Pookie does not suffer from Echolalia…he enjoys every minute of it.

ba dum dum.

Usually we just let him go freestyle. Sometimes it gets a bit annoying, but we are used to it and its not much different than the idle chatter we all make during the day. Plus, he knows some really good songs. The problem is that echolalia ius disruptive in classroom environments.   The only way to stop echolalia is to control it.  Pookie needs to echo.   It serves a purpose in his brain.  Before school got out, his teacher had experimented with a few things to control the echolalia during certain times at school. He was supposed to be quiet at Circle Time and Story Time. In order to teach this, his teacher made up a sign.

Pookie reluctantly complies for a few seconds/minutes when shown this sign. Its effective, but it has flaws. Its not easily portable. It relies on someone giving a verbal prompt and showing him the sign. Its reactive, not proactive. We decided to experiment with something that addresses these short comings.

I took the first picture “Quiet” and made it 2 inches by 2 inches. I laminated and applied velcro to the back. We velcroed the picture to a black wrist sweatband. This is Pookie’s Quiet Bracelet.

He wears it during times when he needs to be quiet. Simple. He puts it on himself, which means he knows what is expected of him. If he forgets and starts to echo, we just tap our wrist, providing a nonverbal cue, which is always better than a verbal one. Best of all, this allows for clearly defined periods of Quiet and periods of free echo. We are sure to take the bracelet off at the end of story time and thank him for being quiet. Its a work in progress, but we are pleased so far. We hope to send the bracelet to Kindergarten in the Fall.