Social Circles and Communication ;)

[Jodi]

Okay - First, THANK YOU JESSIE for posting this topic up, and MB - you simply amaze me! I didn't want to take away from the other thread, so I started a new one.

Ryan had his very FIRST phone call from a friend on Saturday. (YAY!!) The trouble is Ryan is hard to understand. Take away the visuals (pointing, gesturing) then you can't understand him at all. The kid on the other line was saying "what? what? I don't understand..." Ryan was trying to use his device, but that was confusing because the voice output is MY voice. So I picked up the second receiver and was the translator. I want so much for Ryan to have social interaction, but with his limited communication

Kids will ask a question, and he will answer, but they are sitting there going "huh " Any advice?

[MB]

Translating works for me! I would translate for my son when he would talk to adults on the phone. The kids could understand him, but not the adults. Our goal was to be social. We (including my son) were willing to do anything to make it happen.

mb

[Emilysmom]

Another thing MB has suggested in the past is to encourage kids to ask questions and speak very slowly.......cause kids do tend to shoot one question after another. I think her example was something like "I like your shirt; where did you get it? I want to get one like that"! And as the child with Ds is formulating his reply in his mind, the child thinks he'd better toss out another question. It would have to be frustrating for both kids!

I think that translating, at first, would be just fine! Could Ryan's brother help with the translations? That might be a bit more "cool".

Susan

[Jackie]

"Translation" is a great idea...afterall I think with our kids the keyword is....COMMUNICATION...so...whatever it takes to keep that language flowing.........

Jackie mom to emily 26 who has a lot to say and sometimes does not say it.