Gestalt processing and apraxia (maybe. Or something like that).

For the past few months, when A- is upset usually about something he doesn’t want to do but has to, he’ll say “I don’t”. Or it seems that’s what he’s saying. “I doh”.

We’ve modeled “I don’t like that” a bunch and it’s in some of his Pictellos so I’m assuming he wants to say “I don’t like that”.

This is his first consistent self advocacy expression through words.

So it’s felt important we support him in being able to express this and be understood by people other than us. And especially for him to practice this phrase during times when he isn’t upset.

This is the gestalt part - we saw he has a gestalt (phrase which is meaningful to him) that he’s trying to say. Now to help him say it.

So, as we’ve done with several phrases, we made him a Pictello slowing down and breaking up the phrase so he can practice pronouncing it, which he likes to do.

He’s been watching it, saying words, and watching other Pictello’s with this phrase in it as well!

Note - I would only even consider something like this with a speech therapist’s guidance. Our SLP knows A- well and knows all the science of speech stuff. This kind of thing could, I think, really backfire for a lot of GLPs in earlier stages but A- is in a later stage and our SLP knows all the non GLP-specific related stuff we need to do to support A-!