'Tis The See-Son

Asking C.J. questions can sometimes be like pulling teeth.  A challenge that we have been struggling with since he was 2 years old.  The funny thing was that when he was still in his crib, he could hear me creaking up the stairs and would immediately tune in to assess if I was going to walk in the room or not. (We had a camera set up with a monitor that served for great observing without actually having to walk in.)  So, we still had his hearing checked anyway to test his hearing in different frequencies.  Normal.

Then, last year I read something in the book "Strange Son" by Portia Iverson  that finally made sense to me.  They did an informal study on Tito (a brilliant poet with autism) that proved to be quite interesting. They had someone sit in front of him with flashcards containing a + or a - sign.  But that's not the interesting part.  They also had someone stand behind him to SAY the OPPOSITE of what sign was actually being shown.  When asked to say what he saw, he ALWAYS responded with what the person behind him had said it was.  Thus finding out that he could NOT see and hear at the same time.  (I told you I'd come back to this!)   It was too difficult so he always relied on his hearing.  AHA!

THAT is why C.J. puts his hand in front of his mouth to hear himself talk.  THAT is why he can miraculously spot a Veggie Tale book or Toy Story toy at the END of an isle in a store and go dashing to it.  HE RELIES ON HIS VISION because it is too difficult to process his auditory input.  He has always done well with videos.  I often said he will pay attention to anything if it is put on a T.V. screen.  I can remember when he was almost 3 years old, I actually made a video using my computer displaying the alphabet and various flashcards with the label spelled out.  I played it on the T.V. and voila!  He is a VISUAL learner as Tito was an AUDITORY learner.

Now, that is a HUGE portal but not something that I necessarily want to continue for him.  I have also read another interesting book called "Disconnected Kids" by Dr. Robert Melillo which in his theory explained that these kids have a brain imbalance.  He also provides a guide on how to assess the brain to pinpoint where the weaknesses are (in C.J.'s case he has a right-brain delay) and it provides exercises to help "strengthen" the brain's weaknesses.  So, although we will utilize C.J.'s amazing visual skills, we need to strengthen his auditory skills.

When asked a question about a picture of a person in his life, his responses where much easier to obtain once I added a written out "wh" with the correlated question.  Here is a picture of my example.

One day my "See-Son" will indeed LISTEN to his mother.