dad" was remarkable....and...we sure would like to know it there are any theories that may explain why he was able to verbalize when surprised?Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.

[Guest guest]

Congrats! Those moments in time are my most treasured!! My son is 8

and non verbal also and I have gotten a few of these " pop out " words

and phrases, too. My theory is that its his nervous system being

stimulated enough to get the connections made. Baths, jumping on the

trampoline, swinging, and rough play usually will get him to produce

more repeating what I say and clearer language.

Amber

>

> My grandson is eight years old, nonverbal, and potty training

remains a work

> in progress.

>

> Yesterday, he said " Hi Dad " spontaneously, as his father

unexpectedly opened

> the door, catching him completely by surprise.

>

> Having him say " Hi Dad " was remarkable....and...we sure would like

to know

> it there are any theories that may explain why he was able to

verbalize when

> surprised?

>

>

>

> **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in

shape.

> http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?

NCID=aolcmp00300000002489

>

[Guest guest]

I'm totally, utterly not an expert here and assume I probably know

less about therapies and approaches than most people on these lists

because we only recognized the cause of our kids' illnesses less than

a year ago. But maybe there's something in what we've done which

could be useful. If not, toss it! I've posted some of this before.

GF/CF really triggered our son's language (he spoke for the first

time in over a year within five days of starting the diet), but to

crank up language production once it started, we found things that

worked and didn't work. What worked for us might not for another

injured child. For your boy, it sounds like a little adreneline boost

goes a long way, which is a familiar scenario to us.

We never sent our kids to shrinks. Instead, we went to a parental

coach, a guy who used to head the at-risk infants program at

Children's Hospital back before managed care. We read about the

amazing things this guy used to do in coaching single teen mothers on

how to nurture their failing infants back to health and thought he

was someone we might listen to-- not because he was an autism expert

but because he sounded very kind and too old and experienced to sell

us a lot of bs. We'd had it with " autism experts " (few behavioral

therapists gear their work specifically for recovering children they

believe to be toxically injured). We just wanted human experts. This

doctor did actually believe in the connection between the epidemic in

cognitive disorders and vaccines and was deeply cynical about the

pharmaceutical companies (he never drugged children), so we didn't

have to wade through moldy refrigerator mother theories or " brain

chemical imbalance " nonsense.

For what it's worth, this guy gave us a valuable piece of insight. It

was what we were thinking anyway, but we paid $190 an hour to have

someone substantiate this. He said that language is supported by

emotion and we might use emotion as the thread to pull language out

of our son. Clearly he didn't believe that our son's language

development problem was caused by emotional damage, just that we

could use emotional energy as a fulcrum to jump-start him.

Then we went to an SP at Vanderbilt. He was a " genes " guy but did

have some progressive approaches to language enrichment. He

reiterated what the parental coach had said. The SP said to avoid

prompting and withholding (and to avoid programs which utilize these

methods excessively, like PECS) in favor of following our son's cues

to play and hiring some enthusiastic teenagers to do some language

enrichment excercises. We did this and just let the teens romp with

our kids and do whatever it took to get them blissed out, then

started to attach language to experiences, objects, etc.. Our son was

basically in love with the girls, which didn't hurt and pretty soon

his vocabulary took off and we lost count. Our daughter (they're

twins) was already well on her way but her skills increased as well.

Where all the other " language therapy " had failed, this approach

worked for us. We just worked to make DS deliriously happy for at

least one part of every day. We tabled issues of discipline (he's not

disruptive, moody or rigid, so that was an easy choice, though it may

not be for everyone). Now that's he's emotionally stronger and can

communicate more, we've reintroduced some discipline. This is touch

and go as he is (just as the parent coach and the SP had noted) still

somewhat emotionally fragile. But what a difference from before. Now

he can be told not to do something and he throws up his hands and

says, " Oh bonkies " . He doesn't withdraw like he used to. For this

reason, we're looking into professional speech therapy again. Even if

we have to hire and fire a few and they make mistakes or approach him

in the wrong way, we think he can handle it without losing ground.

All of this would have meant nothing without the altmed therapies to

heal his gut and immune system and clearly would have meant nothing

if the language center of ds's brain had been sufficiently damaged to

rule out his ever developing language, but it didn't hurt. Every

first phrase our son speaks is always on a wave of emotion or

enthusiasm. Now that he has a toe-hold on language, he speaks new

phrases more casually, doesn't necessarily have to be fired up to do

it, but we still make sure to get him blissed out as often as

possible.

My own personal " kooky " theory is that the reason some vaccine-

injured kids seem to " laugh for no reason " (whatever that means) is

that it increases IgA and immune factors. I wondered if it was the

system's natural attempt to overcome impaired immunity and impaired

ability to detox. Our son doesn't " laugh for no reason " necessarily,

but we try to find anything we can to make him laugh and he's been

getting closer and closer to the prankster he started out being as an

infant, before he became ill. Only now are we starting to curb some

of his pranks a little in preparation for school next year. To us,

it's a miracle that we're having to think of ways to redirect his

stinkerishness, because the single most sickening part of his illness

was when he stopped playing jokes and stopped laughing.

This approach is probably a lot like the one proposed by Sonrise

(following all of a child's cues to play, avoiding excessive

prompting/reward/withholding), except I don't think you necessarily

need to pay coaches a fortune to tell you how that works.

>

> My grandson is eight years old, nonverbal, and potty training

remains a work

> in progress.

>

> Yesterday, he said " Hi Dad " spontaneously, as his father

unexpectedly opened

> the door, catching him completely by surprise.

>

> Having him say " Hi Dad " was remarkable....and...we sure would like

to know

> it there are any theories that may explain why he was able to

verbalize when

> surprised?

>

>

>

> **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in

shape.

> http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?

NCID=aolcmp00300000002489

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Lynne,

That's great news- Hi from ! (I'm new on this list!

Take care,

-- In EOHarm , chrislynnes@... wrote:

>

> I don't know how those little highlights happen, but I've had a

beautiful

> perfect " Hi " from my nonverbal son too. It meant so much to me.

I do think

> that it is an example of how our kids are taking in so much more

than they are

> able to express. I think that they see more, hear more, and know

more than

> we think that they do.

> Have you tried to use a augmentative device? Maybe he is ready

for

> something like that.

> Congrats on the Hi Dad.

>

>

> Lynne

>

>

>

> **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in

shape.

> http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?

NCID=aolcmp00300000002489

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Lynne,

That's great news- Hi from ! (I'm new on this list!

Take care,

-- In EOHarm , chrislynnes@... wrote:

>

> I don't know how those little highlights happen, but I've had a

beautiful

> perfect " Hi " from my nonverbal son too. It meant so much to me.

I do think

> that it is an example of how our kids are taking in so much more

than they are

> able to express. I think that they see more, hear more, and know

more than

> we think that they do.

> Have you tried to use a augmentative device? Maybe he is ready

for

> something like that.

> Congrats on the Hi Dad.

>

>

> Lynne

>

>

>

> **************Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in

shape.

> http://body.aol.com/fitness/winter-exercise?

NCID=aolcmp00300000002489

>

[Guest guest]

I want to thank all who responded to my inquiry of "theories" on why my nonverbal grandson blurted "Hi Dad" after being surprised by his father. Special thanks to those who related similar experiences of joy in hearing a child speak such a simple phrase as "Hi Dad/Mom".

Our little guy has tried most of the conventional treatments, such as, diet, ABA, B-12 injections, chelation, etc. He is presently being treated by Dr. Krigsman for "gut issues" that are unresolved at the moment....also a nutritionist recommended by his DAN pediatrician.

While these treatments have yet to produce the progress we seek, we remain hopeful they eventually will....and.....I suspect we will be retrying some in the future....when we believe his physical health has improved enough for them to prove more effective.

In the meantime, we are greatly encouraged that, everyday, he demonstrates the comprehension, recognition and memory of an eight year old child. As evidenced in the spontaneous moment he blurted "Hi Dad".

Start the year off right. Easy ways to stay in shape in the new year.