Late Talking ASD Preschooler Questions

[AnalogWife]

DS is 3.75, has an Autism dx and was largely non-verbal until we got an iPad 2-3 weeks ago and his vocab and "beep beep!" "moo moo!" noises have since exploded.  It's GREAT, except....his pronunciation is still very off and I'm beginning to understand what a huge uphill battle he has in front of him.   It's almost as if he sounds deaf

His speech therapy has largely been "communication therapy" and play based, so he likes it very much.  He can object totally when you ask more of him, I'm wondering what might we have ahead of us, getting better diction. 

When he was mostly gesturing and using his own better toned words, it felt like speech was just around the corner.  Now that speech is coming, it's sort of depressing.  I feel awful saying that.  There have been pitstops, but I've always felt that I've known him so well.  And now it's "Oh!  You have a lisp!  I didn't know that...."

The words he's been using for 3-18 months are "No" "Yay" "Uh-Oh" "Mama" etc and they sound very very good.  "Yes" is a new word and it sounds like "Yesh."  "Go" is "Doh" and "Stop" is "Tuuuuhp."----these are the strong ones.  Numbers like 4 and 5 are "Vwoh" and "Vwih."  3 isn't "Free" like younger NT kids, it's more like "Mree."

I'm also very concerned about something that might be a tic or stim or something.  He's been saying "uh-oh" for at least 18 months, and he may get caught in a pattern of "uh-ohs" that I always thought were kind of cute, but now since the iPad and the increased noise imitation, he's added a mini lips-only raspberry to the end of "Uh-oh" and it's driving me batty.  It's almost Tourette-sounding, might that be a possibility?  I will be addressing his ST with it, but is it likely that we can get him to drop this?

Is the prognosis good for a late talker with underformed speech to catch up? TIA

[sbgrace]

I hope the therapist is helpful. My son has had stages of lots of perseverative/stimmy speech and speech sounds. Given the description and your son's diagnosis I'd think more along those lines than a Tourette's type situation at least as I read what you wrote.

If he's got articulation issues I think those are tough to address at these ages in neurotypical kids too. I'm sorry what you've likely been looking forward to has turned out to feel worrisome and depressing.

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by AnalogWife 

DS is 3.75, has an Autism dx and was largely non-verbal until we got an iPad 2-3 weeks ago and his vocab and "beep beep!" "moo moo!" noises have since exploded.  It's GREAT, except....his pronunciation is still very off and I'm beginning to understand what a huge uphill battle he has in front of him.   It's almost as if he sounds deaf

...When he was mostly gesturing and using his own better toned words, it felt like speech was just around the corner.  Now that speech is coming, it's sort of depressing.
 

My DDs situation was different, but there were a lot of times I've felt like it was two steps forward and one step back with her.  With her, it was more like she didn't see the point of speaking, and now at 14, she's finally starting to get that!

I think it's natural to get down sometimes. Just feel those feeling and let them pass. Judging them as *wrong* tends to make them more powerful than they really are. Just accept them as part of the package of being a mom of sn kid, and then let them go their way.

It sounds like the iPad is working out great! It's only been a couple of weeks. All of this is going to look (and sound) very different in 6 months. Things are going the right direction!

[RiverTam]

Originally Posted by AnalogWife 

When he was mostly gesturing and using his own better toned words, it felt like speech was just around the corner.  Now that speech is coming, it's sort of depressing.  I feel awful saying that.  There have been pitstops, but I've always felt that I've known him so well.  And now it's "Oh!  You have a lisp!  I didn't know that...."

I have a kid with Mixed Expressive Receptive Language Disorder. Although he could talk, and he met all his language milestones, he didn't talk much. 

When he started speech therapy and getting more verbal, it did change our relationship. It was very strange. Before therapy, he never told me about his day or about what he was currently thinking about or reading or working on. He just didn't talk much. After he started talking more, I started hearing more about his friends, and kids at school, and his day. I got to know him better.

You know, it's not like I didn't know him well before. It's just that a lot of our communication was non-verbal. Adding more verbal content to the relationship added another level to it.  A lot of our communication is still non-verbal. I understand him pretty well and can communicate with him pretty well without talking. I don't think most parents understand their kids' nonverbal communication as well as I do. I don't have as much nonverbal communication with his brother, because it's not necessary. (DS2 talks and talks and talks and talks and talks.)

DS1 also  has semantic-pragmatic deficits to go with the express and receptive deficits, so once he started talking more, there was a whole length of time when he was expressive, but the expressive language was getting him in trouble.  Example: He told a day camp instructor that he was going to cut off her head with a light saber. Good use of expressive language, but really not acceptable to the day camp. He told the daycare lady at school that she is "a vicious bully." Again, good use of language, but bound to get you in trouble, kid. For a good long while, it did feel like it was getting worse, not better.

[AnalogWife]

Thank you for the responses. RiverTam, I appreciate your post, it makes a lot of sense...I do feel like our relationship is changing and that things might get worse before they get better--but I never thought about how deep our communication goes.  Even his dad who regards him as highly as I do has questions about what DS is saying, but I've always known.  FWIW things have been less depressing in the past few days and that iPad has even helped get him onto the potty (which was a total "NOOOOOO!!!!!" before now.  Magic iPad.)

[kme]

Hang in there!  We all go through periods of feeling down or like there is such a long way to go.  I remember when my son was 3 and I was so excited because he came home from school and said "circle time" (his first phrase) and then realizing how far he had to go - that at 3 that was the most he could say.  Not a sentence, not a complete thought, just a scripted phrase.  You have to look at it like every step forward is just that - one step forward.  And with progress comes bumps in the road.  Like RiverTam, my son is now fully verbal but now we are working on what is OK to say and what is not.  I didn't have to worry about that before.  He says what he thinks, not much filter and that comes with its own set of problems.  Still, would I go back to him being non-verbal?  Of course not.  I am glad he is expressing himself and that I know what he is thinking.  My son is the one like Brick who often repeats himself in a whisper.  Sometimes it drives me crazy but surprisingly when I bring it up to others, they often never even noticed it!  I have pretty much stopped trying to get him to stop doing it.  It goes with the territory.

Just as an aside, the special ed teacher wrote on his IEP progress report earlier this month that he is at grade level in verbal communication.  That is like a miracle for me to read.  He really has come a long way.  It is easy to get caught up in how far there still is to go and sometimes easy to forget how far he has come. 

The fact that your son is progressing with his speech is hopeful indeed.  I have heard wonderful things about the iPad for autistic kids.

[LynnS6]

I know it's hard, but just remember that you're dealing with a child who's had very little practice articulating sounds. When most neurotypical kids go through this at 18-24 months, we don't worry that their pronunciation is only vaguely related to the word. My son's favorite thing as a toddler was garbage trucks. Garbage truck was "gagaga". Garbage can was "gash ca". Buffalo was "buhshishi". I knew what he meant because I was his mother. Most other people did not. It's also VERY common for one parent to understand more than another, so I wouldn't worry about that. Now, some of his articulations are indeed a little different. It could be that he'll have to work harder than average to be intelligible. But for now, try hard to enjoy the new words and give your worries about pronunciation at rest for a bit.

[AnalogWife]

Originally Posted by LynnS6 

I know it's hard, but just remember that you're dealing with a child who's had very little practice articulating sounds. When most neurotypical kids go through this at 18-24 months, we don't worry that their pronunciation is only vaguely related to the word. My son's favorite thing as a toddler was garbage trucks. Garbage truck was "gagaga". Garbage can was "gash ca". Buffalo was "buhshishi". I knew what he meant because I was his mother. Most other people did not. It's also VERY common for one parent to understand more than another, so I wouldn't worry about that. Now, some of his articulations are indeed a little different. It could be that he'll have to work harder than average to be intelligible. But for now, try hard to enjoy the new words and give your worries about pronunciation at rest for a bit.

I know, but he's had a "socially unpopular" tone to his voice since forever.  I got used to the laugh and then his "No!" sounded perfect and I overlooked the pitch in his "Mama"...now that the new words are coming, they just don't sound like your typical toddler who's learning words, which is what emphasized the size of our hill at that time.