Owen is Echolalic: Teaching requesting and other early communication functions as they come up.

First, we did commenting:

Last month’s newsletter focused on modeling comments to develop a comfortable relationship, help Owen (an echolalic pre-school boy with autism and a severe vision impairment) learn language meanings in context, and increase his play repertoire. If you are just starting work with an echolalic child or wanting to add language modeling to your teaching sessions, commenting is a good place to start. There’s no pressure on the child or the parent/therapist, and commenting is a good way to practice avoiding questions and pronouns.

Reciprocal commenting is a very basic form of conversation, can be practiced in many contexts and provides a good foundation for increasing language and learning. But there are other ways that young children communicate, including these five: requesting and making choices, asking others to do things, protesting, and greeting people. Language modeling depends on a meaningful context, but little of it requires vision, so many of the activities would work for Owen as well as for a sighted child.

Here are some quick examples of modeling for these other five communicative functions when they just occur in natural situations. You’ll find more in my LinkedIn newsletter from March of last year (2023), my first book, EIF Book link, and my coming book on echolalia ?(hopefully out by September, 2024).

Requesting:?

Owen says, “Do you want applesauce?”

You, knowing he is really asking for applesauce, reply, “Applesauce! …want applesauce!” as you go to get it. You repeat “Applesauce!” a few times as you prepare it and give it to Owen, mentally reminding yourself not to ask, “Do you want…?” questions that he cannot answer.?

Directing:

Owen is struggling with his toy car. The wheels have come off again. He is trying to fix them and saying, “Can I help you? Can I help you?” to no one in particular. Oops, he’s echoing the words of people who offer to help him. You give him a model of other words that would work better—“Need some help!” and perhaps,? “Let’s fix it.” You are careful not to model with a questioning intonation because you are encouraging Owen to say, “(I) need some help!” not “(Do you) need some help?”

Choices:

When offered a choice of two items such as “Do you want the book or the ball?” Owen either echoes, “Want book or the ball?” or repeats the second one, “or the ball?”

So, you drop the question, just show him the two items, and say, “Book... Ball... Owen wants...” and let him fill in the answer. If he doesn’t answer but reaches for the book, you say “Book! Want the book.” and give it to him. If he shows no interest in either one, try again later with more favored choices, or one item he likes and one he doesn’t.

Protests:

If Owen pushes away the finger paint while squealing, “Just touch it!” you model, “Don't want finger paint!” And you remove it.

Greetings:

Owen mostly ignores greetings or sometimes echoes, “Hi Owen” or “Bye Owen.”??? ?Drop the names for now and focus on “Bye” rather than “Hi.”? ?When you are leaving an interaction with Owen, call his name, “Owen!” ?And when (if) he looks up, just wave and say “Bye.” If he echoes, it will be without adding his own name.

The process with all of these models in unplanned, naturally occurring contexts is to recognize and respond to Owen’s intent while showing him a non-echoic way to express his meaning.

Next time, pronoun reversal and questions.

By the way:

The gurus who advise authors on matters of social media and email news say I should share occasional stories about myself. So, here’s an “origin story” related to this posting.

I did my undergraduate thesis, a loooong time ago, on my summer work with an echolalic, autistic boy I’ll call Davy. He was seven years old, lived in a residential institution, and greeted people by saying, “Are you a dingbat?”? This unfortunate question was echoed by Davy in the same affectionate tone spoken to him by the staff on the ward where he lived.?

I spent the summer trying to teach Davy to answer memorized questions and label pictures in structured practice with tangible reinforcers but no meaningful context. Teaching the wrong stuff in the wrong way, I’m afraid I did little to help Davy’s functional ??communication.? But Davy started me on a career path where I encountered, enjoyed, and eventually learned to help, many other echolalic children.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

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