So her words don’t come out perfectly. They don’t even come out well. It still sounds like her heart can sing.

These words of yours are invaluable—they describe what I would say about Charlie’s speech perfectly. He has been humming Beatles’ songs—he never watched the Little Einstein videos or I’m sure he’d be humming Mozart.

I know what you mean about the SIBs. Every day that goes by without one results in a sigh of “made it!” to me. And more and more it is indeed Charlie’s voice and being that speak to us—every sound is like the sun rising, yes?

This actually makes a lot of sense: here in North America, appliances powered by alternating-current motors and transformers all operate at a frequency of 60 Hz. The B-flat 2 octaves below Middle C on the piano is (depending upon tuning) very close to 60 Hz in frequency.

(I suppose that European dishwashers, which operate at 50 Hz, sing in G…)

And — as I pointed out to Jeremy — we have an autistic person to thank for all this AC harmony (pun intended): Nikola Tesla, the pioneer of electrical power generation and distribution and inventor of the alternating current motor.

You are the only one that I notice–through other forums and blogs I read–who mentioned the phrase “the darkness of autism” as spoken on Larry King. And I only had to read so far on this post before I had to respond (I will, however, read through because I value YOUR words). While I appreciated the awareness aspect of this episode, I realized that I wasn’t hearing anything I hadn’t already known, but it might be teaching someone else about autism. But I can’t help but be offended by the phrase “the darkness of autism”….as if these are the only behaviors and stereotypes (as seen in “Autism Every Day”) to expect. I suppose there are moments in the lives of parents of autism that could be considered “dark”….in our case, it’s Ely’s SIBs, though those are much fewer and far between now…but there is so much light.

I agree that any words we hear from Ely (recognizable or not, or, more succinctly, recognizable to us, her family) are special and thrilling. And, true…more often than not, they are scripted, echolalic….I was called “a silly goose” tonight, thanks to Elmo/Ely. And, as I’ve mentioned to you before, to hear Ely hum “The New World Symphony” and follow it up with “Music Byyyy….Antonin Dvorzak” or “Ode to Joy….Music By Ludwig Von Beethoven”, I know it comes from “Little Einsteins”, but it thrills me nonetheless. (By the way, she’s being evaluated by a music therapist, and indications are she could have perfect, if not absolute, pitch.) So her words don’t come out perfectly. They don’t even come out well. It still sounds like her heart can sing.

If that’s not light, I don’t know what is. And (to paraphrase a popular — in my day — group) it’s so bright, I need sunglasses!

AJ

Rochelle, I really like how you bring “meaningless” into discussing “hfa” and “lfa” and the verbal and the visual. One thing I have slowly learned is the extent to which Charlie’s apparently, mostly “meaningless” communications—-his humming, “babble,” behaviors like pacing, the head-banging—–are as invested with meaning as any words. I often feel like I am “reading” Charlie, not just in regard to “deciphering” his words or sounds, but in trying to see what he is communicating in so many other ways—ways that we’ve learned to ignore and think “meaningless.”

It was when we were teaching Charlie some very simple sign language signs that I started to think about the “arbitrariness” of it all—-why this movement over another one? And it might well be different in another culture…..

I wrote that we (in the collective sense) tend to privilege one sign system over another. Verbal over visual. Verbalization indicates “high” or meaningful functioning whereas pointing to pictures is considered “low” or meaningless functioning.

I used the term “meaningless” intentionally because signs take the form of words and images that we invest with meaning. The pictures that autistic children use to communicate are meaningful; however, they are not considered meaningless to a community that values verbal and written discourses. The difference here is, in many ways, a difference of signifier and signified. We could look, similarly, at acts like head-banging, flapping, and spinning as moments of signification.

But, I would love to read your thoughts on it…