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Asperberger's diagnosis criteria?
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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 14037" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>Terry, we've 'lucked out' too, with some of the things we did. It's what parents do, trying to reach their child. And when you can't get through one way, you get through another.</p><p></p><p>So it sounds like he had language delay also. Did he have the jargon speech at all? easy child 2/difficult child 2 described this as "talking in scribble". And echolalia - he would repeat the question, rather than answer it. we had to formally teach him to listen to the question and turn it into an answer, but for a long time he just didn't have the language skills to interpret the question. To begin with, we 'programmed' him, using social stories, so when asked "What is your name?" he could answer it. But if someone asked, "What do people call you?" he wouldn't understand. We had him programmed with his name, my mobile phone number and our address. But we just had to hope that people would use the right words to ask the question. The hopeful thing was, most people when faced with a non-responsive child will ask the same question again, in different ways. Eventually, we hoped, they'd ask the question he would recognise.</p><p></p><p>Looking back on it, we now realise that he had memorised some quite long sequences of meaningless syllables and had connected them to a pre-programmed response. This was an amazing feat of memory. he also would memorise songs from the radio, often including more obvious musical effects as part of the sequence of sounds. He would know the entire song, all the verses and often a lot of the incidental sounds and would sing then, over and over, in the car. he would sing along if they came on the radio. But the words often had a 'blurred' sound to them, as you would her in a child singing a song in another language which they do not speak.</p><p></p><p>Now, the difference is amazing. It was some years ago that the school counsellor (idiot woman) said to me, "Look at difficult child 3 and how well he fits in now! And his speech has improved so much, he no longer has language delay. He's no longer autistic!"</p><p>Um, yes he is. HISTORY of language delay is part of the criteria. As difficult child 3 described it himself when he was 8 years old, "I'm getting better at pretending to be normal."</p><p></p><p>The noises - they may not have totally gone away. However, if/when they return, they are likely to be quieter. HE knows he is not normal; HE knows that he needs to moderate his behaviour to make it more acceptable. His has certain drives and obsessions but he is trying all the time to moderate these in order to please people and 'pretend to be normal'. A lot of these stims are a coping mechanism, like a safety valve. Tapping pencils, some fidgety movements, some habits are hard to change and if you succeed in squashing one, another may surface. Sometimes you have to live with the ones you feel you can best tolerate.</p><p></p><p>difficult child 3 has a funny noise at the moment, he's had it for about three years now. It's a sort of quiet groan. difficult child 1 never had this noise; instead, he had one that sounds for all the world like a male emu calling its chicks. It's a sort of throaty 'boom' noise, but very quiet. Like a backward swallowing noise or gulp. he may have even acquired it from trying to imitate the emu, but couldn't stop. He was even annoying himself with it. We would walk past his room and hear it outside the door - it wasn't an attention thing, just a habit he couldn't stop.</p><p></p><p>difficult child 3's autistic friend has a nose twitch, almost like Sam in Bewitched. It's not quite the same and it's not related to copying anything. He's not even aware that he does it. His nose twitches more when he's working on his schoolwork. difficult child 3's noise is most noticeable when he's stressed or concentrating on his schoolwork.</p><p></p><p>Our kids are all different. They don't all have the same range of symptoms or to the same degree. Some are normal in some respects (in that they don't have all the signs listed). As a result, kids like your son and my difficult child 3 love being around other kids. But they don't relate to them in normal ways.</p><p></p><p>Sorry to use the word 'normal' but here, I mean it "like other kids, at the same level, appropriately for age and social situation". These are things that are more difficult for our kids to achieve. They CAn learn these skills but it takes time. And the impulsive calling out - it's much harder to fix that one that you would think. It's best to keep gently correcting, but punishment WILL NOT WORK. It will only cause more problems if you try to punish something that the child has little control over. They already KNOW they shouldn't, but try to stop? They just can't. We just keep correcting, keep reminding, he's slowly getting there...</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 14037, member: 1991"] Terry, we've 'lucked out' too, with some of the things we did. It's what parents do, trying to reach their child. And when you can't get through one way, you get through another. So it sounds like he had language delay also. Did he have the jargon speech at all? easy child 2/difficult child 2 described this as "talking in scribble". And echolalia - he would repeat the question, rather than answer it. we had to formally teach him to listen to the question and turn it into an answer, but for a long time he just didn't have the language skills to interpret the question. To begin with, we 'programmed' him, using social stories, so when asked "What is your name?" he could answer it. But if someone asked, "What do people call you?" he wouldn't understand. We had him programmed with his name, my mobile phone number and our address. But we just had to hope that people would use the right words to ask the question. The hopeful thing was, most people when faced with a non-responsive child will ask the same question again, in different ways. Eventually, we hoped, they'd ask the question he would recognise. Looking back on it, we now realise that he had memorised some quite long sequences of meaningless syllables and had connected them to a pre-programmed response. This was an amazing feat of memory. he also would memorise songs from the radio, often including more obvious musical effects as part of the sequence of sounds. He would know the entire song, all the verses and often a lot of the incidental sounds and would sing then, over and over, in the car. he would sing along if they came on the radio. But the words often had a 'blurred' sound to them, as you would her in a child singing a song in another language which they do not speak. Now, the difference is amazing. It was some years ago that the school counsellor (idiot woman) said to me, "Look at difficult child 3 and how well he fits in now! And his speech has improved so much, he no longer has language delay. He's no longer autistic!" Um, yes he is. HISTORY of language delay is part of the criteria. As difficult child 3 described it himself when he was 8 years old, "I'm getting better at pretending to be normal." The noises - they may not have totally gone away. However, if/when they return, they are likely to be quieter. HE knows he is not normal; HE knows that he needs to moderate his behaviour to make it more acceptable. His has certain drives and obsessions but he is trying all the time to moderate these in order to please people and 'pretend to be normal'. A lot of these stims are a coping mechanism, like a safety valve. Tapping pencils, some fidgety movements, some habits are hard to change and if you succeed in squashing one, another may surface. Sometimes you have to live with the ones you feel you can best tolerate. difficult child 3 has a funny noise at the moment, he's had it for about three years now. It's a sort of quiet groan. difficult child 1 never had this noise; instead, he had one that sounds for all the world like a male emu calling its chicks. It's a sort of throaty 'boom' noise, but very quiet. Like a backward swallowing noise or gulp. he may have even acquired it from trying to imitate the emu, but couldn't stop. He was even annoying himself with it. We would walk past his room and hear it outside the door - it wasn't an attention thing, just a habit he couldn't stop. difficult child 3's autistic friend has a nose twitch, almost like Sam in Bewitched. It's not quite the same and it's not related to copying anything. He's not even aware that he does it. His nose twitches more when he's working on his schoolwork. difficult child 3's noise is most noticeable when he's stressed or concentrating on his schoolwork. Our kids are all different. They don't all have the same range of symptoms or to the same degree. Some are normal in some respects (in that they don't have all the signs listed). As a result, kids like your son and my difficult child 3 love being around other kids. But they don't relate to them in normal ways. Sorry to use the word 'normal' but here, I mean it "like other kids, at the same level, appropriately for age and social situation". These are things that are more difficult for our kids to achieve. They CAn learn these skills but it takes time. And the impulsive calling out - it's much harder to fix that one that you would think. It's best to keep gently correcting, but punishment WILL NOT WORK. It will only cause more problems if you try to punish something that the child has little control over. They already KNOW they shouldn't, but try to stop? They just can't. We just keep correcting, keep reminding, he's slowly getting there... Marg [/QUOTE]
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