"Ordering or Reference Language" (Once Called: "Nonsense Language")
What some used to refer to as "nonsense language", I chose to refer to as "ordering language" and I encouraged all parents to refer to this behavior as "ordering language" from now on... because that's what it was. It made perfect sense once you saw it from the child's perspective... it was not "nonsense" ... and in fact, when examined in terms of the inability of the autistic child to understand the whole without first understanding the parts, it made perfect sense and was truly a testimony as to the resourcefulness and absolute determination that could be found within these children!
In my opinion, echolalia and ordering language were simply variations of the same coping mechanism used by the autistic child to deal with stressful situations as they pertained specifically to "breaking the code"- to understanding language. The child was simply trying to "order" his world, to "order" what he had heard.
When I had first started phonics with Zachary, he engaged in “echolalia” in that, again, he repeated for himself every letter. It was becoming more and more evident to me that there clearly was a difference between “incoming sounds” and sounds he actually produced himself and as such, his best learning occurred when he himself made the sound! This certainly explained issues with echolalia and ordering language. Language was “better understood” if Zachary uttered it himself!
Echolalia, the parroting of everything one heard, had long been associated with autistic children. It was my opinion, that echolalia was simply an "immediate", "on the spot attempt" at "breaking the code" of language. By constantly repeating what was said, the child was trying to also "figure it out" as well as, I believed, commit the "utterances to memory" for future reference purposes. It was a more "immediate" verbal coping mechanism in the sense that the child was trying to cope with what was happening at that particular moment... what he was hearing "right now".
Ordering language, on the other hand, was a coping mechanism used to help "sort" those things heard in the past or still in the process of being "decoded"- but perhaps not pertaining to the current situation at hand. I saw this as a "less immediate" coping mechanism. It was one the child used as he went about - thinking - and trying to break that code that had yet to be understood. It was important to note that "ordering language" could be related to something the child "heard" during the day, or something "he saw" for example. Ordering language was simply a verbal utterance of "what" the child was trying to decode at the specific time the "ordering language" was heard. Hence, parents should take these utterances as "cues" of things to work on at that specific time to help their children "break the code". There was no doubt in my mind that autistic children somehow processed things "differently" and as such, ordering language could be quite frustrating for the parent who had a very difficult time making it out - at least at first. But, with practice, it did get easier.
Another example of this "ordering language" that truly helped me understand it, was something that happened one day when Zachary was working on the computer next to me. I usually said: "sit down" when I told him to sit in his chair to start working on his computer. On this day, he was already sitting, but, he was very slouched, almost to the point of falling off the chair. So, of course, I said: "sit up, please". When I said that, he replied: "stand down, thank you".
He was making "opposite associations" in trying to understand his world. If the word "up" went with sit, then, obviously, to him, the word "down" had to go with the word “stand” and likewise, the word “please” had to go with “thank you”. Obviously, to counter such reasoning, I must admit was rather difficult for me at first. I simply decided to "show Zachary" the act of "sitting up" and to then show him that you could not "stand down". Instead, I showed him "lay down", "stand up", etc.
Zachary had been trying to “combine words” to figure out how they fit together in order to provide for himself a “reference” he could draw on in the future. These attempts at figuring out how words fit together and how they could be used in the future, I came to call “reference communication” since Zachary created for himself “references” of how words could be used for future use!
Siblings could be a great help in figuring out the "ordering language" and what the child was saying. On many occasions, I found my daughter Anika, age 10, to be much better able to understand her brother than I was. She understood his utterances as they related to videos or computer programs... when Zachary said something and I just did not understand, often, Anika would say: "mom, he's talking about.... in this computer program". She was more familiar than I was with many aspects of his activities. She had watched the same children's videos, and worked on the same computer programs, and so, often, her insight as to what he was saying was simply invaluable. :o)
Ordering language was a coping mechanism used by autistic children in attempts to "break the code", but, I had come to understand that "ordering language", indeed, had a dual role as a coping mechanism. The first role of ordering language was just that - it helped the child "order" his world - it helps him understand it! The second role of ordering language, however, was that it also helped the child to cope when things "fall apart", when life simply was too stressful and the child needed to "bring things back" to a level he could understand. In this sense “ordering language” was used as an "order fix" by the autistic child when the world all about was too stressful to handle.
For example, when stressed out, Zachary reverted back to words like: "green truck", "a fan, a fan, a fan", or "circle, square, triangle"... these were all things that I could now identify as "coping words" from Zachary's perspective. A green truck was a concrete object he could visualize... with its spinning wheels and colors. A fan, too, was something else he could visualize - spinning - making the partial whole as the blades of the fan disappeared as it turned. Circles, squares, and triangles were specific shapes... they never changed, they were constants and so they provided "order"... or "an order fix" as I called it... a way for the autistic child to reduce his own stress levels by reverting back to "an ordered world" or to those "parts" of the world he understood and by doing so, by "reverting back" to something he understood, the child reduced his own stress levels and was allowed to remain "in control" of the situation. Thus, ordering language also provided a coping mechanism as it allowed the child "to be more in control" of his world. A few concrete examples will better help readers understand this and to also understand why I came to the conclusions I did on this issue.
When Zachary used to be very frustrated at first, before I figured so much of this out, he often made use of one small phrase throughout the day... for what seemed to be no reason at all, out of nowhere, he would say: "green truck".
What was he doing or thinking when he said: "green truck"... out of nowhere? I had often wondered about that. I had now come to see that there were several things going on. Zachary had always been fascinated by wheels... no doubt because of the spinning effect they provided (see section on Spinning). While on the highway, if Zachary ever got upset, all I had to do was position myself next to a large truck and let Zachary look at the wheels for a while... they provided an "ordering fix" for him. Obviously, I could only do this where there were two lanes going in the same direction. Luckily, in the suburbs of Chicago, there were plenty of those "multiple lanes" - of course, those drivers behind me did not always appreciate my doing this. :o) A truck soon became a favorite coping mechanism... as did colors. I was recently told by an adult autistic that - as a child - he perceived objects as colors. This was all very fascinating to me. For more on that, see my section on The Role of Colors In The Life Of The Autistic Child: The Pot of Gold At The End Of The Rainbow©.
If the autistic child indeed perceived objects as colors, the use of the phrase "green truck" as a coping mechanism now all made perfect sense. These two words provided for Zachary two very strong coping mechanisms all rolled into one phrase. The color, in my view so important to the autistic child and his understanding of the world, and the spinning... the making of the partial whole... provided by the image of a truck - these two things, when combined, indeed provided a powerful coping mechanism... an actual image the child could put into his mind to help him cope with the frustrations of life - on demand!
When spinning or other coping mechanisms were not available, Zachary simply resorted to saying: "green truck"... providing for himself yet another perfect "order fix" - a simple way to "de-stress" when life just became to unbearable or stressful!
An example of how ordering language was used as a coping mechanism, a means of "ordering the world" occurred on the day Zachary tried to figure out "Walk" and "Don’t Walk" signs.
Zachary and I had gone to the store to buy something one day. As we crossed the street, I made it a point to show Zachary the "Walk" and "Don’t Walk" signs. He repeated: "Don’t Walk" since that was flashing at the time. At the end of the day, before he went to bed, Zachary started saying: "Walk... Don’t Walk"... and repeating that over and over again. He was "ordering" what he had learned during the day... and in this instance, understanding this concept could literally save his life. It was at that time that I truly understood the importance of ordering language.
I often worked on spelling with Zachary... a subject he loved. I often asked him what word he wanted to spell. Even though he was just under 4 and 1/2, "big words" did not scare him. One day, he asked me to spell one of his favorites, "wheelbarrow" (around that time we gave him many wheelbarrow rides :o) )... so, I wrote this word , on one of our many chalk boards. I then spelled it out with him. This day was really no different than most as we worked on various things throughout the day like potty training, spelling, playing on the computer, etc. As with so many other days, it was soon time for Zachary to go to bed.
I had often taken Zachary to bed with me - what so often started as a desire to simply calm him down for the night usually ended with his staying with me all night. Too often, it was I who fell asleep first. :o) On this particular morning, I noticed something - when Zachary awoke, the "nonsense language", which I have since then come to understand as "ordering language", started right away.
The following morning, the very first thing he said when he awoke, was.... "wheelbarrow... w...wheelbarrow". Again, this clearly showed that his "waking state" was certainly focused on "ordering" what he had learned recently. I had, in the past, seen him do the same thing with "walk vs. don’t walk", with the "entire alphabet... a is for apple, b is for bed, etc., all the way to z... and do that twice, using different words for almost each and every letter before he could settle down for the night - at that particular time, when Zachary would "go through the alphabet saying words for each letter", we had just started to work on phonics.
An excellent spelling program that involved auditory learning was that provided by the following company: http://www.writing-edu.com/spelling/. For $99.00 parents could get 5 spelling CDs for levels A, B, or C. The package included: 5 AUDIO Compact Discs, 1 set Flashcards, 1 set small "zoo" cards, and Intro Video and Teacher booklet. This was a fantastic way to teach spelling basics! :o)
I had commented in the first book I wrote, Saving Zachary: The Death And Rebirth Of A Family Coping With Autism, that, once, I observed Zachary almost in "neural overdrive" as he laid on his bed one night, trying to settle down. In this first book, I commented on how it appeared to me as though "Zachary was trying to order his world" before going to bed...a function, at the time, I believed occurred primarily at night... as we slept... that as we slept, our brain somehow "ordered" or made sense of everything we had learned or processed during the day.
Then, another thought/observation came to mind. The incidence of "ordering language", at least for Zachary, was noticeably higher at specific times of the day - first thing in the morning, just before bed, and during stressful, non-orderly activities throughout the day. At the time, I definitely believed that Zachary's problem could lie in the fact that his brain may not be functioning as it should to "order things while he slept" and thus, he had an intense drive to consciously perform the "ordering" function while he was actually awake!
Now that I understood the need to "break the code" in the autistic child, I saw the need to "order" things in waking and sleep cycles. If the need to "order" the world was so all-consuming during waking hours, could this also explain difficulty in sleeping in the autistic child? Could it be that the brain truly was in "overdrive" even while Zachary slept? If this were true, then, it made my belief that for the autistic child - "Rest Is Work Too©"- even more true - because perhaps for the autistic child, there was much more going on during sleep (and waking hours) than should be normally occurring when it came to "understanding the world", and the "ordering" of what had been learned and/or processed during the day! I could not help but wonder. Was his brain in overdrive at night... processing more than it should in terms of "ordering his world" or was this function of "ordering not even occurring at night" and as such Zachary, himself, had to perform it consciously during the day? ... or, was it the opposite... that the need to understand the parts before the whole could be understood necessitated that the ordering function be the primary function during BOTH day and night? I had no way of knowing. All I did know was that Zachary had an almost innate defense mechanism that forced him to perform the "ordering function" during the day, while he was fully conscious or awake. His entire life seemed to revolve around his need to "break the code" - in everything!
Given what I have come to understand about ordering language, I strongly believed that it should be allowed. In the past, I had thought this behavior needed to be "broken" or made "extinct". At that time, however, I simply did not understand ordering language for what it truly was... I still saw it as "nonsense" language... I still saw it as simply "an order fix", much like a "drug fix"... I did not see it as an "order fix" in the sense of it being an actual coping mechanism to make sense of one's world.
As such, I would, personally, never discourage the use of ordering language in an autistic child, but rather, I would encourage all parents to use look at ordering language as a cue of something "to work on", of something "to decode" or explain. Upon hearing any ordering language now, I immediately looked for the opportunity to show Zachary how "what he was trying to order or decode" - that part - fit into the whole. :o)
As the Zachary learned more and more via labels and explanations each day, I found "ordering language" now almost nonexistent. It showed up a little at night before bed, and maybe a couple of times during the day... that was it. The utterances were so few and far apart that most people would probably never even notice them now. :o)
Given the importance of this coping mechanism in the autistic child, I, personally, would not try to stop or prevent it in any way! In my opinion, as the autistic child learned to cope and to understand his environment more and more, this ordering language should greatly diminish, and eventually, will most likely disappear altogether. :o) But again, the key to reducing and/or eliminating ordering language in my opinion, was simply in helping the autistic child see how all the parts fit together to form a whole... in everything. As with everything else, when these coping mechanisms "come out"... I encouraged parents to look for the source of the child's frustration and to help the child deal with that frustration through the use of labels, explanations, fractions, coping mechanisms like counting, etc... those things that provided productive coping mechanisms in that they helped the child to break the code! :o)
I would ask all parents to begin talking in terms of "ordering language". Personally, now that I truly understand "ordering language", the term "nonsense language" is offensive to me. The fact that this was not understood in the past, from our perspective, resulted in a label of "nonsense language" being tagged to children who, in reality, made perfect sense. The fact that parents, researchers, doctors, etc., did not understand this for what it was resulted in our associating very negative labels with these children - making them to be seen as having "broken minds", when in reality, it was simply a matter of our lack of understanding. But, as with everything in autism or any other illness associated with "mental dysfunction" - it's all in the label - and quite frankly, I was tired of our children being seen as "broken persons who made no sense at all"- because everything did make sense - when you saw it from their perspective – in spite of the fact that a very critical function within them, the ability to integrate sensory information, was truly “broken”!
Before we continue with other topics as they relate to language in the autistic child, I wanted to provide for readers "what I used to believe" as it related to "nonsense language". The reason I provided this was because there was a critical lesson here to be learned by all parents and professionals.
Luckily for our family, I quickly realized the importance of "ordering language" and it was because of this "realization" - that "this particular type of language was so critical to the autistic" child - that I wanted to provide an example of what could happen when a negative label was given ... simply because we failed to understand the autistic mind and chose instead to show it as a "broken mind" by associating it with a term called "nonsense language".
The implication of "a broken mind, as reflected in the use of the term ‘nonsense language’", to adults, almost by definition made it so that we "wanted to fix it" - especially if we were the parents of that "broken mind". That fix, could take on many forms... behavior modification or other "manipulation" methods that were based on reward - and, often, punishment - systems, the exposure of the child to countless tests, scans, etc., and perhaps most dangerous of all, that fix could take the form of medications... medications given to a mind that was not understood - and if the mind was not understood, how could medication "fix it" in the first place? Did not the fact that the autistic mind was not understood, in and of itself pose a dilemma in terms of the "effectiveness of that fix"? How could one fix with drugs something that was not understood in the first place?
I knew tests, scans and medications were "out" for us as a family. For better or worse, we had made a decision early on not to go that route. I would thus try my hand at a little behavior modification. I had studied psychology through graduate school and felt I knew enough to give this a shot on my own. I knew this was not the case for all parents, however, and as such, I wanted to caution all parents to read and inform themselves and consult with any professionals they could before undertaking any behavior modification program for their child. I understood enough of what was involved to tackle this. There could be many negative results to behavior modification techniques... indeed there were many techniques out there – most of which, I personally, did not agree with. I chose to stay away from anything that involved punishment in any form. Patience and understanding - those were the keys I would use in my "behavior therapy".
I used no negative stimuli, no negative reinforcements, there were no discrete trials, no use of fear or threats, no goal of a conditioned response, no practice schedules, no reinforcement schedules, no "steps" to work through via reward systems... my "behavior modification" consisted simply of seeing "what Zachary would do if all of a sudden, his nonsense language no longer made sense". All I was looking for in Zachary was to see "how he would react" to what I did... nothing was required of him other than listening to what I said.
My goal was simply to get rid of "nonsense language" .. to see if I could somehow make it go away. I knew that there was a reason for Zachary to use specific "utterances" we knew as "nonsense language", but I did not fully understand why particular words were used, together, out of nowhere and seemingly making no sense. It was difficult to explain, but, what I was trying to do was to get to whether or not this truly was "nonsense language"... if it was, then, any "nonsense language" should produce some kind of response... I hoped I would see "my nonsense language" be used by Zachary too. But, if it was not "nonsense language" and there was more to it than I understood, then, my "nonsense language" should not be "used" by Zachary at all. Would Zachary see what I did as just more "silly things mom does" (see Exercises I Do At Home for more on that :o) ) or would my "nonsense language" make sense to Zachary and would it actually be language he too would want to use and repeat? That was what I wanted to determine!
Well, if "nonsense language" actually "made sense", I thought to myself, I now needed to do something that would make "nonsense language" - not make sense!
So, how do you go about doing that? I found the trick to it... but, it was a very difficult thing to do... requiring a lot of "on the spot creativity"... and at first, that was quite difficult for me. After doing it a few times though, it became a lot easier. What followed was an example of how I tried to "break nonsense language" in my son, Zachary. At the time, Zachary was about 4 1/2 years old.
When Zachary exhibited his "need for an order fix" as I had called it in my first book, as it related to "nonsense language", I went into action as soon as he had completed his first "nonsense phrase".
It was critical that all readers understand that at this time, I still saw the "need for an order fix" much as a "drug fix" ... not as a coping mechanism! This was a critical difference in terms of how I now refer to "ordering language" as an "order fix". Back then, when I did these exercises, I thought the "fix" from "ordering things" was almost like a "drug high" for these children... that it somehow triggered something in their brain that they just "could not get enough of". I knew that may sound crazy, but, that was what I thought at the time... and that was the "frame of reference" I worked with as I did these things with Zachary. Let's face it, there have been many "silly theories" out there as they relate to autism... like the one adopted by so many "experts"... the old "cold mother" theory. :o) That was how we moved forward in our understanding of everything... you proposed a theory, you proved it right or wrong, you kept the proven and then moved forward in search of another theory or explanation to what was still not understood or proven to be true. Of course, unfortunately, as with so much in life, theories were often presented as “fact” and that was always a dangerous trap to fall into!
Luckily for Zachary, in no time at all, I was able to "disprove" my original "order fix equals an almost drug fix sensation" theory and see what the issue really was. It was an "almost drug fix... but not in the physical sense... what these children could not get enough of... I soon came to understand... was that within the "ordering function" for them, lay the key to "breaking the code" to so much. :o) That was where the "fix" came from... the "ordering function" provided for Zachary a "fix" to understanding his world. It turned out that the "ordering function" provided a "fix" but it was a different type of "fix" than what I had originally thought... but, "a critical fix" nonetheless. :o)
When Zachary exhibited his "need for an order fix" - which, at the time, I thought produced a pleasing sensation much like a "drug fix" would produce for a drug addict -, via “nonsense” language, I now took his very utterances – at that moment – and “used them against him” if you may call it that. For example, if Zachary was using “green truck” , one of his favorites, I started saying something like: “yes… did you ever see a green truck going down the road with yellow dots, purple stripes, orange feathers, with a squirrel on top and a dog driving?”
I made it so “unusual” that Zachary actually had to really focus to “picture it”… he just stayed silent for a few moments, trying to “picture” what I had just said. I could "tell" that was what he was doing... trying to "picture it" in his mind. Then, after a little while, he would give me another word. If it was “a fan” or something else that “spun”, I made sure “my nonsense sentence” did not include anything at all that could reinforce the “order fix” he was trying to give himself.
So, I would never use words like: “did you ever see a fan turning…” because the use of the word “turning” could in and of itself provide “the fix” as he visualized what I was saying. So, instead, I said something like, “yes… I have a broken fan…it’s upside down on the floor and there is a bee on it that has a green hat and a brown shoe”.
The idea was also to make sure I did not use “similar phrases” for the same utterances. So, when Zachary used “green truck” or “a fan” again, I had to come up with something else…it could not be something I had already said in the past... it had to be "totally new nonsense language on my part". To break the nonsense language, I wanted it to be “something totally new each and every time” he used specific words to get an order fix. Let me tell you… that was hard work… for both Zachary and me!
There were times when I saw Zachary’s need for “order” also involve an actual, physical need to “withdraw” in his own space. For example, Zachary had the video/story “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle and so, he understood the concept of a “cocoon”. As he played one day, I noticed he was physically making himself a “cocoon”, wrapping himself in a blanket as he literally said “cocoon”. I played along and said, “yes, you’re in a cocoon”. Zachary was pretending to be a butterfly. He then came out and flapped his wings like a butterfly…it was great to see him pretend like this.... I knew pretend play had always been an area of difficulty for autistic children. [Today, I have huge reservations when it comes to pretend play. I encouraged all readers to read my section on "The Dangers of Pretend Play". ]
Later, I noticed, that Zachary used the word “cocoon” as an “order fix” too… almost as if he “sensed” the comfort of an enclosed cocoon. So, when he used “cocoon” that way, I started breaking the nonsense language again… saying, “yes, there is a caterpillar in my cocoon, and it is green with black squiggles, and it wants to come out and eat an apple”. I saw Zachary actually trying to “picturing the caterpillar” I had just described as I used my fingers to pretend I was the caterpillar coming out to look for an apple. Zachary thought that was absolutely hilarious and he started laughing. I always tried to make any exercise I did with Zachary fun for him too… granted that was not always possible as he got very frustrated because I had really “hit a nerve” with what I was doing... I knew his stress and frustration at times told me I was on the right track...but, I did try very hard to keep things fun and interesting... knowing fully well, that in most cases, what I did would undoubtedly lead to frustration and stress for Zachary. But, again, that was what told me I was on the right track! If I got no response at all from Zachary, then I knew this thing with "order" was not "it" - the answer I was seeking!
In looking back now, and analyzing this in terms of how it related to the autistic child's inability to process the whole without first understanding the parts that made up the whole, I had mixed feelings in terms of having done these exercises with Zachary as they related specifically to language. These concerns were expressed in the section, called "Defined By A Negative Label... And All That Implies :o( !".
Before getting into that section, however, I wanted to analyze a little further what happened as I went through the above exercises with Zachary. I must say that in all the times I did this with Zachary, I had never once seen him try to "order" my "nonsense sentences". He made no "nonsense language" as it related to my nonsense language. So, I believed he simply saw these as more "silly things mom does", but he did not, obviously, feel the need to "order my nonsense language", my "utterances". That told me that, at least for Zachary, something was "different" about my nonsense language... and indeed it was. My "nonsense language" actually was nonsense... his "nonsense language" made sense... because it was "ordering language"!
As such, my nonsense language, although funny to Zachary, was something he chose to ignore in relation to his "nonsense language"... he knew for a fact that my language was simply silly... yet, I, and indeed everyone else, had not been able to recognize that his perfect "ordering language" actually made sense - and that for his world to make sense, this was a critical coping mechanism!
Indeed, in my ignorance, I had tried to destroy perhaps one of the most critical coping mechanisms available to the autistic child... his attempts at "breaking the code" as that code related to communication!
Not surprisingly, since the autistic child was so dependent on the "breaking of a code" to understand everything in his life, once the code was broken, he would show great strength in those areas that were very ordered and based on a building blocks approach… those things such as math and language, etc.. This was also true in terms of physical activities such as putting puzzle pieces or train parts together … two areas of intense fascination for the autistic child… two activities that made parts become “a whole” once the parts were “put together”. These activities, in and of themselves, trains and puzzles also provided a coping mechanism for the autistic child in that they helped to “order” the autistic child's world and to “get rid of the parts”... the sources of frustration.
It should also come as no surprise that the autistic child, by the very fact that he needed to “break the code” to understand his world, would be very weak in areas where there was no apparent code to be broken… areas such as socialization, conversation and to some extent, process completion. The key to these areas, surely, was in “providing some kind of a code” for these activities… a list of “things” that go together, numbered activities, etc., to help the child understand the overall situation. Concrete examples of “things to say” or “things to do” would undoubtedly be necessary to gain strength in these areas. As such, role playing was critical for the autistic child to understand areas such as socialization. Conversation and Process Completion, luckily, could be somewhat broken down into “codes” or “parts” too. Conversation included "parts" in the form of subject information, verb information, object of the verb information, etc. Process completion involved sequencing of tasks, thus, lists or numbered activities could be used to one's advantage in teaching processes.