Is this a SN thing, or is it a normal developmental stage?

[lou031205]

Forgive my ignorance, but as DD1 is my eldest, I don't know whether what she is doing is normal but delayed, or a SN 'thing'. (She has GDD & Epilepsy)

She is very sensitive to noises and easily gets 'fright'. Often, once she has started to calm down, she verbally has a conversation with herself.

Today, her sister broke a plate by dropping it over the stairgate. DD1 got hysterical because she got 'fright'. I told her it was just an accident, and that it was all alright x 100.

Then she was saying:

"Oh what matter DD?" (sympathetic voice)
"Got fright" (wimpering cry)
"Oh dear DD. It's ok" (sympathetic voice)
"Big noise. Big fright" (wimpering cry)
....and so on.

Similarly, she will say to herself:
"Oh dear, DD, what happened?"
"DD fall over"
"Poor DD"
"Not sore, not sore"
Even though she is crying and clearly sore.

Is that a normal thing children do? Or is it because of her SN? It sounds odd to me, particularly as she is changing her voice with each line, but for all I know it could be something that all children do.

I would be pretty impressed if either of my children did this. It seems pretty creative to me.
But I've been wrong before....

Sounds normal to me (in that I can think of at least two kids who do it - both mine and my friend's DDs). Not always though. I think it's one way of learning language and understanding the world.

sounds like she has a good imagination

Interesting, because actually it is normally a carbon copy of conversations we have had that she is repeating.

It seems like she is trying to make sense of how she feels by repeating the conversation, and reassuring herself that everything is ok.

Does it soothe her? (it sounds like it would be quite effective to me).

Could be an SN thing if it really is efficient at calming her down - I'm always amazed at the variety of self-taught self-soothing techniques, esp physical stimming as it's something that they work out as tiny babies. Humans are so clever.

Parroting is big in Aspergersland I believe, my DS speaks very clearly in quotes from cartoon shows, with charming eye contact too. Ask him something personal about himself and his voice goes squeaky, he won't look at you and the grammar drops to a much more lower level.

Yes, lingle, it does. She is fairly hysterical at first, and then as the conversation progresses she calms. It is just the variety of tone and expression - much more than she naturally has, and much more fluent that her usual speech. It sounds really quite sophisticated, whereas her speech is generally quite fragmented, with unusual pauses between words, like she is piecing together bits of a jigsaw puzzle.

For instance, if I say "is it exciting, DD?" she will reply "Yes...it is...citing....Mummy", almost like 4 separate sentences but with slightly shorter pauses. But these conversations are really fluent and clear, and full of expression and tone, like a drama piece almost.

DS2 (6, with ASD) isn't as verbal as your DD but he does something similar if something is happening that he finds unpleasant. He says things like
" Is awright, is awright"
" Is OK, is OK "
" Ne'er mind, ne'er mind"
all while crying or wailing.

We get the fragmented speech too - though generally he only says two words at once, with a long pause between them. I agree that it sounds like someone putting a puzzle together.

So it's charming and it also works.

Am even more impressed than previously

dd1 does this. I see it as an extension of her normal (for her) echolalia - working through situatoions and puzzling them out.

dd1 has also started to sue it as a wind up, so she willbe playing happily in the other room, and then all of a sudden I hear a wail - usually a wailing moan, as though she is upset by something or has hurt herself. Cue me rushing in, to find dd1 with a cheeky grin on her face saying "it's ok, it's alright" [grr]

still, all good, i suppose as she's checking reactions vs what she is saying/doing...