Return-Path: <yang@pacific.mitre.org>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.autism
Date:         Tue, 12 Jan 1993 14:44:15 EST
              <AUTISM@SJUVM.BITNET>
From:         Jeffrey Yang <yang@PACIFIC.MITRE.ORG>
Subject:      Thanks for RE: AIT

Thanks very much for your reply.  I pretty much got the idea and what
I should do even before the pre-test of the AIT.  I would say that I've
learned more than from those reports, research papers, and etc., specially
from Lynda's posts.  This is real life experience.  I'll follow the sequence
(sort of summarized below), recommend the summary to Jon's AIT therapist,
and start the training at home before the test.


Ray Kopp wrote:
> my daughter might leave the head phones on for about 5 minutes
> but I would be shocked for an entire 1/2 hour!  Since so many autistics
> also are Tactily Defensive, it would be interesting to know how they get
> around this, Maybe a sound booth?  Also like Jeff's question if you can't
> get a definitive reply/reaction to the test, what does the training get
> based on then, what is the straight method?

Lisa S Lewis wrote:
> My understanding is (from what I've read and heard) that the tester watches
> the child's face very closely. The assumption is that the child will grimmace
> or make some other sign that a sound is painful to them.

Lynda W. Huggins wrote:
> I will tell you of my experience with audiograms on Jon for AIT.  Jon (age
> 17) is very verbal; however, it is often difficult to get a direct response
> or answer to a question.  We were not sure we could "trust" his verbal
> responses.  Audiologists (sp?) are quite resourceful when dealing with
> young or non-verbal clients.  In Jon's case, the audiologist practiced with
> Jon - having him drop a poker chip in a can each time he heard a sound.  We
> still could not be sure we got 100% accuracy, but I do believe the chips
> worked better than having Jon raise his hand in response to a sound.

Lisa S Lewis wrote:
> >From everything I've read it is worth trying very hard to get some kind of
> results from the pre-test.  I've also been told that you start training your
> child months ahead to sit with headphones on.  They need to be the large type
> that cover the whole ear, not Walkman type earphones.

Deborah V. Good wrote:
> Ray Kopp questionned the use of earphones in auditory training.  We have
> just recently registered our son for therapy for this summer, at least
> 6-7 months from now.  The therapist has a procedure before therapy of
> sending earphones to the subjects so that they become accustomed to
> wearing earphones.

Lynda W. Huggins wrote:
> In addition to the audiogram, another test was done with Jon.  During the
> test Jon's was video taped.  This was to record his facial responses to
> various frequencies.  As various frequencies were presented through head
> phones, I was to observe Jon and record my impression of his reaction to
> each sound - none, slight, obvious, discomfort, pain, etc.  So I guess you
> would say that all three - Jon's response (verbal or raising his hand),
> the videotape, and my written record were all considered in determining
> his level of sensitivity to each frequency.


I am not sure if Jonathan is verbal at this stage.  About
6-8 months ago, Jon would not say the word "juice" if he wanted to drink
orange juice.  He would pull my hand or my wife Dori's hand to the juice box.
We tried to ask him to say "juice" but it did not work well.  We noticed that
Jon loves to watch Daniel (our older son about 6 and a half) paying the PC
especially displaying the graphic images.  I started to pay our PC together
with Jon by display 1-30 and A-Z on the PC screen.  I can't tell you how
happy Jon was and very soon he memorized the characters on the keyboard and
said 1-20 and A-Z.  Next, I made a graphic image to a command, for example,
"mountain".  In order for Jon to watch the mountain picture on screen he
must type the "mountain" word on the keyboard to display the image.  We must
hold his hand at the beginning but he spelled the "mountain" in about couple
of days.  He was so happy and pointed at the picture and said "mountain" that
was a big surprise for us.  Since then, I have made about hundred of pictures
with a command for each pictures.

We are very lucky to live in the Northern Virginia and Fairfax County and
have probably one of the best pre-school autistic program in the country.
Jon's pre-school teacher Ms. Judy Wade who is most wonderful person,
knows a lot about autism, and has very structured activities daily.  We
were invited once about couple months ago to watch Jon and his classmates'
play.  Jon was dressed like a little Indian stood at the mid of the class
and start to say:

        I am a little Indian,
        I do my best,
        Here is my feather,
        Here is my vest.

This was yet another surprise for us.  Now we know that Jon can be taught and
trained to do things but he can not grasp I guess the "abstraction".  That is
why I am not sure if Jon is verbal.  What is the definition of verbal
specially for autistic children?  Does it mean "talking", "communicating" or
meaningful conversation? I mean he can say what ever you want he to say or
repeat but if you ask him "Are you hungry?" He won't understand and won't
answer you.  But he will ask you for food "I want to eat bread" or "I like
beef".

Pre-school program is the best thing can happy to Jon.  He can now seat still
for long period of time and understands simple commands.  If he start to get
hyper (he loves to jump) we can just say "Jon please stop" he'll stop and seat
on the couch.

Computer is another thing - a communication media that connected Jon and my
family.  I mean by playing the computer together he wants to play with us
instead of being in his own world and by playing he learned to imitate.
I knew he can play few simple computer games but one day I saw him playing the
WordPerfect.  That is because he was watching me and Dori when we were using
it.

Jon is very sensitive to a lot of sound and noises and covering his ears
very often.  He is scared, nervous, sad, and happy when watch TV.  Now we
understand it is because of the sound.  Sometimes he would cover his ears
and ran away when certain TV program is on.  We quickly change the channel and
he'll return after the channel is changed.  That is why we want the AIT to be
an effective one.

Well, I thank you again.  May be this is one way to introduce Jon, myself, and
my family to everyone.


Jeffrey Yang
yang@pacific.mitre.org
McLean, VA
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