Contextual referencing
“What it is?”
“What is what dear?”
“Er,…it is saying ‘nun a dee abuv?”
“Say it again?”
“Nun a dee abuv.”
They both have a tendency to do this, blurt out a question that is connected to something that happened yesterday, last week or last year. They don’t reference their questions, that is to say, put them in contex, so it can be the devil’s own job, trying to detect where, when or what the question stemmed from? [translation = very difficult]
Why don’t I just ask for the context? You're right I could, perhaps I should, but at this stage of their verbal development we want to encourage them to talk, reinforce their efforts in a positive manner. [translation = frightfully American] If you respond to each question with a barrage of additional questions, you’ll just put them off, they’ll stop trying and we’ll go back to our world of silence. [translation = the old parenting style]
I stand in the middle of the kitchen with my x-ray eyes, willing inspiration to zap me. I lean on the kitchen counter to take a deep breath, so that he’ll think it is a natural pause in our [potential] conversation. My finger tips touch the edge of the fifty page questionnaire. [translation = exaggeration, but still yards to long {sub translation = yards}]
I glance at the open pages:
'no. 56. Does the child
a] always resist physical contact
b] never resist physical contact
c] not applicable
d] none of the above.'
Shouldn’t have left it out! Should have tidied it away. How could I have forgotten that he can read anything if he is so disposed. [translation = hyperlexic] He lifts a delicate finger tip to his lip, tentative, cautious.
“ ‘d’ is not da good one?”
“’d’ is a great one. I love ‘d’. You are absolutely right!”
His medicine ball head clunks into my hip bone. How can you contain a ‘spectrum’ disorder in a questionnaire that doesn’t wrap round the world 3 times?
4 comments:
I just love the photos especially the one with the cats....simply precious!
You were nice enough to pop by and visit my site, so I'm doing the same. Sweet photos of innocents.
I hate those lengthy questionaires. How can you tidy someone as complex as a child with autism? If it was THAT easy, they'd have found a cure.
katherine warwick
www.katherinewarwick.com
I have to worry about what might be left out for my kids to read here, too. Both my older kids are reading well enough to pick up a newspaper and read it, which is rather a scary thought!
I concur wholeheartedly with your feelings about those surveys, especially the ones that want you to estimate how often your child exhibits certain behaviours... umm, am I estimating on a daily basis? Weekly? What if he's done it once- is that significant? Is any of it significant? (Must be, right?) I feel as though I'm putting my kid in a little box when I do this. There is no box big enough for him... thank goodness!
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