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Helpful or Annoying?

Siferra's picture

Submitted by Siferra on Mon, 01/10/2011 - 11:31am

My SS5 is not talking very well yet. We have him in speech therapy and all the right programs, but it is difficult to understand him, and he’ll often mumble or point. We’re doing what we can to encourage him to use words.

When we’re driving somewhere DH and I will have a conversation, and SS5 will just ramble nonsense and sound effects, sometimes quite loudly. He’s always done this, and sometimes we can make out a few lines from a movie, etc. If we try to include him in our conversation he reverts to mumbling and we can’t understand him, so we give up and start talking again. It’s just really obnoxious to have a constant stream of unintelligible gibberish and sound effects coming from the back seat.

On one hand I don’t want to tell him to be quiet and that he shouldn’t talk, but on the other hand it’s really disruptive. Does this rambling help him develop speech, or does it hurt by letting him continue in his own world without any concern to the conversations around him?

Comments

oneoffour's picture

Submitted by oneoffour on Mon, 01/10/2011 - 11:44am

Try singing LOUD songs. Get a CD for the car and make him sing songs LOUDLY.

I read that when kids are learning to talk their mouths slightly mold to the shape of that particular langauge. However if he wasn't encouraged to talk when he was a baby or he was allowed to mumble and make noises that were translated to real speech by a family member his mouth isn't molded to the English language.

He also needs to learn to speak clearly. Just make him understand that if he hasn't something important to say like "I am going to puke." or "I need the bathroom." Then he can sit quietly. Or give him an MP3 player with his exercises on it. That should keep him quiet.

youngstepmom84's picture

Submitted by youngstepmom84 on Mon, 01/10/2011 - 12:22pm

I work as a Behavior Therapist with Autistic children and what you described about SS sounds like some symptoms of autism.
The repeating of movies or tv shows is called echolalia and many autistic children engage in that scripting behavior. Does he make eye-contact? Most autistic children do not make eye-contact and have very limited social connections. Verbal delay is also another major characteristic of autism.
They are also known to engage in repetitive behaviors, ritual-like actions. Obsessions are also common, for example some kids know everything there is to know about a cartoon or sharks. That's all they want to talk about. I had a client obsessed with logos, drawing them and looking at pictures of them. Another knew all the characters of Thomas & Friends yet was non-verbal.

You should look into the possiblity that this is autism. The sooner intervention occurs the better the chances that the child can catch up in development.

Siferra's picture

Submitted by Siferra on Tue, 01/11/2011 - 9:10am

Thank you all for your help. He has been tested for other things, and he does not have autism, though he may have aspergers. He was 10 weeks premature, so his parents had a good indicator that he might need help, and he's been in programs since he was 3.

By far the biggest symptom he has is the speech delay. He's doing well in school, and I'm encouraged that his parents are doing what they need to do. It's just frustrating.

I wasn't really great with kids to start with, and I was hoping I would be able to communicate better with him by now.