Starlight

[lou031205]

You said on another thread that your DS' verbal comprehension had gone from 1st centile to 34th in 3 months since being on his programme.

I've been mulling it over & have a question:

Do you think that his VC has risen because he can understand more per se, or because he is becoming more attentive so can respond more appropriately?

Yes I get you. DD says some quite sophisticated things, but when she asks a question (for example 'where sun come from'), she just can't attend long enough to even hear 'it's in space' or 'far away' - she is gone.

I find this very hard to assess - I said to DS1 this morning not really expecting him to understand because I was speaking quickly and not in 'Hanenese' 'Oh your coat's not fastened properly, I'll have to fix it' and he immediately started to re do it himself but other times I can ask a simple question and wait an eternity for an answer ! . It sounds as if Minilou has fairly good expressive language though being able to ask a 'wh' question - that is considered to be quite a milestone.

Cyber ds3 is like that; yesterday we were corssing aroad and he 'yelled excusemecoming through'and we were and (may have been echolalic mind),other things fly right over his head (he's older than Starlight's ds at 6.5).

34th is excellent Starlight, though do be wary as that wouldwrite you off forSLT here (always such a fine line....), I have no idea which test you are using so was it one that allows for time (as in,improvemnts you would see over that developmental stage anyway?)

Sounds great though- I know with ds3 the key is absolutely attention.

Oddly, though, cyber, she is on the 5th centile. She can ask questions like 'where come from' 'what is x?', (but can't understand the answer), as long as it is of her own initiation. She can't meaningfully use it in life, if you get me.

Do you think this is a result of better compliance / understanding the expectation? My DS was 1st centile on all tests before started ABA and I am sure would fare better now but thats because he now understands that he's expected to give a verbal answer whereas prior to ABA he tuned everyone out. Obviously complying with testing is built into the test ie whats the point of having great IQ / language if you don't share it; but I do wonder when ABA research talks about children gaining IQ points because DS would have scored bottom on IQ (because he did not answer any questions) and now would score higher (because he would now comply). But he hasn't got any cleverer just more complaint with instructions iyswim. And with language he had the words before but didn't use them but would now try and answer the question because he understands there is a social expectation to say something when before he did not care. So similar to Star's DH we were saying he is bright / he understands more than that; but they could only score on basis of what he said in the test.

That's exactly where I was going, eeyore. When DD engages, she is actually very bright, but because her attention/concentration span is so limited, and she is so on her own agenda (but not on the spectrum says consultant), it isn't often that you see it.

We were told the same thing by hospital therapists - that DS1 can do/understand/say a lot when it's on his terms but otherwise...... I think a lot of these issues co incide regardless of official dx. He has got better over time though but would love the pace of progress to speed up a bit !

I've done a bit of reading up on ABA. It is basically what I did with DD and DS2 when I realised they had 'difficulties'. At the time, I didn't have internet access or any training or any outside help with it. Maybe all the work I put in with them DID help them...maybe they really wouldn't be where they even are now if not for that? Who will ever know? I even did pecs without any help or advice from SALT. I didn't know it had a proper NAME until I came on MN. . It was just the only real way DD could communicate with me/ or I her. S'funny I suppose.

I totally believe ABA is making a difference to DS but the difference is as much the compliance / understanding whats expected of him. So its a difference in a performance IQ if you like not his actual underlying IQ. Of course in the real world performing and meeting expectations is what its all about. In terms of new skills the ABA is a great way of breaking it down for DS and he is learning new stuff quicker but initially it was a case of tapping knowledge and language that was already in there and finding a way to get it out and make it useful for him. Of course thats worthwhile in itself, but the literature seems to focus more on test outcomes (IQ and language) rather than practical outcomes. For us its been the real life outcomes that have been so amazing, we always knew he had the vocabulary and an ok IQ but lacked the ability to use them in a functional way. Now he can tell us what he knows and doesn't know when before we had to guess. So a test would be more accurate. I never thought 1% centile for IQ was accurate.