Guest guest Posted August 3, 2001 Report Share Posted August 3, 2001 Hello all, Lorna Wing is convinced that, before autistic children lose all their language (as my eight-year-old son, ny, did at about two-and-a-half), they were not actually employing language in a socially meaningful way. I have been trying to look back (very difficult!) to remember exactly how ny used language. He was good at understanding labels (names of objects, or parts of the body). I know that, when we asked him " Where's ny's nose? " or " Where's Daddy's ear? " he would touch his nose or my ear without a problem. In terms of speech, he would stop unprompted at a street sign and read out the letters correctly (could be what is sometimes known as hyperlexia). He had a gloriously accurate imitation of the Cookie Monster from " Sesane Street. " And whenever the neighbour came into the garden, ny would shout out " Dave " (the neighbour's name). It is very hard to remember whether ny put words together in anything like what Lorna Wing would recognise as a socially meaningful phrase. My wife says she recalls ny struggling with the words: " Read ... book. " ny has now lost all his language, and does not even appear to understand when we ask him to touch his nose. Incidentally, a French autism expert, Denys Ribas, with whom I've been in contact (don't worry - he's emphatically NOT one of the " refrigerator mother " brigade in France!), has an interesting theory: he believes that many very young autistic children may be using quite advanced, isolated and " asocial " linguistic skills for their age - like being able to identify letters of the alphabet - to AVOID the discomfort of socially meaningful contexts and situations. I would love to hear from parents of children with autism who could speak and have lost all their language. Could you please tell me how your child used language? Was it " merely " to label objects? Or was there social intent in his or her communication? You can e-mail me off-list, if you prefer, at Adam@... Many thanks in advance. Best wishes, Adam Feinstein Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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