Take the Cannoli

One of the interesting things that some people with Autism do is called "Echolalia".  Echolalia is basically a fancy word for repeating back words and phrases that you have heard. Many can repeat several words up to whole portions of dialogue. To me it's another amazing part of B's brain. Often these phrases come out when he's playing  or just talking to himself. Most of the time they have no context to what's going on around him (in my view). But I don't know if maybe something he hears or sees reminds him of what vividly lives inside his head.

Lately he has been saying "He's coming".  He says it in a slight panic. I will admit that part of me finds this particular phrase a bit creepy. It's as if he's warning us of something coming in the future.

He also will say words in response to your questions that have nothing to do with the actual question. Last night I was tucking him in and had the following conversation:

Me: "B is a boy...Mommy is a..."
(long pause)
B:" Astronaut!"

You never know exactly what you're going to get when you ask a question. He's just now getting to the point  where he can answer simple yes and no questions.  But you can be sure that he knows every word to the theme of the "Wonder Pets" and can tell you exactly what happens when Cranky falls down on the tracks during "Thomas the Tank Engine".

So that brings me to the cannoli. In case you're not familiar with this delectable dessert, it is an Italian confection that is a pastry tube filled with sweet creamy ricotta. Sometimes the ends are dipped in chocolate chips or pistachios.

B kept repeating the phrase "Eat a cannoli" over and over. It sounded like cannoli to me, but I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. After all, we had never eaten one around him, or talked about one around him. Even his speech therapist asked one day if he had been eating them because of his repeated talking about it. I couldn't even figure out what would even sound like cannoli and had given up. Until one day listened close to him watching Curious George on the Ipad. Sure enough, two of the characters were at an Italian restaurant and were talking about getting one to eat. It wasn't even a main focus of the episode, but somehow his mind had absorbed the tidbit and focused on it.

Today I set out to find a cannoli to have him try it. B is rather picky, but he has an affinity for sweets. (He's my child after all!)  We presented him with it after dinner. He went after it with gusto without hesitation! He was so pleased to be like Curious George and got to live a little bit of one of his favorite stories.

So in the words of Clemenza "Take the cannoli". And he did!