How to teach children with autism to speak.
(Some children with autism will not need this method but it can be useful for those who are seriously speech delayed).
It is my understanding that there is what is called an autism epidemic
in the USA and around the world. California it seems is especially
afflicted in this way for some unknown reason, especially in a part of
northern California named Granite Bay. So there is probably more than
one mother, aunty, grandmother, friend etc. out there who may benefit
from what I am writing here.
I unfortunately seem to have scored an Australian record for this
unhappy business. I have put an article on another part my web site mentioning
various comments made by people about autism in my family and also
autism in general.
The article addresses the question about vaccines, in
particular the MMR vaccine particularly in regard to my oldest child
(a daughter).
The article gives my daughter’s full vaccination schedule and proves
conclusively that she did not receive the MMR vaccine (Measles, Mumps
and Rubella combined).
I mention this vaccine because there is a lot of fuss about the
connection between autism and this particular vaccine around the world
and there are parents ready to sue governments in the USA and The UK because
they maintain that they had normal children and then after the
administration of the MMR vaccine their child, and in the case of a lady
in Britain who has been with 4 or 5 different men supposedly 5 of her 6
children were "normal" and then became autistic due to the MMR vaccine.
Among her autistic children there were I think at least three different
fathers. So if autism has a genetic component as scientists in the
field now strongly suspect it would not be too hard in her case to work
out whether autism is coming from the mother's side or the father's
side.
(I point out here that autism has afflicted my family both in a sibling
of mine who was born in 1965 and who is now deceased and in four of my 5
children), also my children all have the same dad. If it's genetic
in the case of my children we have two generations of autism and
unfortunately it all is on my side of the family.)
If you are interested the article on this is at:
http://www.homestead.com/missionbell/Autism.html
My oldest child was very autistic at
the age of 3 and because of this she could not speak.
To a mother this is nothing short of alarming.
This is the approach which was taken to help her to learn to speak.
My daughter received 2 hours of occupational therapy at the largest hospital in Australia (Westmead) which
fortunately was on the same road as our previous home. (Fortunate
because I could walk there with my daughter in a stroller. I don't drive a car).
She received this help for 18 consecutive weeks.
What did they do with her? Well they played games with her, rolled her
over enormous beach balls, got her to play with puzzles and blocks etc.
etc.
This was done by an occupational therapist. The speech therapist was
negative to say the least. At the end of many weeks of occupational
therapy she announced to me that she could not give my daughter any speech
therapy.
When I asked her why she said it was because my daughter did not have any
speech. This was true but my daughter could hear and has working vocal cords and a
brain.
The occupational therapist made a bit of a blunder. She gave my daughter a lot
of wooden blocks to see what my child would create with them.
My daughter put them in a straight row. Triumphantly the therapist announced
"There you are, see she is autistic!". I replied "Yes she is autistic
but why did you say that?" "Because all your daughter did was put them
in a straight row. She cannot do anything constructive and sensible with them".
I told the lady that my daughter had made a train with the blocks. "How do
you know" She demanded to know.
Because she told me I answered. My daughter only had a word here or there
but I as her mother was practically the only person who could understand
her occasional word. Even the dads have difficulty with this understanding because
of the fact that they spend much less time with the child than the child's mother.
The Autism association of New South Wales used to come to my home around
this time once a week and do their best to stimulate her brain with
puzzles and games.
They also accompanied her and stayed with her at the local pre-school.
She would not stay there by herself. She cried a lot and became sick if
she had to go independently. She was very afraid that no one would come
and get her. I only know what was bugging her at that stage because she
has since told me.
I went to all the church and school fetes and brought up as many
children's books as I could. Mainly second hand copies of the Little
Golden books series. These were very cheap.
Then I obtained large blank page art books. The pictures from the books
were cut out and put one to a page.
I broke down the structure of the English language to it very essence
for my daughter.
Then I went through the books with her on many occasions and
described with great emphasis slowly each picture in terms like this.
"RABBIT COOKS DINNER"
"BEAR MOWS LAWN"
etc.
The format of my speech was very slow and deliberate". The grammar was simply Noun verb noun. All the trimming were left out.
It would have been futile to Say something like. The rabbit is mowing the overgrown grass with his brand new lawnmower. Doing that to an autistic who is struggling with language problems will probably lose their attention and confuse them. It would even have been worse to say these words in a normal speed and level of voice.
The idea in this is not to teach English or English grammar but to give
to a child with autism a chance to understand the very beginning of
language in this case English.
If the child with autism has this mode of learning to talk will they
continue to speak like a newcomer to the USA or Australia or even worse than the beginner in the English class?
The answer is no. Because they can pick up a fuller grasp of the
language later on from their parents, and those around them and from
T.V. radio etc.
Believe me my daughter's speech is fairly complex now but she needed this
very basic stuff for a long period of time to get her brain started on the ideas of speech.
Autism muddles the communication section of the brain and if you
overload it with normal flowing language the poor kid sometimes can't
cope and then won't make any progress in language/speech/understanding.
Mary Ann Matulis
(Australia)
