ABC....its easy as 123

[JaysMum]

Morning girlies....just wanted to ask a question if I may.....

When we spoke with the CP who is coming to assess J in March...he asked me if J knows his ABC....I replied yes.
After the conversation I asked J to recite the ABCfor me....which he did fantastically BUT in the same style as his old Barney The dinosaur video......he sang it so perfectly.

I asked him if he could just say his ABC and not sing it.....he couldnt get past C
We tried a cople of times but he really did struggle and didnt have a clue what would come after C until he had chance to sing the song.....but then he got stuck with what comes after D....so had to sing out te song again.

He then sat and tapped his foot very slowly on the floor to the beat of the ABC song and managed to get through the alphabet with only a few blips.
He always gets stuck on the "elemenopee" part....normally sounds like "anymoneypeas"!!!

Then because he was a bit tired he started getting really muddled and started singing the Micheal Jackson song "ABC....it's easy as 123" over and over again.

Is this learning by rote????
Is this echolaia????

What do you think......
I have got to send the CP a list of area's where we think J has problems and now I dont know what I should write about this.

Sometimes I think I miss a lot of things with J. I automatically presume he understands some of the simpler things in life because he understands complex things better than I do sometimes....he's a wizz on the comp and I most definatly am not!!!!

I asked him the other day to move something and put it front of something else....he didnt know what infront meant....he got so frustarted because he couldnt understand what I was trying to get him to do.....it shocked me soooo much because I was sure he would understand the concepts of infront/behind. I did a little test with him on the computer....he had no concept of underneath/below....above/higher...behind/infront.

Feel pretty sh*tty about us missing these problems and even angrier that it was not discovered by school!!!!!!!!!

[KarenThirl]

Hi Jaysmum. If you're not sure what to put on the form, put it in anyway and let the people who read it decide whether or not it's relevant. They can't decide if it's not there. I sent absolute REAMS of stuff to the psych with J's referral letter - I wasn't sure what they needed to know so I said it al anyway and will be far more aware of relevance than I am. She can decide if it means anything. Nowadays I keep a notepad handy and if anything crops up that I think isn't 'normal', I write it down. Might come in useful later.

In front/below etc: perhaps ds has problems understanding those concepts outside of the usual context, ie what he's used to. Maybe he can handle those concepts in a practical sense, eg in computer games, but not in other ways. Again, I'd write it down if it's a concern.

Your ds sounds a cutie, how old is he?

Karen
x

[sparklymieow]

how old is your DS JM? I just wonder because my DD1, 4.9 months doesn't even know where to start with her ABC or 123, She has CP and I think she also has ADHD or AS, just wondering...

[JaysMum]

J is 9 on the 9th March.....he is functioning in all areas at 5yrs 4months. He has been delayed in most of his developmental milestones.....right down to loosing his teeth so much later than he should.

The one area where he was so very advanced was walking.....he just got up and walked at 8
months and 2 days and never sat still since!!!!
He also rode his bike without staberlisers 3 days before his third birthday.

I now know J is constantly sourcing sensory stimulation and has done so since birth.He is always on the look out for movement....the faster the better.

[Davros]

It seems that his good language skills may have disguised some of his difficulties. I think this is not uncommon to find that some children can seem so able, esp with letters and numbers, but the underlying meaning is not there or, as with the ABC song, it needs a lot more prompting than you expect. I would describe this to the CP as you have here. We're not EPs and, although we are constantly observing and analysing, we can't be expected to pick up on everything, esp when its odd.

[Dingle]

Sorry, I have just got to tell you about this...ds (NT and 5) is sitting at the dinning room table beside me. I have just started to read this and asked him to say his alphabet. He started to sing it, so I asked him to SAY it! He started...a...b...c...and completed it perfectly, but then continued to say
....now.....i....know...my...abc...next....time....won't...you.....sing....with....me!

[JaysMum]

J certainly does not have good language skills....I wish more than anything he had. He has difficulties with his speech on the best of days....he uses made up words to talk about things.....his words get so jumbled that he has developed his own language which takes a hell of a lot of time to decipeher.

The speech he does use which is clear is usually sentences he hears often.....from his favourite films, phrases we use often.....

Does anyone here know the differnec beween echolaia and learning by rote????

[mainedream]

Hello,

I think some of you moms should look up, Asperger's Syndrome. My son was recently diagosed and believe me, it was a big boulder off our shoulders, as we now know "what" is different about him. We've always known something was different, we just didn't know what or why and finally asked the school to have him tested after a concerned neighbor directed me to this diagnosis on the web. I had never heard of it and was floored when I read it, IT WAS MY SON TO A T. What gets me is this was discovered in the 1940's, but wasn't brought to the forefront till the mid 90'. At first my son was diagnosed with ADHD, but it still didn't answer all the questions we had about his other "differences". As a parent I will never blame a teacher for not diagnosing my sons behavior. Most teachers stand back because they are afraid of how they may react to the suggestion, as my neighbor did with me. She was afraid to tell me. But as soon as I asked for him to be tested in the school, they hopped on the band wagaon and got him going and had it done in two months. So I can only say, "Thank You" and be grateful, as we now know how to work with our son. We now have him in Speech Therapy as he has Echolaia. They also have him in Social Behavior Therapy to help him learn to talk in a conversation and how to play with other children. He is 6 years old and wants to be a Robotics Engineer. He understands the computer like none other. At first, I was floored that my son is "Autistic or High Functioning Autistic", but they the experts are trying to have Aspergers separated from that category. Because these kids can learn in a regular classroom and their IQ's are normal and in allot of cases extremely smart. It just takes a bit more effort and the willingness to learn about the syndrome to teach these children. I haven't met a teacher yet who hasn't fallen in love with my son and everyone I meet, the first thing they say about him, is he is an extremely bright boy. So if you have any concerns about your children, have them tested in school. It's the law and your right. The earlier you learn about your childrens differences, the better they are and the quicker they can get the help they need. In appearance, my son looks like any other normal functioning child. When he talks and he starts on one of his stories about his games, that's when you can tell the difference. O.A.S.I.S. is a good place on line to learn about Asperger's. By the way, Einstein had Aspergers, Thomas Jefferson, etc., allot of these kids go on to be great scientists, computer scientist, computer programmers - Bill Gates anyone...... So it's not a bad thing, just give them all the love, support, UNDERSTANDING and help they need.

[wads]

not really too relevant but I must admit to still finding it much easier to mentally sing the alphabet song (I learned the the old one at primary school - different tune from the "now I know by abc") when looking through the dictionary for something!! And I think the lmnop bit is hard even for adults - in the old version there's a pause after m. Sympathise with the frustrating lack of understanding about concepts - I'm forever shouting "UNDER the table, UNDER" whilst ds (5) looks around, above and anywhere but under

[emmalou78]

Hi.
jaysmum,
I am prepared to be corretced here but so far as I know they can be roughly defined thusly:

Echolia is the repetition of sounds, phrases and songs, the language used is essentially meaningless its just something repeated over and over and over again, it can be things you say, things from the TV it can be anything..

Learning by rote I think is memorising, its essentially learning parrot fashion ut over time develops into an understood concept like times tables and spellings...

I of course could be wrong.

Mianedream, I think a lot of posters on here ar all too familair wiht Autsim and Aspergers Syndrome! but any new insights nad info is always welcome