something you don't hear everyday!

(pic taken by NBear :) Can you name the show?


Setting: NBear's Parent-Teacher Conference in her classroom

Characters in scene:
* Mommybear
* the Huz
* N,M,and S Bear(s) - yes, ALL of them *sigh*
* Mrs. A (teacher)
*Ms. C - speech therapist

Note - this dialogue occurs at the end of the conference, right before we were ready to say goodbye!

MB:

I'm glad she's doing well! You know, we still hear her scripting - doing her "tv talk" and all that, but she doesn't do it as much as before. The good thing is, she also seems to be generalizing things in her scripting!

Ms.C:

Actually, scripting isn't a bad thing!

Mrs. A:

No, not at all - in fact, it shows that the child is processing something, and is practicing language.

MB and the Huz:

Whaaa...? All this time we always thought it was bad thing that she was exhibiting these behaviors - they were always something we felt we should work to get rid of! No?

Ms. C:

You can build off of the scripting. If you see that she has a problem with pronouns (which she does) have her replace the name in the line she is using with the correct pronoun! Even echolalia is good, in a way! It also shows that the child is practicing language skills, and it doesn't always last long!

Mrs. A

I had a student (side to Ms. C) - remember him? who was quite severe with his echolalia, and now he hardly does it! NBear isn't even that bad - her communication skills are much better than his were. *smiles*

Wow - wow - wow.

Scripting and echolalia not a bad thing, huh?

Whudda thunk?

No T.V. talk!

My two new blog-world pals (Hi LAA and Carolyn!) have inspired me to discuss something very common in our A-Club world: scripting.

NBear was the queen of scripting! We had many moments where she'd have one-way conversations with us and simply recite the entire "Finding Nemo" dialogue. If she exhausted that movie, she'd move on to "Elmo's World" episodes - ALL of them.

Scripting is extremely odd, in that (at least in my experience) the child seems to know the "taking turn" rule of conversing, but not the "needing-to-be engaged-in-the-discussion" rule. Here's an example of how I remember some of our conversations with her:

Me: Hi, NBear!

NBear: Look at all the animals in the zooooo!!!

Me: Are you hungry?

NBear: What do you think, Dorothy? Should Elmo go to the zoo?

...you get the picture. Huz found a neat solution to this problem: the words "No TV Talk!" (interesting how the link for scripting has "No movie talk" in it - we thought we were the only ingenious ones! *LOL*)

If you thought it ended there, she was also the queen of BE KIND, REWIND. When she was into VHS tapes, all you'd hear was the constant whir of the tape machine as she repeated the same frame over, and over, and over again. It got even worse with the ease of DVD players:

*whirring noise*
Hi, I'm Elmo!

*whirring noise*

Hi, I'm Elmo!

*whirring noise*

Hi, I'm Elmo!

(that was the VHS)

(enter the DVD player)

*half-second pause*

This is my goldfish, Dorothy!

*half-second pause*

This is my goldfish, Dorothy!

*half-second pause*

This is my goldfish, Dorothy!

*For a similar "entertaining" segment, check out Jenny's Louder Than Words page 122:)*

Mind you, it took the fear of God to prevent the Huz and me from hurling the entire entertainment center out the window. (Plus the fact that I wasn't exactly American Gladiator material, and he wasn't willing to let go of the then-new TV we bought.)

I'm very happy to say that to date, though she still loves repeating shows, she will at least (for the most part) wait until the entire segment is over, before enjoying it for the ump-teenth time.

Oh. She's also great at using something else now:

Me: *singing* La-la-la-la...La-la-la-la...Elmo's woooorrrlld!

NBear: Mommy?

Me: Yes, sweetie?

NBear: *stern voice* NO T.V. TALK!