"Breaking The Code©"...

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Parents:   Please read this ENTIRE section carefully - it contains a lot of very valuable information! (at least in my opinion :o) )  

There is another characteristic autistic children have in common... it is that of having an absolute fascination with movie captions/credits.   Again, this can be explained by my theory that the autistic child needs to first understand the "parts" before he can comprehend "the whole".

Letter are the first building block to understanding language.   Time and time again, however, parents have stated that their children can communicate but still does not understand the concept of language.   Communication, they say can, occur through the use of  PEC (Picture Exchange Communication) or other means, even without understanding the alphabet.    Well, that is certainly true.   However, not understanding the "concept of letters" , yet, does not mean that the child is still not constantly striving to "break the code".   In fact, autistic adults often say they were constantly trying to "break the code"... to figure out the pieces or "parts" that make up the whole.

So, if you think about captions, several issues can now be addressed.     The best way for me to explain this is via the use of the example of "military decoding".   The military is constantly trying to "break the code" of various organizations.   I believe that this is also what the autistic child is doing... trying to "break the code".   I then wondered, well, if this is true, why would the fascination with captions at the end of a movie still be there for children who do understand the alphabet... who have broken the code, and understand the basics to the concept of language.

 It took me very little time to come up with the answer.   Does the military decoder stop reading coded messages once the code has been broken?   No, if anything, he reads them with more passion... now understanding the basics and continuing to look for "the big picture" in order to piece more and more together.   So, too, do I believe is the autistic child doing... trying to understand "more and more of the code" to help make sense of his world.   Perhaps the child believes there is something within the "caption code" that will help him further understand the actual movie.    The autistic child knows their is "some kind of message" in all those captions... and they scroll by so quickly that when he attempts to "decode" captions, his entire focus is on that task, explaining his very much fixated look and the often physical motion of moving up as close as possible to the television screen to engage in his "decoding process".    If this thing called "the alphabet" is a code that helps explain so much in his life, of course, he will grasp every opportunity to further "break the code"... and to autistic children who are so often so very intelligent, captions provide an interesting, complex and challenging code to be broken.   I, therefore, think that, as boring as it is, parents should take the time to "pause" the VCR and explain these "caption codes" to their children... especially if their child has already mastered the concept of the alphabet.   Take the time to help your child "break his code" and perhaps the overall puzzle of autism, what we as parents are trying to decode will be more quickly figured out as well.  :o)    

Concluding comment:   Looks like we can add "military decoder" to the list of perfect jobs for autistic children!  :o)

Beginning of Update:   07-31-02  

Upon putting my theory out on the Internet for all parents to read, I had a reader respond and tell me he did not think "my theory" was correct.   The reasons he stated were as follows:   

"1.    The autistic person perceives sensory input differently and processes that input differently.    2.    I and many others learned to read before they knew anything about the alphabet. I didn't understand sound/symbol relationships until I was in my thirties.  Why? As a child, I perceived letters as colors.    3.     I was breaking text into parts and this had never been labeled or taught in any way."

My Response to him is provided below:

"Well, I want to respond to your message...yes, it is simple... but so is E = MC²... Einstein's great theory.   Man has a "thing" with always wanting to search for something complex in everything, when, too often, the answer is quite simple.

I'm not saying they don't need order in their lives... we all know they do... what I am saying, is that we now need to help them understand "the parts" that make up that order... because in everything, for something to make sense, it must have some kind of order to it... that is true of basic addition or calculus. :o)

I'm glad you sent this email... because I had yet to write my section on teaching a "process" and I will certainly take what you say into consideration... but, overwhelmingly, and yes, this is totally based on observations with my own son... but I see it in many other autistic children as well... the parts must be labeled first... before they can be put together... you must be able to understand the difference between a "+" and a "-", a sign of division and one of multiplication.   And once that connection is made, then everything falls very much into place. Whether or not you had these things specifically "labeled" for you, I don't know... I'm just saying that labeling is the way to help kids understand what is going on when they don't understand... so, if you were able to figure something out on your own... that's great... but, what about all those children who can't make sense of it... not every child is a high functioning or brilliant
autistic child.

I absolutely agree with you that the autistic process sensory information differently... they look to categorize everything... that has been seen time and time again.... so, no disagreement there.
Temple Gradin (I think that is how you spell it) explains this very well in her talks and everything she says (as I recently saw on a video) in terms of sensory processing as "she felt it going on" is totally in line with what I am saying.

You state that you did not understand "symbol/sound" relationships until you were in your thirties... again... why is that? You said you knew how to read before you knew the alphabet... well, think about it... perhaps if you had been taught first the alphabet, then the sounds of letters, then that letters (symbols) make up words, etc... perhaps you would have figured out the relationships between sounds and symbols, etc. at a much much earlier age. So, again, everything you yourself are saying is totally in line with what I am saying.

As far as understanding letters in colors...that statement is absolutely fascinating to me. If you look on my site... you will see a link called Zachary's progress in pictures... what actually got my son to start speaking was what I called: "Zachary's Room Of Colors"... if you look at those pictures, you will see that I had painted the entire room in multiple colors... and each letter of the alphabet was painted in a color different from that for the color next to it. My son knew the entire alphabet and I didn't even know it... until I completed my "room of colors". On that morning, Zachary came in, the paint had barely dried, he placed his hands on the "H" and said: "AAADCCCCHHHH"... he then went over to the letter "A",  placed his hand on it and said: "AAAAAAAAAAAA". No remember, I had no clue he knew any of this... yet, within a matter of one day... he could tell me each and every letter perfectly. Your statement makes me wonder if the "color" was what helped trigger his language. That is all very very interesting to me.

You have to realize, all these things I am putting together in terms of how I can explain my son's issues, are all very new to me... I'm learning as I go along too... and I'm wondering if your statement of "colors" is another piece to it. I will certainly include it in my materials as a contribution from a reader... if it helps children out  there, great... but, I really really do find that fascinating.

Again, you say you learned to read by breaking text "into parts"... that is exactly what I am saying... kids who are autistic need to understand the "parts" before they can put the whole together!   Again, although you think you disagree with me, everything you are saying supports my theory 100%. :o) The fact that the "parts" had not been labeled for you does not mean that you weren't "trying to pull them apart" and figure them out on your own... obviously you were... and had someone labeled those for you, I suspect things would have been much much easier for you.

Your perspective is fascinating to me... to hear adults who are autistic just reinforces my theory more and more as to what is really going on. I hope you can now understand what I am saying... and yes, it is simple... but again, so is E=MC². The answer to many things in life is often the simple one! :o) I truly thank you for sharing your perspective. You may have helped me put another little piece of it together."

You see, I had mentioned Zachary's room of colors, but I had never heard an adult autistic say that they actually "thought of letters in colors".  Yet, absolutely everything he stated was completely in line with my theory!

For those of you who would like to read, "what other parents are saying", you can do so by joining the enzymes and autism board, an excellent discussion board on many many issues related to autism.   To see what parents are saying about "The Missing Link" theory, simply do a search on "missing link" once you get to the "messages".  Here is the link for joining this discussion group:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/enzymesandautism/

Thinking of or understanding objects based on colors... an interesting subject for all parents of the autistic.    Below are a couple of links provided by another parent on the enzyme discussion board for more on this subject.  The ability to sense objects as "colors" is called "synesthesia".    I have not had the opportunity to review these sites in great detail and I provide them as starting points for persons who want to learn more on this subject.   I will look at them when I, personally, have a little more time.

http://www.school-for-champions.com/senses/synesthesia.htm

http://talkingwithpictures.com/

Here ends this update... now back to the original discussion on teaching language in the autistic child!

Update:  08-01-02

This is another very interesting update/thought I want to share with all parents. 

While on a message discussion board, a parent mentioned that "PECS" had been an absolute life saver for their child... and another stated that try as they may to teach their child the alphabet, nothing seemed to work.   That brought up another thought... "how exactly was the alphabet taught"?    I had been thinking a great about this whole issue of the autistic perceiving objects as "colors" and the thought then occurred to me that not only did I use Zachary's room of colors to teach him the alphabet... I used a Dr. Seuss' ABC software package and something else... a video by Babyscapes^TM.  This is the very video I speak about at the opening of the "Teaching Language Based On A Building Blocks Approach" section... and it absolutely amazes me that even after  2 years,  Zachary still absolutely loves that video on letters.   The letters pop up in different colors and spin around... so, if colors and spinning are so important to these kids... could that be another reason he really picked up on these concepts so quickly... this is a very very visual video... and an excellent one for any child... but, again, it absolutely amazes me how Zachary has never become "bored" with it... he simply loves it as much today as he did on day one and it has been 2+ years!  

For parents who would like to get that video,  Babyscapes^TM can be reached at 888-441-KIDS or you can visit their web site at:  http://www.babyscapes.com/ourvideos.html  They have excellent videos for letters, numbers, shapes, colors, etc... and again, these were by far, by far, Zachary's favorite videos... and all of them involve a ton of color and a lot of spinning things.   I, personally find this all very very interesting!

This video that has fascinated my son for over 2 years now has, in my opinion, all the critical parts to it:   1.  Colors for each letter,  2.  Spinning letters,  3. A Train (the video is about an "alphabet train"... and we all know autistic children love trains... why?   Because they show so well how the parts (train cars) fit together to form a whole... a train.... and in this case, each "car" is loaded with a letter... and,  4.  The whole thing is set to the music of Mozart... another huge plus for autistic children!   It is the PERFECT way, in my opinion, to teach how the "parts" make up the whole.... how letters are simply parts of ... the alphabet!   

Could this finally be it?   I believe it may very well be - the perfect way to teach that first language building block to autistic children?... the block they so critically need to understand the rest!    :o)   Given this update... I'd love to see "spinning colorful bubble graphs on an alphabet train" made available too (you'll see what I mean as you continue the language section.)  :o)

End of 08-01-02 Update.  

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