Friday, May 26, 2006

Persistant Speech

One of the joys of Joey is he has "persistant speech"- this is a form of echolalia where he repeats phrases over and over and over and over and over and over... and it takes some getting used to. In fact, it grates on nerves even when you know its coming. Its a greaqt reminder not to cuss in front of him- because you'll likely hear it coming back at you again... and again... and again... and again...

The phrase of the hour right as I am writing this is "oops! derailed!" He heard this watching the DVD we made of the beach trip. Its actually not as annoying as phrases he repeats when he's upset. Sometimes you just wish he wouldn't scream "Joey, NO!" over and over again after trying something dangerous. I feel bad enough about having to raise my voice, having it echoed ad nauseum certainly doesn't help my nerves. Then there's "take it easy, Joey!" At least that one I feel like he's trying to calm himself down.

There must be some way to break him out of the downward spiral of persistant speech, but I haven't found it. Anything I do just makes it worse, and increases the volume. Yeeks!

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