For ASD Parents of Speech Delays

[AnalogWife]

When did your LO start to speak? I've been pretty patient with DS (3y2m), considering, but lately have been feeling uneasy. He's regressed a little since ending EI and starting preschool, it's making me , any reassurance or feel-good stories about post 3yo language development appreciated!

[laurata]

Trying to remember. I know he said his first sentence in late January of 2008, which would have made him 3y1m. But he didn't make any significant strides after that for a long time. He would make noises and vocalize, but very little spontaneous, non scripted speech. His first appointment with Child First was that fall, so he would have been 3y 9 or 10m. He said 10 words or so in the hour they observed him. They decided they couldn't do a good assesment and to come back in a few months. In the spring he tested at 1y11m and 2y2m for receptive and expressive speech, and qualified for developmental preschool.

We did IgG allergy testing and a homeopathic remedy at that time, and cut out garlic and gluten the next month. I had my first real conversation with him in July of 2009. (And yes, I cried.) He started developmental preschool through the school district in September, and yes, we did have some regressions initially. We had big regressions again in the spring as the days became longer.

Do you uses PECS? They used them for my ds at school, and he responds really well to them. We are slowly trying to integrate them into our daily lives at home. I got a lot of mine at do2learn.

Hope something here helps!

[Linda on the move]

My DD (who is on the higher end of the spectrum) was barely speaking at all when she turned 3, but was talking a bit by 4. She was in speech therapy that whole year. Is your little one in speech therapy? I think it is very important.

One of my friends has a son who is also on the spectrum who didn't speak until 5. He is 6 now and talking quite a bit, so even late talkers can get there!!!!

[BookGoddess]

I would do a 24-hour EEG and an MRI if you haven't already. There are some ASD kids whose speech take off after getting previously undiagnosed seizures treated. Seizures can happen right in front of us and we parents may not even be aware of it because some seizures are so subtle to the untrained eye.
Just my two cents....

[AnalogWife]

Thank you, all. DS doesn't do PECS (yet) but he does sign, he has about 75-100 ASL signs that he uses and I've been working on getting him to do 2-sign sentences but he rarely does them without prompting. I'd say his receptive language is better than his expressive, but when he was evaluated in Feb he got nearly the same score for both. He is getting 2 hours of speech/week at school and come fall I believe he'll be getting more, but at home I fell out of practice after his home speech/EI visits ended so the past few days I've been working with him more and it's been good.

He has a handful of spoken words, "cheese" "mamamamama" "dah!" (dad) and the ever-popular "Wow! Whoa! Wowowowowowowowowow!" I think the "wow" is 20 percent impression, 80 percent verbal stim.

As far as seizures, the dev pedi who dx'd him gave us some tips on how to detect them, and tbh, I do sometimes wonder if he's having them but once I do what the dev pedi said to, he snaps right out of it. But I will think about getting that checked, thanks for the info.

[shaper]

My son was around 3.5 when he started speech therapy and he had ~20 words. That doubled, tripled, quadrupled until I could no longer count them all within the next year. He's almost six now and he's still behind (and still not saying a lot of words correctly) and he still has deeper communication troubles than just speech, but his vocabulary is no longer a worry.

We used a lot of baby signs with him back then... and the physical act of making the signs often triggered the words in his head... it helped us a lot!

[2lilsweetfoxes]

Not to be a complete Debbie Downer, but my ASD son is 7, has been in speech therapy since age 2, and still does not talk. He always seemed right on the cusp, so we never pursued sign language or an alternative communication method. We've decided to go ahead now and get him a device. And we are teaching him to read and write. His writing is getting more and more legible, though.

[AnalogWife]

[QUOTE=2lilsweetfoxes;15637680We've decided to go ahead now and get him a device. [/QUOTE]

What kind of device? I'm not yet familiar with all this, thanks for any input.

[kme]

My son said a few words at 3 but didn't put 2 words together or express any thoughts till he was over 3. His speech development was painfully slow and he continues with speech therapy to this day (he is close to 7) b/c he still has "funky" speech issues. However, between 3.5 and 4 he began speaking enough that he could express himself and we began having real conversations around age 5.

[AnalogWife]

Originally Posted by kme

My son said a few words at 3 but didn't put 2 words together or express any thoughts till he was over 3. His speech development was painfully slow and he continues with speech therapy to this day (he is close to 7) b/c he still has "funky" speech issues. However, between 3.5 and 4 he began speaking enough that he could express himself and we began having real conversations around age 5.

"Painfully slow," that's where we're at now. I am soooo looking forward to spoken conversations with him. Can ask what you mean by "'funky' speech issues"?

[kme]

My son may or may not have ASD; according to his evals, he most likely does not but he has severe SPD and a language disorder. I was told his language is odd but not the same as autistic kids'. He has a very slow processing speed and so he has a hard time "getting his words out". He stumbles over words, uses words incorrectly, makes up words, has a hard time with verb tense, repeats things in a whisper after he says them (like Brick on "The Middle", if you've ever watched that show), misunderstands things and answers in a way that is incorrect/inappropriate although I can usually figure out what he meant and what he thought was said), etc etc. This is what I mean by funky language problems.
He has many symptoms of an expressive/receptive language disorder and so that is what he probably has and receives speech therapy for.

Whether he has ASD is not clear. He has several symptoms, but I've been told the "quality" of his symptoms is not the same - his dificulties may be coming from a different problem. Nonetheless, he meets autism criteria at school and his IEP is for autism b/c that's what gets him services.

The language thing has always been my biggest concern. Have you looked into Floortime? It is not speech specific but it is something you can do at home and may help stimulate speech.

Hugs to you - not being able to communicate effectively with your LO is so painful.

[AnalogWife]

Yes, I recall a "Brick" child here, and I LOVE that show and that kid! I will need to look more deeply into Floortime, I spend time on the floor with DS but I'm sure there's something more structured that I'm missing. Thanks again for the input, I hope your DS progresses as well.

We have a pretty solid AD dx and there are moments I think DS is "a-ok" apart from the speech thing, it amazes me how the spectrum works and doesn't work. Like, the fact your DS doesn't have a dx and mine got one fairly swiftly. Even though getting the dx is what it is, I can't imagine learning that drs and pros can't pinpoint or identify your DS's troubles, when they seem pretty close to ASD...but it's not. I just imagine that's frustrating.