Icky Bicky Soda Cracker

We actually got the snow cleared off the deck over the weekend as the weather warmed up, and un-earthed (de-iced?) Rose's jumprope. Such fun to do springtime activities again! I was dredging my memories for counting rhymes for her, and came up with this one:

My mother, your mother, live across the way
Every night they have a fight and this is what they say:
Icky bicky soda cracker
Icky bicky boo
Icky bicky soda cracker
Out goes you!

Maybe "icky bicky" is what Joy has been trying to say lately...

In the past couple of weeks, Joy has been fine-tuning a two-syllable utterance. It sounds something like this:

• ICK-ee


• EYE-go


• ACK-er


• UGH-go

Now, one of the precepts of the Hanen & Communicating Partners training that I wrote about earlier is that you honor your child's vocalizations. Even if you don't know for sure what the intent is (or if there's any intent at all), if you encourage the vocalizations and treat them as legitimate communicative turn-taking, you encourage the patterns of social interaction and the idea that "when I say THIS sound, they think I mean THIS!"

So if there's anything at all that fits the sound, that'll be how we interpret it. Or if there's nothing in context that fits, we'll just imitate or play with noises. Anything to take a communicative turn.

You would be amazed at how many things the ICK-ee/EYE-go/ACK-er noise can mean.

Buckle! This one actually feels legit, in context of Joy buckling herself into her booster chair at food time.

Cracker! Speaking of food... again, we've had some really neat exchanges where it absolutely does sound like cracker.

Tickle! I heard her going back and forth with "tickle" with one of her baristas yesterday. Sure sounded real.

Thank-you! Does she know what this means? It's definitely felt like she's imitating it...

Got it! She used to have this phrase in a solid, stand-alone way, back when she had 80-some words.

Hot dog!
Echo!
Doggy!
Icky!
I go!
Blanket!
All-gone!
Icky? Bicky? Soda Cracker?

An incredibly useful utterance, wouldn't you agree?

Meanwhile, there are a few other vocalizations in the mix. Yesterday the "tickle" barista also got Joy to imitate "b-b-b" and "p-p-p" sounds. We're also getting "go" for go and "guh" for hug from time to time. Yesterday she started saying "no-no-no" just moments before attempting to climb onto the table on the deck, something she knows is a "no-no"!

We'll keep tracking this talking stuff. It's in there somewhere.

Meanwhile, when I told Rose the "icky bicky" counting rhyme, she giggled and then asked what the mothers were fighting about. I told her I had no idea, but later it occurred to me...
Maybe they're on opposing sides in the various autism controversies...

My mother, your mother, live across the way
Every night they have a fight and this is what they say:
Icky bicky DAN! doctor
Neurodiversity too
Icky bicky Andrew Wakefield
Out goes you!