Scripting done right

Lately Child 2 has been really into playing Rock Band; he's a terrible singer and he often makes me play with him so that I can sing, too, so that he can hear how the song is supposed to go. He usually "picks a setlist" and does between 10-20 songs each time, and often he'll pick his FAVORITE SONG IN THE ENTIRE WORLD more than once per set.

You guys know this song, right? I blogged about it a few times before: here and here. The lyric from the song is "One! Nothing wrong with me. Two! Nothing wrong with me. Three!.... etc."

Anyway, Child 1 has been walking around all afternoon scripting the song and saying "One! Nothing's wrong with me. Two! Nothing's wrong with me. Three! Nothing's wrong with me. Four! Nothing's wrong with me."

I wish I could tell him how awesome that is, because I simply cannot agree more: there is nothing wrong with him. I don't think he would get it, though. I'll have to try to remember this for when he's older and I can remind him....

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Autism lesson: In case you didn't already know, "scripting" is something autistic people do where they repeat things they've heard; it's technically called "echolalia" (pronounced echo-lay-lee-ah). There are two types of echolalia: immediate echolalia, which is as it sounds, you ask "do you want juice?" and the kid responds with "do you want juice?" Delayed echolalia means they will repeat what they've heard after some time has passed, which is what we will call "scripting" or "reciting."

Update, from my friend Emily: "Scripting can also mean how we plan what we'll say in certain situations, whether it's something general like what to say when you meet somebody new or something specific like when I was pacing around my apartment last night rehearsing things that might come up in a specific conversation today."

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