What is "scripting" or "scripted speech"?

[2boyzmama]

I've seen some of you mention is before, and I don't think I've ever understood it. But now I'm wondering if it's what Connor is doing.

Connor has Apraxia, and uses sign mostly for his expressive speech. He is starting to speak now, but it's very...odd. He speaks mostly in phrases (as opposed to sigining which he does single words at a time). For example, he'll do spontaneous "I love you too" instead of just "I love you" I think this is because when he learned the sign for "I love you" we always responded by saying "I love you too!" So now he doesn't know how to initiate it, you know? He'll walk up to me and out of the blue say "I love you too mama!"

He spontaneously blurts out "mama guess what" but when I say "what Connor" he has no idea how to answer me. He is just copying what his big brother says ("mama guess what we did at school today...guess what I saw at the park...guess what I ate for lunch") It's as if Connor thinks "mama guess what" is a greeting, you know?

All day long he is repeating almost everything his brother says, but he's only repeating. In order to initiate a conversation, he has to use his signs. He can't seem to initiate a conversation verbally. Whenever he does initiate verbally, it's some sort of "scripted" (for lack of a better word) phrase.

So in sign, he can initiate a conversation, change topics, interrupt me, interject in his brother's conversation, etc...all the "normal" language. But verbally, he speaks in these...pre-programmed...phrases.

What is this? Is it a form of scripting? is it just an effect of his verbal speech delay?

[SpottedFoxx]

It sounds a bit like what my son does. He has been diagnosed with dyspraxia and they suspect he has central auditory processing disorder. His therapist said that much of his speech is parroted. He hears things in a certain context and tries to put them out there in similar context. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

Working with his speech therapists has helped a lot with the parroting and he's initiating a lot more these days.

[2boyzmama]

Originally Posted by SpottedFoxx

It sounds a bit like what my son does. He has been diagnosed with dyspraxia and they suspect he has central auditory processing disorder. His therapist said that much of his speech is parroted. He hears things in a certain context and tries to put them out there in similar context. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not.

Working with his speech therapists has helped a lot with the parroting and he's initiating a lot more these days.

YES, that's exactly it. It's hard to explain, but that's what he's doing.

So this is just part of apraxia/dyspraxia/auditory processing stuff??

[NightOwlwithowlet]

My son did something similar when was younger. His speech therapist called it "delayed echolia" and said was often a precursor to spontaneous speech.

For example he knew the phrase "Carry you" would get him picked up, but he treated it as if it was one long word. He always used his phrases in the correct context, but he had no clue how to break the phrase down into individual words and reuse them in a different context. It took a while, a lot of work, and speech therapy, but he learned. The speech therapist said, it was a good sign because it showed he understood the concepts of communication, cause and effect and speech.

DS was originally diagnosed with PDD-NOS at 4, but it was changed to ADHD and SPD at 6. He's 8 years old now, and while he still relies on stock answers when he is nervous or stressed, his speech is completely spontaneous.

[BookGoddess]

It sounds lke he has immediate and delayed echolalia. It's a good thing though so be happy because he is understanding speech is a form of communication and he understands a response is needed. He just doesn't understand how to come up with original sentences just yet. But he will. Even typical kids go through an echolalia stage, but they go through it really fast compared to SN kids.


DD used to have a lot of echolalia about two years ago. If offered a choice between two things, she would parrot the last thing said rather than making an active selection. She would sometimes use phrases from books or kid's television programs. There was a period where when she was mad she would say "one little monkey fell of the bed and hurt his head." It was her way of indicating she was mad and hurt. Now her speech is mostly original and I sort of miss the echolalia. Still at times when she gets confused, tired or stuck she has some echolalia, but she's getting to the point that she can script in the right context and you would have to know what she reads or watches to know she borrowed the language from somewhere else.

What worked for DD was this. We gave her the right thing to say in that situation from her perspective.

Read the following. I love that mom's explanation of why echolalia is an important development.
"Dr. Strangetalk or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Echolalia "
http://momnos.blogspot.com/2006/03/d...earned-to.html

[2boyzmama]

Yes! I'm so happy that you guys figured out what I was talking about, because when I re-read my post, it didn't seem to be clear

You've got him pinned exactly I think. And thanks for that link, it's helpful!

And he DOES understand the concept of spoken language, he really does, we just all get frustrated so fast because his intelligibility is so low. His signs are wonderful, and he's even started making up signs if he hasn't been taught the right one!! For example, he didn't know the sign for spider man, so he signed "spider" and then did the wrist flick thing like he was shooting a web. It took me a while to figure it out, but I was SO PROUD of him when I realized what he was doing!! He has a couple other signs like that