How to Speak to an Autistic Child VIDEO

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RZppyNM4vg

Thanks for watching!

I'm going to send this video to all the staff at my clubhouse, through the computer in the main office.

let me know if it sinks in for them ok?
thanks!

Is this meant for Low-functioning autistics? Unless I am much mistaken, Aspies can understand sentences longer than 5 words. I'm curious to learn new words, and I can understand someone who speaks fast, as long as they don't mumble.
It just looks like he's dumbing it down unnecessarily-- maybe its necessary for LFA.

I agree it may be more applicable for LFAs.

If someone talked to me liked that, I would find it insulting.

I have mixed opinions about that. Obviously it's true that an adult should never get impatient with a child if they're using unfamiliar terms with them. Being so literal minded as a child, I wished my teachers had comprehended that sometimes I would have understood them better if they just simplified the message. Took out anying unnecessary, and explained the parts where it may have been evident there was a gap in knowlege.

However, is it necessary to leave out all words that are unfamiliar to a child? I'm not sure how it is in a child with autism. I've never had anyone in my family with a verbal delay. But when speaking to my very young neices and nephews, I simplify how I say things to them, especially if their understanding or response is important. But I rarely use only the words I know for a fact they're familiar with. I assume that through repetition they build the context they need to understand. I'm actually witnessing this happening with my two year old nephew. One week he'll misunderstand something and use it in the incorrect context. But just by listening to how people use words, he gets how to use it right all on his own. Even when he uses something incorrectly, he shows an amazing amount of understanding based just on how he's listening to people use words. One example is how he describes anything that's too difficult for him to do, he'll say " No, I can't. It's too heavy." But given a few weeks I'm betting he'll be using the word correctly just by listening.

Even as an adult I'm still doing this with words and terms I don't know just by building a context from the pattern of their use. With children it's like they go through a period where they have an explosion of understanding. But I'm afraid I'm not qualified to say that about a child with a verbal delay. I did have audio processing issues as a child, and sometimes still do. It gives me a short attention span for speech. I'm just more visual. But I never had a problem understanding language itself.

I guess for autistic kids, it probably is better to slow it down and simplify since they're often so behind in both language and interaction. It takes time and patience for them to start catching up in those areas. Adults need reminders to change their pace sometimes. It's funny how some parents impatiently try to get their kids to understand them just by raising their voice or throwing in insults. It doesn't seem to occur to them that the problem isn't the kid, they just need to alter their approach. Thanks for the video.

OK, so a book is being promoted. That's fine, but why bring dietary restrictions and vitamin supplements into it? Why should intake of vitamin B12 or any other vitamin, other than necessary according to recommended daily allowances to avoid deficiency, confer any benefits? Some vitamins can hurt you if you take too much! Dietary restrictions, other than to avoid a specific problem such as a peanut allergy or lactose intolerance, also fall under the heading of chasing aliens and the like.

Last edited by sgrannel on 20 Jun 2010, 3:10 am, edited 2 times in total.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RZppyNM4vg[/youtube]

Hi,
Thanks for watching and commenting everyone. No, I'm actually not promoting a book. I really feel the need to let other parents know all the things that I did with my son that helped him progress. By helping the parents I am helping the kids which is my real goal. I do videos because it is free and I think all advice that can help kids should be for free. People shouldnt make money off of autism.
I bring dietary interventions and nutritional supplements into the conversation (in the video) because they had a tremendous positive effect with my son Jake. If I left that stuff out to be politically correct I would be doing a huge disservice to children on the spectrum.

This is certainly meant for children who are not very verbal and while I would want to say it's more for kids with autism than it is kids with apsergers, I dont know if thats totally accurate. I don't know if anyone here is familiar with Aspiegirl from youtube...she does clay aikens video montages...she's been on youtube for years. Me and her have spoken on the phone and she too has serious problems processing auditory information. Other aspies I have spoken with also have this issue.
Overall though I think it is more accurate to say that aspies process as well as anyone else and that their command of language is superior in many areas.
children with autism often times do have difficulty learning new words via context.
But after awhile they learn and they can pick up meanings in context and their processing gets better and you can speak to them faster and eventually normal. But I think the parents will figure out when that time is and felt that I didnt need to go into that in the video.

What age range is a child? Can you broaden on this?

That's a great point.
My videos are designed to help children by helping their parents. So when I say 'child' i am really refering to the relationship between the parent and their child and not so much the age.

I will.

Between LFA and Asperger's (and HFA) there is Moderate Functioning Autism. I don't know if that's a term found in the DSM, but it does describe my daughter. She doesn't need me to speak as slowly as in the video. I actually tried that once, on advice, and she said, "why...are...you...talking...like...this?" Her own normal speech is pretty fast. But she does need me to use new vocabulary sparingly. I make sure not to introduce multiple new words within one sentence. And once I've introduced a new word, I make sure to use it fairly frequently so she hears it in many sentences. In this way she has built a reasonably large vocabulary.

Neither LFA nor HFA is found in the DSM, either; and neither have official medical definitions. They are in fact little more than a description of the impression someone makes on a professional, and as such are too vague to be of much use.

If you wanted to talk about people for whom simplified communication might be useful, it would probably be better to use the phrase "autistic people with significant expressive/receptive language disorder", rather than "LFA". The LFA/HFA stereotypes don't really cover it, because quite a few people who are independent and doing just fine could benefit from that kind of simplified communication; and quite a few others who need a lot of help also do quite well with normal speech.

He did say that you can use longer sentences if the child is using long sentences themselves. It does make some sense to gauge a persons ability to understand words by the way the person themselves uses words. Even though some people do have better receptive language use than expressive language use unless you know for sure it's better to err on the side of being understood. I do know that if a sentence is packed with extraneous information I tend to tune out while I'm waiting for the actual content and sometimes don't tune back in in time.