Just call me Rara

The best part of being a psychology major is the amazing amount of random facts you can crack out at parties. You just drop a bomb like, did you know vaccines don’t cause autism, and you are officially the life of the party. Since the birth of my niece I have really been able to up my game. I am the magician and she is my beautifully dressed side kick. We started our act right after her birth when we performed a pulmar grasp in front of a crowd. Within a year we were really turning heads with some fun displays of object permanence. Now, at 16 months, I have decided that Isabela is a trained professional and it is time for us to move on to more sophisticated tricks.

Last weekend I went home with the intention of teaching her an extraordinary amount of new words. Babies saying new words are always a show stopper. Before we started training, Isabela showed me what she could already do. I yawned condescendingly when she said mama and dada. I was unimpressed with her “more, more” and “alllllll done.” But like the true magician she is, Isabela was saving the best for last. First you must understand that we have two Labradors who are sisters. To the untrained eye they are one in the same, but not to Isabela.When prompted, where is Roxy? Where is Daisy? Isabela can point to the correct dog. What a champ.

Now understanding that Isabela is obviously a genius, I decided we were ready for her to learn my name. We practiced day in and day out with absolutely no results. I chanted: Sara, Sara, Sara. Nothing. I said “Isabela, say Sara, say Sara.” Nothing. And then one day something amazing happened. She said Rara. I’ll take it! I came back to Charlottesville feeling like a winner. Isabela knows who I am.

My excitement was short lived when the next day my sister called me to say Isabela’s been going around calling her dog (Roxy) Rara. I was so disappointed. I can’t believe I rewarded her with a popsicle.

Fortunately for me, the next day I read the article by Baron-Cohen (1997) and learned a little something about the Speaker’s Direction of Gaze strategy. Baron-Cohen and his colleagues surmise that infants utilize this strategy to learn the meaning of new words. The SDG strategy says that children look to what the speaker is gazing at (instead of what the child is gazing at) to see what the new word is referring to. I say shoe, Isabela will follow my gaze to see what object I’m talking about. What a remarkably simple and yet complicated finding. One could easily assume that infants use the Listener’s Direction of Gaze strategy. This would mean that every time we want to teach a new word, we would have to wait until the infant spontaneously gazed at the shoe before yelling SHOE SHOE SHOE! To be honest, this blew my mind. Because of the SDG strategy, Isabela was able to name the correct dog. Obviously when we say "Where is Roxy," we all look at Roxy.

This also explains why Isabela doesn’t understand why I am Rara. When teaching her my name, we lacked any sense of joint attention. We were not connected on one object. We did not share a beautiful moment where our eyes met. In fact, after I would say Sara she would look up at me inquisitively, perhaps searching for my gaze. Where was I looking? At her.

It seems clear that any disruption in using this method can inhibit its effects. Obviously this seems to be a lasting problem for children with autism. With an aversion to eye gaze, many autistic children are lacking a crucial step in understanding language. They are making up for this issue by utilizing the LDG strategy. But, as mentioned before, the LDG has its faults. Language acquisition now becomes temperamental and confusing. Baron-Cohen (1997) explains that even when autistic children learn new words, they might not understand what these words are referring to. If language learning can be so specific that Isabela can’t understand that I am referring to myself, then we must appreciate how difficult it is to teach language to a child averse to gaze. Perhaps language delays in children in autism are the cause of many different factors. They may have the ability to communicate, but have extreme difficulty in learning the words. It is definitely something to think about.

As for me, I suppose I owe Isabela another chance at learning my name. This time I will have my sister yell SARA every time Isabela looks at me. I will keep you updated.