"Oh, Be Careful Little Eyes What You See!"

"Buenos Dias!"

Can we talk for a minute?  And when I say "talk", I mean in English.  Now, before any hearts start racing and you put your finger on the bright red "Politically Correct" button, hear me out for a second!  One of the major issues in children with autism is the language delay.  Some children with autism are non-verbal and never acquire functional language and some become world-reknowned orators (quick shout out to Temple Grandin!)  But in between those two poles is, of course, the colorful spectrum shaded with every possible combination of means of communication.  Now that we have established this, let me get to my beef!

In our household, our spoken language is English.  Sure, I took Spanish AND German in high school.  I took German refresher and French in college. I majored in Classical Vocal Performance ad was required to correctly interpret and execute Italian, Latin and even Czech in addition to the afore mentioned languages!  So, I fully appreciate the cultural value of learning second languages. But due to lack of constant practice or immersion, my functional use of those languages is very limited.  However, we live in an English speaking country and speak English fluently in our home.  That is our language.  Now, when Josiah started therapy he had no functional language.  Thankfully, he was verbal and with structured efforts we tapped into his ability to communicate through verbal language.  As his functional language increased so did some words that had no function!  Seemingly at random, Jo would break into words in Spanish and Chinese!!  Some would think, "That's great!! He has autism and still can learn different languages?  That's AMAZING!!"  No its not.  That's ANNOYING.  Because: WE DON'T SPEAK SPANISH OR CHINESE!!  Neither does anyone in Jo's social circles.  So the random words that he has picked up (that he uses out of context, by the way) have no function and therefore turn into meaningless phrases he repeats over and over because he finds it self-stimulating.   That's right.  They push him further back into his own world.  The complete OPPOSITE of what functional language is supposed to do.  So now what?

Well, firstly: where is he getting this stuff from?  If you are a parent of a preschooler I think you know the 3 leaders of the Second Language Syndicate: Dora, Diego and Kai-Lan!  These 3 jokers are ALL OVER THE PLACE, and like mindless drones we sit our children in front of them for hours on end to pacify them while we catch up with facebook or our blog......wait a minute........

(pause for dramatic effect)

Anyway, don't hit the PC button yet...I really do have a valid point.  I am not saying that anything is wrong with these shows or any others that promote second languages.  But you must make sure that the language being learned is functional.  So, unless the whole family is planning to communicate using these newly acquired words and phrases, then you may be setting yourself and your child up for failure....that is if the goal is to get them to use functional language.  Experts tell us all the time that too much TV is bad for the kids anyway.  So how about too much TV in languages that they don't use?  Ummm......yeah........you get the point.  So, ESPECIALLY for children who are delayed, we should be sure that the few minutes a day that they do spend in front of the tube are functionally appropriate and that we watch the show WITH them.  Preferrably making conversation with them about what is happening in the show.  Of course, if your child has no language challenges and you want to enhance their skills in conversational alternative languages, then by all means watch shows that will help that goal with them and use the vocabulary frequently so that they will learn it in context.  I know that defeats the whole purpose of sending them in the room to watch DVD's, but it a much better way to make sure that their best conversations are not being held with imaginary, spanish speaking monkeys or chinese speaking koalas!

"Zai jian!"