‘I’m a Frickin Loser’: What My 5-Year-Old Learned From The Movies

Published: July 10, 2026

a woman and a child sitting on a couch looking at a cell phone

By Jessilyn Lancaster

My 5-year-old smacked himself on the side of his head over and over while repeating, “I’m a frickin’ loser!”

We don’t use language like that in our house, we redirect even moderate phrases to something kinder, so I sat there confused while I rubbed his back, pulling his hand away from his head.

Later, I heard his 3-year-old brother approach him with something the 3-year-old was proud of.

“What is this?” my 5-year-old asked, curious.

“This is junk!” he said a split-second later and threw whatever the 3-year-old had presented him on the ground.

And now for his new favorite: “You’re lying!” every time someone cracks a joke or makes a plan he doesn’t like?

Do you know what all these phrases have in common?

They’re from A MINECRAFT MOVIE.

On the whole, A MINECRAFT MOVIE is silly but presents multiple uplifting morals, including some biblical principles.

Related: A MINECRAFT MOVIE

According to the Movieguide® review, “A MINECRAFT MOVIE is a funny, lighthearted tale with deep meaning. The main characters find strength and love through building friendships with each other. Eventually, a once self-absorbed character risks his life to save his friend. When the evil queen chides her subjects that to hope, dream and create is to suffer, the hero agrees with her but rebukes her by telling her that cowards choose to destroy things because it’s easier than building things. Another main character encourages her friend to bring some of his magic to the real world. The movie drives home the message that, if you are brave enough, you can make positive things happen in the world.”

So why is my 5-year-old repeating the worst parts of this movie meant to differentiate good and evil? He’s autistic, and he learns speech through a pattern called Gestalt Language Processing. In short, it means that he learns phrases and scripts before he learns individual words. He then uses those phrases to communicate with everyone, subbing out different words so the script fits his communication need.

Per the Cleveland Clinic, this is how GLP differs from average language development:

Stage 1 (Whole gestalts): Your child uses full memorized phrases. This could include lines from their favorite shows or things they’ve heard before. They repeat these phrases exactly, without changing them (echolalia). This may happen right after hearing a phrase or later.
Stage 2 (Mitigated gestalts): Your child begins to shorten or mix parts of memorized phrases. They may drop words, combine chunks or slightly change scripts they’ve heard.
Stage 3 (Single words): Your child starts using single words on purpose. They choose these words on their own. They aren’t just repeated from others.
Stage 4 (Beginning grammar): Your child puts words together to form new, simple phrases. These may be short sentences with basic grammar.
Stage 5 (Advanced grammar): Your child uses longer sentences with more detail. They begin to use verb tenses, describing words and more complex sentence patterns.
Stage 6 (Complex and spontaneous language): Your child uses fully original language. They create their own sentences with complex grammar, similar to typical speech.

For my son, this is demonstrated through using the scripts he learned from what he watched to express his feelings. Given his hyper obsessions, we’ve noticed a lot of MINECRAFT phrases in the last few weeks.

If he’s frustrated? “I’m a frickin’ loser.”

If someone shows him a picture or toy, “What is this? It’s junk!”

If he feels betrayed? “You’re lying!”

To him, it doesn’t matter who said what in the movie. He associates the phrases with the feelings he sees presented on screen.

We’ve had many positive scripts to work from, too. After a BLIPPI kick, he would look at everything and declare, “This is amazing!”

If he’s excited about what we’re going to do? “This is the best day ever!”

As a parent, it adds an extra layer of discernment as I consider what my children can watch. Obviously, I want content that promotes doing doing the right thing, working well with others, respecting elders, and rejecting evil. But, for my children, as they learn their own media discernment, I must continue to be wise in ensuring that even the most uplifting movies they watch include scripts that help us process our emotions in a way that doesn’t hurt others.

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