AboutTrey McGowan Expertise My primary expertise is in the area of the social, psychological, and mental development of Aspergers Syndrome and other high-functioning Autistic Spectrum Disorders. I am also very knowledgeable in the communication disorders and common co-existing issues. I'm well-read on most of these as well as having experienced it myself. Other aspects of autism, I can do fairly well at as well, from the oversensitivity to the recognition of it.
Warning: I am *not* a medical professional, and while I can research answers through books and online, I can not give direct medical expertise.
Experience I am 14 years diagnosed Asperger's Autistic, and have been reading up and studying it, as well as taking 'first hand accounts' for most of those 14 years. In addition, I have had three children, adopted elsewhere, all of whom are varying degrees of autistic from mid to high functioning. My mother has done some research on the subject as well, and passed some of it on to me.
Education/Credentials I have completed grade school and most of high school, and achieved a GED. I've also received home schooling.
Question Our child's psychologist thinks our son has PPD. He is 4 y/o. Cognitively, he is beyond his peers. He has been reading simple books since age 3 1/2, recognizes 8 colors, recognizes 1-100, knows most shapes. However, he has problems with "wh" questions, gets I/you, your/my, he/she mixed up, and only says "it's there" instead of describing "on top of...", "in front of", "beside", etc... I have been surfing the net for days looking for materials I can use to teach him these concepts. Please help.
Answer Hi there, Nicole!
Problems with these concepts are not uncommon in children with ASDs. The exact reason for it is unknown, but some concepts just don't seem to 'stick' in the right way.
I suggest that one thing you should do is check locally, if you can afford it, for a speech therapist. Their entire job is to teach speech, and speech does include such things as these concepts. It will give you a good basis for if the self-teaching doesn't want to work, and help with other linguistic difficulties that may pop up as well; it's possible none will, but I figure it's best to have a 'just in case'.
Now, for self-teaching, repetition is the mother of education. By repeating the questions, and offering up the answer, you can help with putting 'two and two together' in your child's head. Ask and answer the questions aloud. Demonstrate them as you do so. That will help your son memorize the concepts, and eventually start to be able to 'work them out' on his own.
Say you're in the kitchen. Your child wants a glass of milk. Ask him: 'Where is the milk?' Give him the chance to answer it (however that comes) and then, if it's correct, make sure to let him know he was right, and say aloud: "It's inside the refrigerator" as you open the fridge. If he's not correct, then you answer it yourself in the same way. When you're done, ask your son to put the milk "inside the refrigerator". If all goes well, he'll hopefully remember what 'inside the refrigerator' meant and will put the milk back where it had been.
This is just an example, of course. You can do it with his toys ("Where's your ball?"), a snack ("Where are the cookies?"), and games "Where's Mommy?"). The other concepts can be used in much the same way, with a few light twists, turns, and bends depending on which concept you're trying to work with: Who's behind this door? What is that sound? When is your show starting? Why is the sky blue? .... be careful with that last one; it seems to be addictive to children his age!
You may find that you have some problems with 'who' and 'what' in particular. This is not because your son is stupid, but because some autistic children have a difficulty in identifying the difference between an object's 'proper name' and 'what it is'. For most people, a person is simply 'a person' until they know them. Then they become 'Bob'. However, an object having two names can be difficult for a linear autistic mind to work out; they were 'a man' until five minutes ago. Why are they suddenly no longer 'a man' and instead are 'Bob'? It is not a matter of stupidity. It is the simple black and white of the ASD mind identifying an object in one way.
Finally, if the general teachings aren't helping, a language therapist might be more effective than just the low-level language teaching I'm suggesting. Sometimes, you just need to find *just* the right way of doing a series of lessons, and without observation, it would be very hard for one person to suggest the right way. By having a *real* expert on-hand, as I suggested above, you'll have someone who can do that observation and help figure out the spin you need to put on the lessons to make them stick just right.
Hopefully those suggestions will help with the basics of this 'sticky point' for you! As always, questions, comments, feedback, follow-ups, all are welcome.
