Like many children with Autism, the Monster is working with a serious language deficit.

He’s certainly by no means wholly non-verbal – he does have quite the interesting vocabulary, and it’s more often than not the manner in which he uses it.  His use of language, primarily, are one and two word utterances, and it’s an IEP goal to encourage him to stretch that out.

But somehow, a lot of the time, he does get his meaning across.

Every morning, we get ready for the day with his input.  Under the theme of encouraging him to use language and presuming competence, we let him choose his breakfast – I might offer him a couple of choices, but he ultimately picks, and is free to choose something I’ve not mentioned (so long as we have it in the house).  He helps with putting on his shoes and the like…

This morning was a little different. While finishing up breakfast, he kept reaching back and brushing his fingers along his neck, before he looked up to his mother and asked for scissors.  Now… scissors makes for an interesting request – he uses them at school, and they’re great for his OT work, but it’s not something we normally encourage at the breakfast table.  So my wife asked him why he was asking for scissors.

“Cut your hair,” he insisted.  (Pronoun use is not one of his strengths, but… his use is fairly consistent, since it follows the model of how we ask him questions.)  It turns out that he had a couple of long hairs in back that were brushing his neck and bothering him, and he wanted to have them cut.

He had an AT screening yesterday, and between whatever they can suggest and the IEP goals, hopefully we can find effective ways to help him communicate better.  But at least for the moment, he’s finding ways to make what he can do work for him.