at last!!!!

[Jimjambells]

After 4 and a half years we finally have a totally recognisable word from one of our children. "No" from ds2 (with an 'n'- rather than a "doh" as we have had up to now).

Thank you Davros and Jimjams yes i think she would be classified as non-verbal then. She just says single words, signs to make herself known etc. She sounds quite similar to your ds jimjmas in terms of language and speech. I have started to wonder though whether it has something to do with the muscles in her mouth aswell, she dribbles like a um - i dont know what! Thanks again.

i think mute does mean no sounds at all. But then again different people use different terms, dont they.

I think ds1 would have been classed as mute. 6 months ago the only sound he made was screaming during a meltdown. No babbling, jargoning or single words. There were no physical problems in his case. I honestly think he just didn't see the point. The only exception was if he decided to read out loud. I can't begin to explain how freaked out I was when he read out "unforeseen circumstances" from the computer screen when he'd never even said "mama" before!!! A year later he said his first "proper' word which was "yes". I literally jumped for joy!

ROFL @ "unforseen circumstances" coppertop.

I think another useful way to think about it is to consider whether they are conversational. Or alternatively have enough langauge to be reasoned with. My friend's dd - who is now 7- has quite a bit of language - both receptve and expressive andits beginning to be possible to reason with her. I wouldn't say she was remotely conversational though.

DS1 is neither- although we have fixed coversations eg

"where did you go today"
"I went to school"
Who did you see?

Actually the school one tends to stop there, the nursery one carries on into "I saw Suzy"
Did you see Jo
"I saw Jo"

This is all in his own language of course. But I couldn;t change it at all eg If I said "where do you want to go today" he'd be lost (want? choice? npe don't get that).

With ds2- although he's not speaking I can reason with him using language and we can have choice conversations- " do you want..." etc. Which is why I wouldn;t really call him non-verbal (of course he's not yet 2 either so its not that unusual)- just a late speaker, whereas ds1 is definitely non-verbal, non-conversational and can't be reasoned with. Oh and mute as well I guess

The 'fixed ' conversations happen in our hose too!!! ds1 will reply to a point then gets ratty at a certain pont every time!

i dont know how you manage to do fixed conversations as i am so forgetful myself. Dd does seem to want to have conversations but her skills are lacking her.

I have felt so sad this last week because ds is chatting/communicating so much and dd likes to show off when dave is on because she is getting so good at signing, but ds knows so much more than her - and she just keeps crying in frustration, i really feel sad for her

Does this fit into 'fixed conversations'? between the age of 3 and 5 most of DS2's conversations revolved around his 'thomas the tank' repetitive role play..ie :
-Hello - who are you?
-I'm Gordon- Who are YOu?
I'm Henry- you have a lovely coat of green paint!
Yes- and you have a lovely blue coat!
You have a number 4 on you!
And you have a number 3

He would spend hours doing this- he would vary the names/colours and numbers of the trains but still go through the same order!

At night time as he went to bed he would ALWAYS say..."In the next morning i'm going to be (he would then name a train)and you are going to be (name MY train)" He'd then remind me that when he got up he needed to speak first with...yep!!!!
"hello, Who are YOU" etc ETC!!!!

Sometimes for a bit of variety he'd 'roleplay' as one of the characters from Dream Street or say he was the baby kitten and i was the mummy cat and that i would get a tummy ache in the night and then in the morning I would have to say that he'd been born- and he'd get me saying what lovely fur he had etc!

These are the things that my MIL would never take part in. (that's for the benefit of any of you who read my other thread!)

Sorry to hog this thread...just had to ask if this kind of stuff applies to any od you DX'd Autistic children - as I could use it as amo when we have our'child and family Therapy appt'in Feb