finding
the words
by Marge Blanc
When They're "In There" Somewhere!
Helping your child retrieve the language he knows!
Part 2
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elcome to our second column on language retrieval, a hidden challenge that affects all our kids sometimes, and some of our kids most of the time!
Recall Colleen, the four-year-old featured in our last column, who illustrates the dilemma of language retrieval...the disruption, the frustration, and the misunderstanding that ensues.
Colleen was hosting a tea party with
her SLP, Megan, and everything was going well. She had orchestrated
everything to be just right, and even invited her little brother, Alex to
join them. You might recall the conversation:
C I'm a big lady.
M You are, and what a nice party you're
having.
C Megan sit in the middle, and
Alex..wanna come with us?
But once Alex, aged two, actually did join them, he demanded Megan's attention, and Colleen's self-regulation was upset. In a moment of disregulation, Colleen went from using nice, multi-word sentences to the single word, "No!" closely followed by a full meltdown. She was, at one moment, the gracious hostess of her own tea party, and the next, the center of her own catastrophe.
Was Colleen being "bad," or avoiding using "her words?" Knowing her as we did, we could answer, unequivocally, "no." Rather, Colleen was having a "language retrieval crisis." As a little girl whose retrieval challenge was her primary language disability, her day was filled with discrpancy. At her best, she sounded like a girl with only a mild language delay. She sometimes used nice verb tenses, conjunctions, and a plethora of nouns and proper names. But, unfortunately, those 11-word sentences, like the one above, occurred only occasionally, when she was well-supported by an adult who understood her mind, body, and linguistic system.
In daily life, Colleen could not be optimally-supported all day long, and her language output varied accordingly. Her vocabulary suffered, becoming less-precise and more general. Words like "one" and "another" substituted for 'content words' like "cup" and "plate." And sentence structure suffered, because less-practiced words made up less-practiced (and more advanced) grammar. Under most conditions, verb tenses, and sometimes whole verbs, disappeared. An idea like that expressed at the tea party might sound something more like, "Megan sit here; Alex too" under more usual conditions. Colleen rarely "found" all the words she wanted to say (and had in her mind), but, she usually got her main point across.
We knew Colleen well enough to know which words and sentences were in her head and which were not. When she talked, we instantly knew when something was affected by a retrieval challenge. And we knew that Colleen's best language, her language competence, included vocabulary and sentences like the following (with excluded words in parens): "Stand back and take a picture of my pony(tail). Now take a picture of my pony(tail going) the other way." Instead, when she was not optimally-supported and she actually expressed this particular thought, the request sounded like this: "Get off...I got my pony. Get off... I got my pony."
Yes, dear reader, there is a lot to think about here, and to absorb; please take a few moments to do so...
Let's continue to explore the discrepancy between expressive language competence (a child's developmental expressive language level) and expressive language access (a child's expressive language as it is actually spoken). We'll do this by looking at a few more examples of Colleen's language expression during the same time period.
Talking about her brother, Colleen noted, "He's grumpy actually every time." Even though Colleen used a nice 'content' word (and very descriptive!) like "grumpy," the sentence was not uniformly descriptive. "Every time" left a little to the imagination, and the listener came away with a feeling of incompleteness, like there was more Colleen was about to say...but never did.
Another example is a series of
sentences Colleen delivered as a story about something that had just
happened. Note that none of the verbs that have past tense markers,
however, and otehr parts of speech are missing.
Ben come in.
Ben come in the big wagon.
Alex steal Alex seat.
The general gist of the story was clear to a familiar listener, but, this time, instead of sounding simply mildly language delayed, Colleen now sounded younger and less sophisticated than she was. So, not only was Colleen's specific language challenge misunderstood, but she herself was misunderstood!
To reiterate, a language retrieval challenge is a discrepancy between language competence and language access. And the priceless glimpses we occasionally get into our kids' minds, and into their language competence, help us truly appreciate their minds... and the myriad access challenges they face! Around our clinic, we take these "window" moments seriously, because they tell us what our kids are thinking about, their interests, what they understand about the world, and what their language development level is really like. These glimpses help us better understand them. And because our ASD kids face motor challenges, retrieval challenges, and regulation challenges, it is frequently difficult, and sometimes impossible, for them to demonstrate what they know! But special moments of tea party clarity help us see what kids are trying to demonstrate during all the other moments of their day.
Megan knew how to support Colleen's language access. When her mind (her ideas), her body (her regulation), and her linguistic system (her language development and retrieval) were supported, Colleen relaxed. At these times, she was comfortable giving herself the time to "search" for the right word, and to retrieve the one she was looking for.
Megan supported Colleen's language
access by providing these basic things:
1. her undivided attention. She was accepting, patient, and, most
often, quiet.
2. some judicious echoing back to Colleen of what she had said.
Often, Megan just "held her place" for her with a casual "Uh huh," so
Colleen could "trigger" her own retrieval of the next words. Megan
was careful not to reflect words back too quickly, but first, to give
Colleen the time, patience, and space to search by herself.
3. a peaceful atmosphere that allowed Colleen to take the time she needed
to search her mental dictionary for the right way to express herself.
In this way, Megan supported Colleen
as she retrieved the word "truck" in the following dialogue:
C I have black...
M Hmm...
C I have big, I have big, I have big,
I have big, I have big...
M Hmm...
C I have black big truck.
Yes, it can be agonizing to sit back and wait for a child to find her words. But, think for a moment about the alternative. If Megan were to become impatient, and start asking Colleen well-meaning questions, the pattern of the sentence that eventually "triggered" the intended word would have been interrupted. If Megan had asked, "What do you have, Colleen?" you can bet Colleen would have said, "I don't know," or she would have had to start over, or resort to changing the subject or saying something off-topic and over-practice, like, "Hi, Megan."
Yes, it is hard to wait, and it takes some practice. But, you will be pleasantly surprised to find out that by simply waiting patiently, retrieval often works!
It is also encouraging that there are other strategies to use when your child is challenged by language retrieval, and we will explore them in our next column. But, for now, you have a useful place to start listening to your own child's attempts at "finding the words," and being poised to help!
Marge Blanc, M.A., CCC-SLP founded the Communication Development
Center, in Madison, WI 10 years ago. Specializing in
physically-supported speech and language services for children with ASD
diagnoses, the center has successfully helped scores of children as they moved
through the stages of language acquisition.
Contact Marge and her
associates at:
Communication Development Center
700 Rayovac Drive, Suite 200
Madison, WI 53711
lyonblanc@aol.com
March-April 2007 ~ Autism Asperger's Digest Magazine
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"Special moments of...clarity help us see what kids are trying to demonstrate during all the other moments of their day." |