Ideas about asking questions, specially why and how?

[someoneoutthere]

DS (5.9, asd) is although very vocal (can comment on a picture, talk about what he wants) does not yet ask questions although can answer most questions except why and how (he can count so if we ask how many he can answer. We have been doing why questions with him for the last 6 months, by prompting him to answer with a because, but he just does not get it. He is very bright, has no learning difficulties, hence has no problem learning. But it appears that he is just not understanding the meaning of why. He asks questions like 'where is mummy or where is my toy'? He used to just say mummy coming when he wanted me there, so we taught him to say 'where is mummy' and he understoodd what it means and then generalised it to other things by himself. He is developmentally at the age of a 3 years old speech wise (that's our thinking, not the SALT as he has age appropriate language for a lot of things). His autism seems to affect his speech and social communication only (he has no other issues). And we have noticed that he is going through all his milestones but late by at least two years. Any ideas as to how to work on him asking questions would be greatly appreciated. He answers questions, so we can have a conversation with him by asking questions, but he would never ask us anything. He does not seem to have the desire to ask anything, but he is very interactive and does not like being on his own. We model language for him when he is playing with us, but does not pick any up.

Thanks in advance.

"His autism seems to affect his speech and social communication only" may be not being able to ask "Why" and "How" questions is also part of his autism

Thanks pipinjo, I am still waiting for ds's ABA therapist to give me the written steps for swimming lessons. I will get back to you with it when I get them.

Which 'why' cards are you talking about? I have tried some picture cards like why is the baby crying? I will try getting him to ask why and see how it goes. You are so right each child being different and ds can answer feelings q's so well and actually very tuned into people's feelings, although does not know how to respond except with me. He gives me hugs and kisses if I am angry or upset or to get his own way.

I have looked into some flash cards in Winslow press, was considering ordering them. I have also been following one of moondog's old thread about asking 20qs a day. I just don't think ds is getting the purpose of it which is amazing since he can normally learn thing so easily.

Of course doll frog, if it's not autism why would he have so much problem with speech. I was only trying to state his main difficulties. He has a diagnosis of classic autism, obviously he is seriously affected by it, but these two areas are where he is struggling most. Isn't it a speech issue that he can't answer how and why q's?

someoneoutthere

you might like to read some of these research papers
Motor-auditory-visual integration: The role of the human mirror neuron system in communication and communication disorders
The Genetics of Autism
Management of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

"someoneoutthere"

Speech only represents the inner mind and our abilities to ask the questions we able able to ask, when we are able to question why and how things work, and how and why others act they way they do.
If you ask the questions "Why" and "How" you are asking about the unknown, or asking about what you do not understand. Which is different from having a set of correct answers to specific questions.

Thank you dolfrog for the links, I understood the last two more than the first one. DS's speech is taught, not natural, but once he understands what he is supposed to do, he can generalise well. So I am hoping that by teaching him a set of answers to specific questions, one day it might click like so many other things with him.

Our situation is similar someone - ds learns a response then generalises it on so I feel that overall it is a positive thing though appreciate what dolfrog is saying about no magic answer to the underlying difficulty. But regardless of any other factors, we all gain when ds is able to tell us more about what he thinks or wants. If it remained at nothing more than a set response it would not be worth the effort but usually it does move on so I feel it does have some educative purpose.

ds's speech is a mixture of natural and taught but they do blend together over time - though think every child is different which makes it difficult to give advice in any general way

Willowthecat, ds only got words naturally, he had to be taught to speak in sentences. He has a good vocabulary now, and tries very hard to use new words in his sentences. Recently he has started using prepositions in his sentences all by himself. For us, the gain is there, the fact that he is learning to use words he has learnt meaningfully is where our hard work pays off. The cause of his difficulty will never go away, but we as a parent have to try.

We are very lucky that ds is affected by only two triads, speech and social communication. We don't have to worry about obsession, routines or sensory issues. We are trying to focus on speech atm, and have been following the tips from hanen 'talkability' for the last six months. Unfortunately we have not progressed much, hence the thread, thought we might be doing something wrong.

Thanks pipinjo, have ordered the cards.

I think I can see where Dolfrog is coming from - that why and how questions are a lot harder than the other questions, so it's not surprising that these are the last of the wh? questions your DS has mastered. Haven't got anything to suggest different to Pipin, e.g. the picture cards and using picture books to ask questions. IIRC with my DS the how? questions slotted into place quite soon after the why? questions, I recall at lot of specific work on the why? but not on the how.

the superduperinc website has lots of useful free information sheets about teaching different aspects of language, you have to register for it, but it's free

www.superduperinc.com/Handouts/Handout.aspx

someoneoutthere
some of the more complex research papers can take sometime to understand, and some can sometimes become just too technical lol.
They all came from my Online PubMed "Autism" collection of research papers which is listed on my Invisible Disability research paper collections web page
you might also be interested to have a look at the "Autism and Regression" collection, the "Hyperlexia" collection, the "Savant Syndrome" collection, and the "Specific Language Impairment (SLI)" collection.
(PubMed are making some changes to their servers so you may have to click on the links more than once as they are having some teething problems with their new set up)

The triad comprises three things as I understand it: social communication, social interaction impairments and a restricted thought process.

Could it be that even though your DS doesn't manifest this through routines and obsessions, the lack of broader and more abstract "how and why" might demonstrate this rigidity? Might he have it present even though he is obviously high-functioning in this respect compared to his speech for example?

I'm only asking because I thought all three elements had to be present for a classic dx to be made but I may be wrong as I often am and am quite new to this. My DS is a bit younger and in each of the three areas he is (a) markedly differently impaired and (b) making progress in them in an unpredictable way. A "spiky" profile so to speak.

This thread is very interesting to me as he has started to ask basic questions and I was also wondering how to encourage my son to move on. Thanks for starting it OP nad to those who have answered for the links

Thanks totalchaos, I have registered for the website, will have a look after I drop DS to school tomorrow.

zzzzz, thank you for sharing the ideas, I think DS will get it because he knows well about the categories. We got dx when he was 2.5 and at the time I asked about the triads and the Paeditrician (spelling?) said his play skills were very limited.

Ninx, I am not so sure about his rigidity. What I read about rigidity in MN, i.e, reaction to changes of routine, having to talk about changes a lot before it happens, problem with new things, going to noisy places or going out etc we have not had to deal with. He loves going to new places, he loves going out although he hates going to visit people if it involves him sitting around (friends who have not got kids and whose houses are precious). He never showed any problem trying out anything new. Although he has favourites, he gets bored easily, he is definitely under-sensitive if we follow hanen. He does not spend more than 10 mins on one activity unless we force him to.

What we noticed is that if we are going somewhere new, he asks what is it and that's it, no other reactions. But it really help behaviour wise if we give him prior warning about list of things he is not supposed to do (like making silly noises) when we get there. Recently he managed to join in for two hours in different activities at a birthday party, although did not do joint play with any kids there.

Thank you dolfrog, will definitely look at your website. I know very little about autism, I have up until now just read about things to help DS. I find that if I read too much into autism, I start questioning the dx thinking more than half of them does not apply to DS. His difficulties are subtle regarding rigidity, he is the type who plays alongside nicely with other kids and very passive. He is also very compliant, my worry is that when we are back to the UK, we will have a big fight on our hand for supports from LEA.

Ninx, at the time of dx he was very difficult with food, had severe separation anxiety, had no compliance, had severe sleep issues. I guess the dx was right at the time it was made, but DS has moved on from there.

Oh I'm very sorry OP if it's a sensitive issue for you that leads to you questioning the dx. I know from my own experience that my DS, though still having severe sleep and food issues (hellish isn't it? ) might not get the dx he had a year ago if he presented at the Paed's today.

He now gives more or less normal eye-contact where there was hardly any, plays games with his sister, brings things to show and share with me, points, has stopped lining things up and does so many things he didn't. I'd be hard-pressed in many respects to show that he still has underlying difficulties.

It sounds like you are doing a fantastic job regarding your son. Thanks again for this

Sorry, this turned into a giant post!

Ninx and someoneoutthere, doubting the DX is very common, and nothing to to with the initial denial phase. I was struck with your description of your DS being hypo-sensitive after 'More than Words', someone, as my DS is mostly hypo and he really didn't seem to be stereotypically autistic. He has never had much difficulty with routine, perfectly happy with transitions (so long as they go his way.) But he was very late talking, flaps and jumps so I wasn't left in much doubt! He is quite bright with a 'spiky' profile, some of his early spatial reasoning tests were on the 98th %ile, but he has deficits in the theory of mind areas which affect his ability to answer why and how questions.

There is a resource called 'Language for Thinking' which is very good, and can be used at many ability levels. It's a book of about 50 small scenarios (with a picture) with different levels of questions to develop a DC's inferential thinking, ie reading between the lines, suitable from about 5 or 6 til about 10 or 11. My DS used it at school and I use it with the DC I support. (I'm a TA)

With good interventions and just time sometimes, DC with ASD can make excellent progress and they will develop and reach milestones, just maybe in a different order to NT children. My DS had big issues with eye contact, but he seems to have grown out of that. As time has gone on and work at school has got more abstract, his deficits have become more apparent. I'd say he was obviously autistic at 2 - 6, less so at 7 - 9, but now he is 11 his peers have taken off socially and intellectually and he is lagging behind again. His Maths is great, but although his literacy is mechanically correct, punctuation and spelling good, the content is immature. Literacy was good when these points were the targets.

There is a view that it may be better to talk about autism in the plural, autisms, as the spectrum is so broad that each person presents so differently that it's hard to give it a single DX, and that it seems to be co-morbid with so many other things, autism with SLD, or with dyspraxia or with dyslexia or hyperlexia or epilepsy or ADD or ADHD or APD, etc etc. Amberlight has some really interesting theories.

The important thing is that you get some good, appropriate support at school, so your DC can reach their potential, I suppose. I find the whole subject so interesting that I tend to go off on one sometimes, sorry!

Crossed with you, zzzzz!

EllenJane1

The real problem is to define and separate learning disabilities from medical or cognitive disabilities. You can only have co-morbid medical - cognitive disabilities which cause the learning disabilities whcih can be described by forms of behavior which are the result of the medical - cognitive disabilities, either as seperate individual disabilities which can say cause dyslexia, or multiple sets of co-morbid issues which can cause the range of issues on the autistic spectrum.
So autism and dyslexia can not be co-morbid with anything as they are only the visalble symptoms of a medical - cognitive disability or a multiple or co-morbid set of medical - cognitive disabilities.

Thank you for explaining that, dolfrog.