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How would your autistic child answer this question?

10 replies

exmrs · 01/12/2013 16:16

Will keep this short, son aged 7 waiting to be reassessed for autism after not enough points last time. Speech therapist says he has trouble with concept of before and after and positional language like for e.g point to the car after pointing at the house, he would point to the car then the house.

His maths homework has statements which he must tick if they are true or false.

There is picture of 2 shelves with toys on the shelves.

One of the statements is

the ball is to the right of the doll, now the ball is to the right of the doll so true but my son is saying no
and I think he is thinking from the dolls perspective it would be on the left of the doll so the statement is false
Or he could be misunderstanding the language but I thought if a child was autistic they wouldn't be able to think from the dolls perspective,
Any thoughts would be appreciated and also what your child would answer to that question

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rabbitstew · 01/12/2013 16:30

I think, as an adult, that it is a silly question! As you rightly pointed out, it really depends on whose perspective you are looking at it from, and the question doesn't actually specify. How you are therefore expected to interpret how the child understood the question, rather than just make assumptions based on prejudice, I don't know. Maybe send the questioner back to school...

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nannynick · 01/12/2013 16:57

Maybe he is processing in wrong order, so answering the question: is the doll on the right of the ball.
The two objects have swapped places, like in your car/house example.

Are there other examples of that happening? Things being processed correctly but with the objects reversed?

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TheGreatWizardQuiQuaeQuod · 01/12/2013 17:01

I don't think either of mine would understand the question, tbh.

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vikinglights · 01/12/2013 17:07

well dd2 is (probably) nt and she has issues with 'directionality' in language. It has taken a lot of concentrated teaching to get her to understand that upstairs is NOT the floor stairs go up from but the floor you go up the stairs to.....

she pointed correctly to the floor before the window on her second attempt....

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exmrs · 01/12/2013 17:42

Nannynick yes I think it could be he is processing in the wrong order he gets the wrong end of the stick all the time and you do have to phrase things carefully for him to understand ,
Does anyone know what this could indicate processing in the wrong order and not able to understand positional language?

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NewBlueCoat · 01/12/2013 19:17

Dd1 wouldn't know to answer yes/no to a question like that.

She would be able (on a good day) to describe the picture, and say something like "the doll is on the left, the ball is on the right"

On a different day, she might well say "the ball is on the Dolly's left" and then be confused as to why that is not the 'right' answer