My 6yo Son's fixated on the planning video

[mrzrich]

Whenever we stay at WDW my 6 yo old DS (who is on the Autistic Spectrum) won't let anybody in the room watch anything but the "7 top things to see at WDW" channel. I put on the weather, he gets up from whatever he's doing, and turns the TV on and off, knowing that it automatically goes to that channel. If it were up to him, we would never leave the room, we'd just watch that channel all day

Now, my 18 yo DD was watching him the other day, and he was getting wild, running around the house, jumping on the bed, etc. She got it in her head to show him the WDW planning DVD to calm him down. Worked like a charm, but now its all he wants to do. The first thing out of his mouth when he wakes up is "Can I watch Walt Disney World?"

The really bad part is that he's started to quote "Luke" verbatim

 

[leise]

My DS who is also 6 and on the Autistic Spectrum is EXACTLY the same. In fact I swear I have written a post like yours before!!

We have spent many hours at Disney watching that channel, and yes , my son knows it off by heart.

The trip planning DVD , wonderful tool though it is for preparing them for WDW before you go, has been hidden in our house, for the sake of all our sanity. Also because each time he finishes watching it (and he watches the same bits over and over again), he announces "Want to go to Disney now!", gets his suitcase out of his wardrobe, packs it with DVDs (like he'd ever watch them while he was there with the "7 things to do" channel available ), drags it to the car, and refuses to go anywhere else (school, shopping, relatives) without said case! Driving us mad!
And of course he quotes the trip planning video all the time in the most unsuitable places. Try explaining that to a complete stranger!

Gotta love 'em!

 

[IncredibleMom]

Ha ha! My son (PDD-NOS) refers to the actors on the video by name as if they're old friends.."Where Dave going?" and "I got do that like Luke at Disney World!"

My DD (almost)7 (HFA) has just started recognizing 'echolalia' and refering to it as just that. We were watching the Original Toy Story today and she started laughing at one of 'her old phrases' saying "I used to say that all the time when I was 4 years old" It's has gotten soooo cute how she so openly talks about stimming, echolalia, and being autistic.

As long as I'm refering to this, I've got to share a favorite echolalia story:

On Thanksgiving, when she was 4, Kamryn wanted to go outside and my Dad told her it was too cold. She came back inside and slammed the door, looked at me and said "HE'S LYING! WHATEVER HE SAYS ITS NOT TRUE!" (Sid, Toy Story 1) When most little girls would have been punished for talking back like that, we all fell over laughing! GOOD WORDS, KAMRYN!
(In fact, that's how she learned pragmatic speech - adaptive echolalia, I call it!... and all of those "professionals" told me to take away her videos and not allow her to repeat phrases!)

IncredibleMom

 

[Forevryoung]

Ha ha! My son (PDD-NOS) refers to the actors on the video by name as if they're old friends.."Where Dave going?" and "I got do that like Luke at Disney World!"

My DD (almost)7 (HFA) has just started recognizing 'echolalia' and refering to it as just that. We were watching the Original Toy Story today and she started laughing at one of 'her old phrases' saying "I used to say that all the time when I was 4 years old" It's has gotten soooo cute how she so openly talks about stimming, echolalia, and being autistic.

As long as I'm refering to this, I've got to share a favorite echolalia story:

On Thanksgiving, when she was 4, Kamryn wanted to go outside and my Dad told her it was too cold. She came back inside and slammed the door, looked at me and said "HE'S LYING! WHATEVER HE SAYS ITS NOT TRUE!" (Sid, Toy Story 1) When most little girls would have been punished for talking back like that, we all fell over laughing! GOOD WORDS, KAMRYN!
(In fact, that's how she learned pragmatic speech - adaptive echolalia, I call it!... and all of those "professionals" told me to take away her videos and not allow her to repeat phrases!)

IncredibleMom

I just fell out of my chair I am finishing up my undergrad degree in hearing and speech sciences and will be starting my masters in speech pathology in sept. I think it's awesome. And great story about echolalia.

What is adaptive echolalia?

 

[JenJen]

That channel was a nightmare on or vacation! ugghh!

 

[leise]

Incredible Mom, that's how my son's learning to speak too, with "adaptive echolalia"!
Foreveryoung, By this I mean he learns a phrase from a video/song/book off by heart, firstly parroting it without understanding the meaning, presumably because he likes the action that accompanies it or the sound of it. Then he learns the meaning, and starts saying the phrase in semi-appropriate settings (like Incredible Mom's daughter with her "He's Lying!"). Then he adapts it to fit the circumstances, for example changing from the echolalia "Thomas felt very cold and tired", that he may have learnt from Thomas the Tank Engine, into "Luke felt very cold and tired" to tell us that's how he feels (his name is Luke). I would say most of his language has been learnt in this way, and some of the echolalia is actually everyday phrases he has learnt from us, not just from videos.

Incredible Mom when I discussed this with his speech and language therapist, she told me this is often how they learn language. She certainly never suggested I take the videos away, indeed, they often use the characters from Thomas and the Teletubbies etc to help teach the kids cos they are so motivated by them.

 

[IncredibleMom]

What is adaptive echolalia?

"Adaptive Echolalia" Is my personal description for the 'method' I sort of created (really by following her lead) to teach my daughter pragmatic speech.

Basically, its just taking one of her "nonsense" phrases (as put by some "professionals") and teaching her to use it appropriately. Then, I helped her "build" on these phrases by replacing words (at first single words, then adding descriptives, multiple words, etc.) to change meaning and apply the phrase to a totally different scenario. I also called to her attention a "good echolalia sentence" when she (or we) made one, so she could attach meaning to what we were doing.

This is also what made our pediatrician insist that there was "nothing wrong" with her when I voiced my concerns (she talked her head off but 99% was repeated from books/videos) at a check-up (2.5 yrs)... Kamryn was rambling lines from "Blue's Clues Doctor Visit" that seemed like apprioate speech. Dr. said "She knows what she's talking about...she's not autistic"!

It's funny, even now, sometimes she'll say something clever and I can trace it back to an echolalia.

IncredibleMom

 

[Forevryoung]

Thanks Leise and IncredibleMom!

 

[cabowser]

I am so glad I popped in here to read this today because my son is apparently using the same form of communication -- now I have a name for it, adaptive ecolalia! By the way, my Charlie loves Thomas the tank engine movies (esp. Gordon and Cranky) and uses their phrases now to describe himself too. My favorite was one day when we were at the library, it was really dark at about 4:30 pm and the moon was already visable and half full. I showed it to the kids, Rachel, age 1 said MOON! Jon, age 7 said, "I wonder if it is waxing or waning?" and Charlie looked up at the sky and said, "There's no wane today!" That was from one of the engines telling Henry to get to work because, "There's no rain today!"

Jan

 

[Tissa]

Ds doesn't quote movies but he repeats commercials or at least the songs. For a few days I couldn't understand what he was saying then I saw the commercial for Mc Donalds. He walks around going "da-da-da-da I'm lovin it"
Now he's got me saying it every time he comes into the room. It's our special way of communicating

 

[PatMcDuck]

My son is 16, wih Downs and autism, and the echoalia.....

TOTALLY fixated on the Disney Planning videos, DVDs, Great Hotels on travel channel, etc. Do you have the old computer game, Disney Explorer?? Sean loves that too, and it sort of interactive, he can move around the parks at will. Sean is not really conversational, but when we enter a park, like Epcot, he will say Test Track, MGM will say Tower of Terror....... he seems to know which rides are in which park!

Also fixated on Whose Line is it Anyway,Law and Order, and CSI. (Esp the opening music part!)

 

[minkydog]

Whenever we stay at WDW my 6 yo old DS (who is on the Autistic Spectrum) won't let anybody in the room watch anything but the "7 top things to see at WDW" channel. I put on the weather, he gets up from whatever he's doing, and turns the TV on and off, knowing that it automatically goes to that channel. If it were up to him, we would never leave the room, we'd just watch that channel all day

Now, my 18 yo DD was watching him the other day, and he was getting wild, running around the house, jumping on the bed, etc. She got it in her head to show him the WDW planning DVD to calm him down. Worked like a charm, but now its all he wants to do. The first thing out of his mouth when he wakes up is "Can I watch Walt Disney World?"

The really bad part is that he's started to quote "Luke" verbatim

This made me LOL! Christian is exactly like this, except it's "Fantasia". We know every note of that video, having burned through two already and working on the third one. Lucky for me, DD will allow him to watch it on her TV so we can watch the downstairs TV in peace.

 

[minkydog]

My DS who is also 6 and on the Autistic Spectrum is EXACTLY the same. In fact I swear I have written a post like yours before!!

We have spent many hours at Disney watching that channel, and yes , my son knows it off by heart.

The trip planning DVD , wonderful tool though it is for preparing them for WDW before you go, has been hidden in our house, for the sake of all our sanity. Also because each time he finishes watching it (and he watches the same bits over and over again), he announces "Want to go to Disney now!", gets his suitcase out of his wardrobe, packs it with DVDs (like he'd ever watch them while he was there with the "7 things to do" channel available ), drags it to the car, and refuses to go anywhere else (school, shopping, relatives) without said case! Driving us mad!
And of course he quotes the trip planning video all the time in the most unsuitable places. Try explaining that to a complete stranger!

Gotta love 'em!

I know, I know. We have to hide the bookbag on the weekends or Christian will bring it to me constantly. If that doesn't work he throws me his shoe--let's go to school, Mom!