Pronouns, Questions, and Answers: Owen again

Like many echolalic children, Owen has difficulty with personal pronouns and with questions and answers.

The pronoun issue is especially significant in his reversal of the first and second person pronouns, “I” and “you” and their variations. I believe that the problem stems from Owen’s echoing of whole chunks of the language addressed to him. ?So, “Do you want a snack?” is later echoed as a spontaneous request because Owen does not know how to change it to “I want a snack.” So, he recites the question which has often preceded the arrival of the cookie.

There will be a whole chapter on helping with pronouns in my new book, Autism, Echolalia, and Sometimes, Blindness: A Practical Guide to Conventional Communication, but here is a quick overview of some key steps.

Pronouns:

·?????? Avoid the I/you pronouns during most of your interactions and use names instead. For example, “Mommy has a lemon cupcake. Owen has a chocolate cupcake.”? If he starts calling himself Owen instead of “you” that is not regression. It is a positive step toward more functional communication and a bridge to more accurate understanding and use of personal pronouns.

·?????? Since Owen can only answer a few questions, avoid them for now too, especially if they include pronouns, as in “Do you want…?”?

·?????? First, teach Owen to make requests by just saying the name of the wanted item (cookie), then by saying “want a cookie” and then expanding to “I want a cookie.”? Use a consistent hand cue to mean “I” so you can later use it as a prompt and in teaching “I” with other verbs. ?This was described in my April, 2023, Linked-In newsletter and will be in the book.

·?????? When Owen knows and uses “I want,” start modeling “I” with other verbs in situations where it is true for both of you and therefore accurate if he echoes.? Examples might be “I’m running” or “I hear the train” or “I like ice cream” when you are both doing/hearing the same thing. Use the hand cue when you say “I” about yourself or to prompt Owen if he reverts to “You” for self-reference.

·?????? Avoid modeling “you” for a while as he is mastering “I”.? I tend to start by introducing “you” in the possessive form, “your,” as a counterpoint to “my” while sorting personal belongings (Owen’s and yours) into separate piles.

The other personal pronouns often fall into place when the “I-you” confusion is cleared up, but “he/she”?and “we” may need some work.

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Questions and Answers:

As with pronouns, it helps decrease the conversational confusion if you avoid asking questions until Owen has a basic foundation of conventional requests, comments, directives, and ?protests. ?Owen doesn’t understand the concept of one person asking and another responding with an answer, even though he certainly knows that people take turns in conversation. Although he sounds like he is asking a lot of questions, these are mainly echoes of questions people have asked him.

·?????? Focus on helping him answer questions before teaching him to ask them.??

·?????? Answering choice questions (Do you want this or that? What do you want to eat? Do you want this?) would be ?especially useful for Owen and his family, but some are much harder than others. Start with a two-item closed choice and no spoken question. Show him two options you are holding and say, “Apple…grapes…Owen wants…” and let him fill in his answer. Later, when he has the concept of choosing, you start sliding in the question.

·?????? The Wh- questions are educationally important. Be sure he knows the answers before you ask the questions. If he doesn’t, teach the answer and then introduce the question.?? For example, be sure he can name objects or actions, (“Ball,” “It’s a triangle,”? “Clapping”)?? before you ask “What is it?” or “What are the kids doing?” ?If he were not blind, you could do this with pictures, but a minor variation of touch and sound is needed here for Owen.? Most of the therapy I recommend for echolalia works without significant adaptation for vision loss.

·?????? Yes or no questions are especially confusing to Owen, who understands “No” as a protest or prohibition, but not as a negative answer to a question, and he has little concept of “Yes.”? I start teaching echolalic children to answer “Yes or no” questions using the question, “Is it a…?” plus the name of an object as part of a sorting activity that works well whether the child is blind or sighted.? Explanation of my reasoning, and details on how this is done, will be in Chapter 8 of the Autism, Echolalia and Sometimes, Blindness ?book, along with ideas for teaching the asking of questions.

This newsletter has been heavy on echolalia lately as I finish up my new book. I’ll write on different autism and communication issues for the next two months and then probably post a description and contents of my new echolalia book when it comes out in September. Thanks for reading!

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