Slang...
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Slang...
| Thu, 01-04-2007 - 11:04am |
The things I get myself into first thing in the AM:
I was getting the monsters ready for school and Peter did a coughy/choky kind of thing in the other room. I asked him if he was OK. He responded "Yes. I just croaked."

I've glanced through/read some of the book 'Freaks, Geeks, and Asperger's' (authored by a teen Aspie) and he seems to be at the 'level' my 10yo son is with slang type phrases (and 'plays on words' and such). My son *over* 'gets' them... once he understand one he has to 'roll around' in it awhile and use it all the time. Its like it's such a triumph to him to 'catch on' that he has to go on and on about it with the "Get it? Get it?" attitude of a really lousy commedian.
I wonder if one thing that might help is the 'phases' section of the "What your ___________ grader needs to know" series. They explain the origin of various common slang phrases... "It's raining cats and dogs" etc. There are just about a dozen or so in each book... but it might drive home the concept to 'deconstruct' a few. Of course, that is what you were *trying* to do with your kiddos...lol. But I've found these are very 'on level' and are sometimes phrases they will have already heard somewhere before... so it might be easier than a spur of the moment example. (Don't those *always* seem to go bad?!? LOL)
Kristy
ROFL! that is too funny! and so close to home!
I think Kristy has a very good idea about fully explaining them and going into the history of the "saying" or slang. I don't get lots of slang! and having it in black and white in a book would help as well.
Betsy
That was so funny!
I found the only way I could understand some figures of speech was to learn each one. It seemed everyone else always understood them and I was afraid to ask. I don't know if it's because I may be spectrumish or because of my upbringing, but some of the concepts I didn't understand at all. My biggest one was "Have your cake and eat it too." To my way of thinking, I couldn't understand why a person couldn't eat their cake. That wasn't logical at all. Isn't that what you made the cake for? When I was in college, I kept asking my dh these things because A) he was non-judgemental so I felt "safe" enough to ask (without feeling dumb) and B)he was able to explain them in detail. He's a very good and patient person. LOL
I don't know a good way to explain figures of speech, but there are some kids books you might be able to find at your library on idioms that will help them get the hang of it after some practice.
Books on idioms (there's a lot more than these too)
http://tinyurl.com/y2l5sr
http://tinyurl.com/y4ofnh
We teach the kids the same way. They now know that when we say something is a "figure of speech" that they don't take it literally. That it is just something people say that means something else. We are not always able to explain what the figure of speech means for them but they are getting the general idea after years of working on it.
I am not sure Mike would understand what "slang" is but I would probably go to the familiar term 'figure of speech" and leave it at that.
Mike's new thing is that he learned what being "literal" is so he likes to be a jokester about it. It is kind of funny but it is getting annoying. When I tell him to "pick up his room" his standard answer nearly EVERY time is "I can't. It's too heavy! Get it mom? I am being literal" UGH. kids.
Renee
LOL@ your kids. They crack me up. What I dont' understand about Chris is that he loves to play on words (he will think there funny, I politely laugh, but its not really funny lol) but then he will do the thing he did in the mens bathroom about sending in the reinforcements, and everybody but him is laughing....
Its very confusing to me, as I can see he is very literal, but he does laugh at some of the things he sees.
Any explanation here? Or all they just different in their own special ways?
"Mike's new thing is that he learned what being "literal" is so he likes to be a jokester about it. It is kind of funny but it is getting annoying. When I tell him to "pick up his room" his standard answer nearly EVERY time is "I can't. It's too heavy! Get it mom? I am being literal" UGH. kids."
UG! This is Vic's new thing and I may kill him before he outgrows it. Vic's got a habit of leaving his shoes under the dining room table. When I tell him "Vic, pick your shoes up" he picks them up and puts them right back down in the same spot and says "I picked them up Mom". I love to see him be able to make fun of himself like that also.
As far as explaining slang. I take it phrase by phrase. "It's raining cats and dogs" means it's raining SUPER hard that a person wouldn't be surprized at anything that fell from the sky. I took Victor 5 years to get sarcasm which drove my husband and I crazy because we are very sarcastic people by nature. Both kids will catch on to the phrases tho. Victor is still trying to grasp the "Oops, I put my foot in my mouth" line. I've caught him a couple of times trying to actually put his foot in his mouth. *groan* before he came clean and told me that he'd heard it from school. I told him all that means is that they said something stupid and they wish they hadn't said it.
It is the greatest thing in the world to see Victor able to joke about his own quirks now that he's older. He still doesn't like being picked on, but the kids see him in a different light now that he picks on himself as well. I think I'm still going to have to go through class clown stage before he is accepted by his peers tho.
Okay I got sidetracked, sry. They do get the slang and even invent some of their own. Victor and Bryanna have their own personal language that I'm not allowed to know. I use that to explain slang to Victor also.
Alexis
Oh that one makes me crazy and Mike has done it since he learned to tell time. But unfortuantely the time one is not a joke. He is very serious about that.
It is so bad that we still often have to go through this whole mini social story if something is supposed to happen and x time. For instance, if grandma is coming at 6pm I have to make sure that he knows it may be a few minutes before 6 or a few minutes after.
When he was probably 5-8 years old often when someone had planned on coming to our house at a certain time, Mike would sit in the kitchen and watch the clock on the microwave for the correct time. Sometimes he would be there for 30 minutes watching, usually he would go in and out until about 10 minutes before. If they were not there right on time he would obsess and go near meltdown until they came. we started to lie to him about the times people would come then he would get upset if they were too early.
Ahhhhh it is so nice to realize some of the fun little things they have outgrown. But bedtime is still 8:30. He is just getting where sometimes he accepts that 8:29 is close enough to 8:30 to go to bed.
Renee
Yep, my son is very serious. He thinks he should get up at 6 in the morning. Well now, I am a lousy morning person! I oversleep all the time, and never make it getting up at 6 lol. I have learned over the years that I cannot walk in and say guys, I overslept, we need to hurry. Because then he freaks out, and is all mad and yelling at me, doing his loud grunting and growling noises, because we are not up at precisily 6! I just have to walk in like nothings different and say okay guys time to wake up, and then try to hurry them along a little faster than normal.
I could never understand why he would get so mad at that. I mean even if we wake at 7, we have a full hour to get ready and the kids still have time to get to school.
Now I realize.