What do you see when Nathan plays his echo-me games?
***
Nathan: Mama say “Da” please
Me: Da
Nathan: (smiling that I responded to him)
Nathan: What was Da?
Me: (with enthusiasm) What was Da?!
Nathan: (shows me big smiles)
Nathan: What had happened to Da?
Me: What happened to Da? (oops, I missed the “had”)
Nathan: What HAD happened to Da?
Me: (excited and more certain of what he wants) What had happened to Da!
Nathan: (with an even bigger smile) What happened to Da?
Me: What happened to Da?
Nathan: Be careful Da.
Me: (building on Nathan’s echo me games) We don’t want an accident, be careful Da.
Nathan: (laughs with happiness)
***
Some people might see a mumbo jumbo of words.
I see a boy, despite neurological language impairments, has created his own game to effectively teach himself to construct sentences. He uses this opportunity to teach himself grammar. He uses this to teach himself how to create many variations of the same sentence…and they say kids with autism were rigid and robotic. I say Nathan intuitively knows how to teach himself spontaneity and variety and enhance his ability to communicate with others!
Praise God for His hand in Nathan’s healing!
In the photo: Nathan, who now knows when to catch my attention and demand to play his games with me.
