We always knew that a lot of Pookie’s echolalia is based on things he heard or saw in books and TV. The more I pay attention, the more I feel proud of myself for knowing what he is talking about. Sometimes it is hard to get Pookie to join us in our world, but its becoming easier to join him in his.
For example, we just put up our new swing set. Pookie likes to sit on the top platform and dangle his feet over the edge. Without fail, he starts an echolalia script “One sunny day, Grover was sitting on his stoop….” This is from one of his favorite books “Grover’s Lucky Jacket” where Grover sits on the front step as the mailman brings him a package from his Grandma. I know that! The package has a red jacket inside, Grover’s new lucky jacket. From there, the echolalia might veer into talk about baseball or the color red (also from the book). It makes sense if you have read the book.
I can’t imagine how hard it would be to understand why he says what he does, if I did not know so much about his daily life. Even when he is at school, they send home notes on how the day went, what books they read and what they ate for snack. It lets us know why he is always talking about a blue octopus lately. It is from the ocean unit they are doing at school. All of this helps us understand that the echolalia is a valid form of communication. He talks about what is on his mind.
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When we saw our neurologist last winter he indicated that Little Pickel was learning words and phrases by using echolalia. He quotes all the time from his favorite movies and books; most frequently Winnie the Pooh and Where the Wild Things Are. You certainly have to know those things to understand him. ie: I’ll eat you up or I’m not a baby.
You are correct, it is easier to join his world than to ask him to join ours at times. The good part is that he can communicate with us by using these phrases to answer our questions. As long as we know where he is coming from we can understand him.