Life, Kids, and Laughter!: Language, Language, Language!!!

No, this post isn't about dirty language (even though my husband needs to be reminded about cleaning that up every once in a while), it's about Sam's use of language. This has always been one of his struggles. He has an advanced vocabulary, but struggles to use language appropriately. It is a struggle for him to use original language and he often has trouble with conversational language. What this means is that a lot of what he says are phrases that he has heard before. Sometimes they fit the situation and sometimes they don't. He repeats a lot of lines from shows he has watched. This has been a big struggle for us. When he does this we always tell him to use his own original thoughts and to stop repeating. He becomes obsessed with certain shows and begins to repeat whole episodes verbatim. He hasn't repeated whole episodes in a while, just lines from the shows, but I can't tell you how unnerving it is for your child to sit and repeat the dialogue of a show he saw once. When he starts to do this we have to ban that show at our house. First it was Little Einstein's then Max and Ruby, and now DocMcstuffin. I am always torn about whether he should even watch TV, but he really enjoys it and I limit it to a couple of shows a day. His language has been showing a lot of improvements, but vacation has totally thrown him off. His attention has been poor and his language has been out of whack. He has been repeating lines from DocMcstuffin all night and he hasn't seen that show in days. There are times when it doesn't seem like he has any issues and then, Bam!!! Its totally obvious that he isn't a typical 4 year old. I still savor and am elated by every normal conversation we have, and I wonder if that will ever change.

We were trying a homeopathic medication called Respen-a, but stopped it to try an ADHD medication. You have to have a prescription for Respen-a and can only get it through certain compounding pharmacies, and it's kind of expensive, especially since most insurance companies don't cover it. We did see improvements in his language and social skills when he was on it. It is supposed to help with the symptoms of autism i.e. social skills, language, and repetitive behavior. Its just a patch that he wears in the middle of his back. I plan on having Shaun call and refill it tomorrow, especially after his struggles today. I'm not sure if we will continue with the attention meds or not. They seemed to make him a little emotional when they started to wear off and I'm not 100% sure if I saw a significant improvement in his attention. I want to see what his teacher thinks when school starts. Well, here is hoping for a better day tomorrow!