Of Slang Words, Idioms, and Autism

Symphony in Slang from Lee Presson on Vimeo.

In 1951, MGM released a cartoon called a Symphony in Slang, written by Rich Hogan and directed by Tex Avery.  The story of this short video is about a young man named John Brown, who came to heaven with his life story, but to St. Peter and Noah Webster's discomfort, the way he told his story was so peppered full of idioms and slang that they imagined it as literally as they could.

I watched this as a child and found myself relating more to Peter and Webster more than I did with Brown, simply because I was so young when I first watched it on TV.  Nonetheless, this cartoon went deep in my mind and sort of stayed dormant until a few weeks ago.  I was lying in bed next to my husband and mentioned this cartoon because of the idioms that came with it.

It was during this conversation that I realized that this is probably one of the best ways to get people to understand how a person with autism processes language.

Book Review: The Conscious Parent's Guide to Autism

Book Cover

Welcome back to yet another book review.  As I have mentioned before, R's diagnosis has caused an influx of information gathering.  This is the second book on ASD that I will be reviewing, and do expect a few more reviews as the days pass, as I do have three more Autism books on my "to-read" list.

And to quote from my previous review, "let me state that I did not get this book for free. My husband and I bought it while we were at the Manila International Book Fair 2017. So I hope that will put some thoughts of bias to rest.

Also, as a disclaimer of sorts, I will state that all that will be written from here on are my personal opinions and are not, in any way, meant to be taken as gospel truth or medical advice. I am not a medical practitioner or a child developmental expert. I am just a former teacher, a simple mother, a possibly autistic woman with a child who has autism."

Hope that's clear.  Now on to the review!

SPD, Abuse and Mental Health

Today's post might seem a little bit all over the page, so I'd like to apologize if it seems a bit jumbled.  But this has been a topic that has sitting in my mind for quite some time already.

I had touched on a previous post about how bullying is prevalent in the lives of children with special needs, and how this also translates to the same effects as one undergoing abuse of any form.  What we haven't touched on is how this then affects the mental health of our precious little ones.

So let's recap on the types of abuse that are out there, as defined by Childhelp:

1. Physical Abuse - the act of physically hurting a child. This includes "striking, kicking, burning, biting, hair pulling, choking, throwing, shoving, whipping or any other action that injures a child. Even if the caregiver didn’t mean to cause injury, when the child is injured it is abuse. Physical discipline from a parent that does not injure or impair a child is not considered abuse; however non-violent alternatives are always available."
2. Sexual Abuse - the act of using sex as a means to break down a child's self-worth and dignity. It is also "when an adult uses a child for sexual purposes or involves a child in sexual acts. It also includes when a child who is older or more powerful uses another child for sexual gratification or excitement."
3. Emotional or Psychological Abuse - "When a parent or caregiver harms a child’s mental and social development, or causes severe emotional harm, it is considered emotional abuse. While a single incident may be abuse, most often emotional abuse is a pattern of behavior that causes damage over time."
4. Child Neglect - This is when "a parent or caregiver does not give the care, supervision, affection and support needed for a child’s health, safety and well-being. Child neglect includes - physical neglect and inadequate supervision, emotional neglect, medical neglect, educational neglect."

Abuse is all about control and power.  And sadly a lot of children are victims to this sick game they play.  According to this article published on July 25, 2016 by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a newspaper publication in the Philippines:

As many as 2,147 cases (emphasis mine) of child abuse were reported to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in the first quarter of this year, more than one–fourth of which was of a sexual nature.

The figure was nearly half of the total 4,374 child abuse cases reported in the entire year of 2015, according to the Policy Development and Planning Bureau of the DSWD.

That's a huge number and extremely distressing.  And the best way to combat this is by awareness.

So let's look at some of the common strategies used by abusers to manipulate their victims.

SPD and Family

In the months since my last post, a whole bunch of things have happened.

But before I get into that, I'm ecstatic to update on R's development.  In discovering that he liked being around other kids during VBS, and as a result started babbling more, we have since enrolled him in a local preschool.  It's quite a non-traditional preschool, and though I am not giving up on homeschooling yet, I'm quite happy seeing R enjoy himself in school.  As a result, he has become a whole lot more chatty and we're seeing a lot more attempts by him to communicate with us verbally.

If you'd like to know more about how I suggest advocating for your SPD kid in school, you may read my previous post on the subject matter.

And now for the topic at hand.

SPD and Language Delays

Yesterday, R had an awesome session of speech therapy, and we've been seeing a whole lot more improvements of him attempting to speak and experiment with sounds.  Last night, I caught him singing ABC to himself.  He never did that before.  And I'm really excited!  He could be conversing with us soon and I can't wait!

Then it got me thinking.  A lot of people have often asked me how SPD affected R's language development, and how it has caused him such a delay.  So I thought I'd do a bit of research and share what I've learned.

In my previous post I talked about how essential pretend play is to language development.  I had also discussed even earlier on the link between SPD with oral motor problems, orofacial apraxia, and even Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS).

Today we will discuss about the usual language development of children and how SPD can affect this.

So let's jump right in!

Homeschooling with SPD

Because it's been a while since I posted...

Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

新年快樂!

Now that it's out of the way... On to the topic at hand.

R and I have been homeschooling now for at least 18 weeks, not counting the weeks he had for Christmas and New Year breaks.  Over time we've done a few projects, some activities, and a lot of learning, mostly on my part.

Traveling with an SPD Kid

In the years we've had with R, we've had to travel quite a bit, whether it's out of town or overseas.  And even before the SPD diagnosis, we had discovered a few little things about him that made traveling a bit difficult.  R was exhibiting vestibular seeking methods even as early as a year old, when he would always want to go out no matter how tired we were.  He was also quite picky over a lot of foods and we needed to make an effort to seek out the food that he would actually eat.

The SPD diagnosis made a few things clearer to us in terms of his behaviors, and we did learn to adjust to his needs when traveling.  Not saying we're experts, but we've had a few experiences of R having a meltdown while we were overseas or out of town.  Needless to say, it's hard because when you're not in familiar environment, you need to get really creative.

I found a few posts online with tips for traveling with SPD.  You can read them at:

• Travel Tips for Parents of Children with Sensory Integration Issues
• Traveling with a Sensory Seeking Child
• 8 Tips for Flying with a Child with Sensory Processing Disorder
• Travel tips for kids with Sensory Processing Disorder

As for me, here are my tips for traveling with an SPD Kid.

SPD, the Interoceptive Sense and Toileting

Just when I thought I had nothing more to say about SPD, somehow R ends up manifesting this in yet another way.

It all started when we took R out for a day and ended up having a major meltdown in the mall.  The trigger, the toilet flush.

Now, R has been relatively easy to potty train considering he has SPD.  I've read of many parents who had such a hard time with this, even without the sensory issues.  But in R's case, his love for the toilet flushing and his dislike of wet clothes actually ended up stimulating him to use the toilet more and the diapers less.

But let's go back to the very beginning in terms of his toilet habits, shall we?  And no, please don't think I'm shaming him.  I actually want this to be a teaching moment, for me and my hubby, for R, and for anyone going through something similar.

So, let's discuss!

When will my Child be Normal?

R and I have been sick for past few weeks, and just started to recover.  After our visit to ChildFind (who gave us the go ahead to homeschool for 2 years, YAY!), he got a cold, which I also caught.  We recovered in time, or so we thought, for our family vacation to Japan, which was awesome.  But coming home, R went down with bad ear pain, and got otitis media (middle ear infection).

He was put on antibiotics, but the sleepless nights of caring for him got to me and I succumbed.  I'm on the mend now, still not 100% but getting there.

I did do a lot of thinking time while I was recovering, and encountered a couple of posts that were comforting.

The Seven Senses and Sensory Diets

We have more than 5 senses?!

Five Senses by Hi-5 © 2011-2012

As kids we were taught that we have five senses - sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell.  That's pretty standard, and quite well known, even made into a song by the famous group Hi-5.

But we don't have just five senses.  Not even seven.  We actually have around 14 to 20 senses, depending on which expert you speak to.  But for the purpose of SPD, the senses are usually classified to seven.

So what are the seven senses?