A question for Lingle and wise posters on here

[Dev9aug]

You posted sole time ago in a thread that "extreme musicality can sometimes hinder development of functional language" I cannot remember which thread it was but I think you were speaking from experience. Apologies if that is not the case.

Can I please ask what did you mean and how did you develop functional language? I fear we are treading a similar path where ds1(3.5, dx ASD, currently Pre verbal) prefers to keep humming tunes in his own world rather than engage with us. TIA

I think I've concluded as follows - and it's only taken 4.6 years...

"Is DS2's musicality hindering his speech development?"

Answer:
"DS2's strongly "tilted" uneven brain development, characterised by poor pattern recognition in certain areas but highly developed pattern-recognition in other areas such as pitch perception, timbral perception and harmonic perception, is hindering his speech development".

off to work now, good luck dev

Lingle I read your other thread and was absolutely amazed by how determined and commited you sounded, wish I was half as determined as you are.

You re right, he needs a chance to develop basic skills before he enters school so we are going to do our best to defer his entry by a year. This would no doubt be very helpful to him, fortunately the paed supports our request for now so will see what the lea have to say about that.

I will order the book you mentioned, is this the book? Thanks very much for your help and time, it is much appreciated.

I'm glad that your ds likes Singing Hands, dev - makes me feel all nostalgic for whn dd1 sang them in a repeat loop!

did you know they do classes for toddlers/pre-schoolers (and above!) too? we took dd1 along to an ad hoc session when she was about 5, as a reward for doing so well with her toilet training - she had a fab time and Tracy was really lovely with her - sang with her, encouraged her to come up and help, we even got a photo for dd1's beloved photo books

might be worth trying for your ds, if he is interested in them? it's weird, as soon as i could identify which song dd1 was singing, it sounded really clear to me, but looking back, it was probably all gibberish with a healthy dose of parental over-estimation thrown in!

have you got any of the GIles Andrae books, like Rumble in the Jungle, Commotion in the Ocean, etc? dd1 loved these as the little rhyming ditties were a great length (short!) to catch her interest. they saved my bacon a few times too, as it was much easier to remember the shorter rhymes, and use them to engage/calm dd1 when out and about or away from the books, rather than eg the Gruffalo, or The Lion who wanted to Love - dd1 used to get so angry if I couldn;t remember all 42 pages word-perfect!

we used to read them to her with her on our lap, jiggling our knees along to the rhythm, so she got sensory stimulation too. it worked to catch her interest, and then she would make us read them again and again - literally all day long. I almost hesitate to recommend it, as it really did drive me very close to the edge - some days I would only be able to repeat the same story again and agin, on a continuous loop, for hours at a time. dd1 used ot also get stuck on particular words, as she learned them, so eg any mention of 'man' at one point, meant we had to stop whatever we were doing/talking about, and instantly sing 'there was a crooked man' to her - otherwise major meltdown ensued. this happened whenever she heard the word - on the tv, or radio, someone passing in the street, etc. it was a nightmare. other times, it happened when she learned a word from a book - whenever she heard the word, we had to pick up the story from that point on and recite it up to the end. that caused a problem with some of the longer books, I can tell you!

we also had the memorable phase where dd1 could only tolerate us talking if we did so to her tune of the moment - so we would spend all weekend conversing in rhyming couplets to the tune of Frere Jacques (or similar). Funny now, but my god it was awful at the time.

god, that all turned a bit depressing - sorry. in summary, I think what we did was go with what was currently fascinating dd1, and make sure she was totsally immersed in it - so she got it all on a loop for as long as she wanted. on the basis that at least that way we were sharing something - even if that something was more her using me as a means to an end.

Dd3 is another singer and hummer. She does have very good pitch too and can tell if someone is singing out of tune. There is a drawback to this because she always feel the need to tell them

She is involved in a really exciting project this weekend, one of her choirs are recording some songs for a well known singing website used by loads of school [she says trying not to out herself]. She is very excited

This weeks song on repeat from her is "The water cycle song" it is driving me round the bend.

yes that's the book, I hope you find it useful. I remember I warmed to her when she acknowledged from the start that most of us don't really want a house full of pictograms that we have to explain to nosy parkers...... that's my kind of resource. And I spent hours trying to get nursery staff to understand the example she gives of going to McDonalds. You know what's on the menu, you know how much it costs but you still look anyway to organise your thinking.

look up moondog calendar in advanced search for another excellent visual tool.
also get a timetimer if you haven't already - www.timetimer.com. Again, the whole family benefits from it. Gives you the experience of what being a visual thinker must be like.

silverfrog we will be moving to Richmond next month and I have already booked him on their weekly classes starting next month.
I will also look at the other resources you mentioned.

lingle we have the moondog calendar, just got to use it properly. We also have the timetimer. we had a disastrous time last year when we tried to use it, but we use it now and it is definitely very helpful.