For a suggestion of the range of therapeutic techniques (and nomenclature!), see Caplan,
16
Rosalind Oppenheim, ‘They Said Our Child Was Hopeless’,
17
For an impressive account of the achievement of untrained ‘teacher-moms’ working with severely disturbed children in an ordinary public-school situation, see Sol Nictern and George Donahue,
18
A trained psychologist, writing in a highly specialized professional journal, solemnly records his anger when his new jacket was soiled by a small autistic patient, and explains that he chose an old one for the next session. Any mother of young children could have instructed him in this elementary principle.
19
The most striking confirmation of her colour-intelligence occurred when she was six. I had brought several boxes of powder paint for her, and mixed small quantities on demand, so she could paint at home as well as at school. The colours, of course, came out pure — plain red, blue, black — and Elly seemed quite satisfied with them. When we returned to the store for more she asked for white, and we brought a box home and put it on the shelf with the others. A week later she asked for paint, and when I asked what colour replied ‘pink’, ‘light blue’ — colours she had never before requested. It was obvious to her that we could now make these colours, that white was the ingredient needed to produce pastels — something many normal six-year-olds have to be taught.
20
For the record, I should say that Elly did not become conscious of third-person pronouns until she was nearly eight, when she spontaneously picked out ‘they’ from a pile of word-cards as the one she wanted to learn next. The same week added ‘he’ and ‘she’. But though she can recognize them, she has said them only once or twice, and is only beginning to comprehend them securely. Ultimately, it seems plain she will acquire them, but there is nothing natural about the process.
21
We have other indications that she lacks the sense of what sounds carry the burden of communication. Soon after she learned ‘without’ she dropped the ‘with’; nothing will induce her to put it back. Her indistinct pronunciation drops essential indicators of meaning; she forms no plurals and inflects no verbs because she will not pronounce a final ‘s’ or ‘d.’
22
Later I ran across some by chance. But this is the sort of thing a good counselling service would make available to parents.
23
Her first use of the past tense came the summer she was eight. There have been few since. The two instances in which she has conveyed an idea of futurity are instructive: told I’d come in a minute, she said ‘Gi’ minute Mama come’; in autumn, as we speak of storm-windows, she says ‘Be winter, ha’ tor’ window.’ Her comprehension of tenses is limited; asked ‘Did you have your lunch?’ she will reply ‘Yes’ when she hasn’t, because she thinks I’ve asked ‘Do you want your lunch?’ Tense understanding requires situational understanding. ‘Sara little. Sara grow bigger’ can lead to ‘was’ and ‘grew’.
24
The absence of this word has been called a specific symptom of infantile autism. Elly took three months to learn to use it. We would confront her with a situation to which she could be expected to respond positively and ask her to say ‘no’ or ‘yes’. ‘Elly, do you want ice cream? No or yes?’ She could echo the ‘yes’; at length she could use it spontaneously. Contrast her instant acquisition of ‘difficult’ words like ‘heptagon’.
25
I was encouraged to continue with simple reading by watching the work of the teachers at Dr Carl Fenichel’s League School for Seriously Disturbed Children. The welcome I received there was a model to show what help skilled professionals can give to parents. I watched for a full day a classroom of children as remote as Elly, and came away with new strength and ideas for months of work. Without this experience, and without the encouragement of Elly’s psychiatrist, I do not think I would have presumed to teach Elly reading.
26
