So surprised by DS!

[GraveyardMistsAreMellow]

He is 3.5 (ASD) and while his speech is coming on quite well I suspect a lot of it is echolalic. So you get a lot of, "no, not a (whatever it is you have said)"

He likes just two stories, both about the main character running away [hgrin] so this morning when he was legging it about while I was dressing him I said,

"run run as fast as you can - I can't catch DS he's the gingerbread man! His Mummy can't catch him..."

I was just messing about so was amazed to hear him say, "Daddy can't catch, DD can't catch, granddad can't catch, Nanny can't catch..."

Can't quite remember DD at this age but I probably would have been impressed if she had taken a story and sort of adapted it in this way.

Is it a bit of a triumph over restricted thinking and imagination? I've never really understood what that means so not sure

DD did this a lot (actually, she DID it a lot in English, she DOES it a lot in French as she's bilingual and her second language is still really catching up with her first). It's how she learned to speak. She would take echolalic phrases and change them. I always saw it as a positive thing

Yes, absolutely. It is novel application of language and a very good sign as well as the early stages of generalisation.

DS did this kind of thing at first. But more recently he learned semi-circle and now creates semi-stars and semi-bananas

He also learned circular, and triangular and came up with his own squareangular.