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Child Behavior (Expert Forum)
autism again
Answered by
Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D. - Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy, Family Therapy, Crisis Intervention
Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates
This forum is for questions and support regarding child behavior issues such: Child Discipline (behavior management), Normal Child Development, Parent-Child Communications, Social Development
autism again
by busyalicemum, Apr 08, 2005 12:00AM
Thank you for your response. I have one further query. I mentioned that he uses imaginative play but not as much as his brother. I was wondering if you thought his development was on target in this respect.
Has started to re-enact scenes from the TV,recently . Wouldnt have thought anything about it except that I saw that “scripting” and “ delayed echolalia” were autistic symptoms
When he re-enacts a scene from one of his favourite videos where a man driving a boat drops his hat, sometimes his keys in the water . My son turns a chair into a boat, (has a preference for one chair but can be persuaded to use a different one) ,puts a hat on, turns the key then pretends to drop them in the water etc. ., Whilst he insists on having a hat on , he uses imaginary keys. He does a similar scenario in the bath using a toy boat and a sponge for a hat. Then recites the narrative Sorry for the detail but I was just wondering if he should be using more inventive imaginary play, like varying the scene a bit. As I said I wouldn’t have thought much about it as until recently as I thought it was imaginative play, the scripting coinciding with a time when he is reciting and singing lots of songs and nursery rhymes. On another note he is going through a recent phase of getting quite upset if things don’t go his way. For example if he cant find one of his 4 trailors on his train , he cries and whinges until I find it for him. He refuses to play with just 3 although he can be diverted to other things that interest him.Its not really a tantrum, just a “ this is the end of my world” type of crying .He cries and says “ I am so upset” He doesn’t spend long periods of time doing any of this, just when he has to occupy himself . He is well behaved, as far as I know in nursery school and the teacher has said that he is always enthusiatic about trying new things.The good things are that he talks on the toy phone, pretends to be things like monsters, hairdressers,doctors and policemen and asks me to be them too. He will then say when hes finished “ I don’t want you to be a monster anymore” He sometimes uses imaginary toys like pretending to switch on a timer in an oven or keys, gearstick in a car.He asks me to be his teacher and identifies a room in the house as a school. He makes up stories about how he is going to bring his car to the garage to be fixed, although he may get this from his brother who lovescars. However he exlaborates his stories , when asked what happened his car. He definitely knows the difference between pretend and real. He was speaking to me on the phone from his grannys house and said he was having pancakes and I asked him if they were pretend ones as he makes them with his playdough. He said “ No not pretend ones, yummy ones ?He has lots of spontaneous speech and he is sociable and communicative Sorry for my rambling. My friend has a child six months older who she says has only just started to play more creatively with things like “Action men”, setting them up in his own imaginary scenes so maybe that more inventive stuff is to come?Is scripting normal when speech seems normal in other ways
Has started to re-enact scenes from the TV,recently . Wouldnt have thought anything about it except that I saw that “scripting” and “ delayed echolalia” were autistic symptoms
When he re-enacts a scene from one of his favourite videos where a man driving a boat drops his hat, sometimes his keys in the water . My son turns a chair into a boat, (has a preference for one chair but can be persuaded to use a different one) ,puts a hat on, turns the key then pretends to drop them in the water etc. ., Whilst he insists on having a hat on , he uses imaginary keys. He does a similar scenario in the bath using a toy boat and a sponge for a hat. Then recites the narrative Sorry for the detail but I was just wondering if he should be using more inventive imaginary play, like varying the scene a bit. As I said I wouldn’t have thought much about it as until recently as I thought it was imaginative play, the scripting coinciding with a time when he is reciting and singing lots of songs and nursery rhymes. On another note he is going through a recent phase of getting quite upset if things don’t go his way. For example if he cant find one of his 4 trailors on his train , he cries and whinges until I find it for him. He refuses to play with just 3 although he can be diverted to other things that interest him.Its not really a tantrum, just a “ this is the end of my world” type of crying .He cries and says “ I am so upset” He doesn’t spend long periods of time doing any of this, just when he has to occupy himself . He is well behaved, as far as I know in nursery school and the teacher has said that he is always enthusiatic about trying new things.The good things are that he talks on the toy phone, pretends to be things like monsters, hairdressers,doctors and policemen and asks me to be them too. He will then say when hes finished “ I don’t want you to be a monster anymore” He sometimes uses imaginary toys like pretending to switch on a timer in an oven or keys, gearstick in a car.He asks me to be his teacher and identifies a room in the house as a school. He makes up stories about how he is going to bring his car to the garage to be fixed, although he may get this from his brother who lovescars. However he exlaborates his stories , when asked what happened his car. He definitely knows the difference between pretend and real. He was speaking to me on the phone from his grannys house and said he was having pancakes and I asked him if they were pretend ones as he makes them with his playdough. He said “ No not pretend ones, yummy ones ?He has lots of spontaneous speech and he is sociable and communicative Sorry for my rambling. My friend has a child six months older who she says has only just started to play more creatively with things like “Action men”, setting them up in his own imaginary scenes so maybe that more inventive stuff is to come?Is scripting normal when speech seems normal in other ways
Doctor's Answer
by Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D., Apr 09, 2005 12:00AM
, Apr 09, 2005 12:00AM
Every indication is that your child is fine. I hope I am not being too hard on you, but if you continue to inspect every detail of your youngster's functioning with a fine tooth comb, you are going to mss out on the joys of being a parent. Try to take some delight in your child's growth and development, and focus on the wonderful experience of his learning, rather than dwelling on the minutiae of everything he does and comparing those with his peers.
