If not ASD, tell me about communication/speech disorders or delays? (updated) - Page 3

[JordanKX]

So I've now met with speech therapist #2 twice, not a huge fan. but whatever... SO MUCH BETTER than the first time we met with her. She didn't have any blanket statements of "he is this... he isn't this..." just more, they had fun together. she recorded the 1/2hr because she learned she didn't have time to write down all the words.

I'm thinking she's new to EI or practicing speech therapy in this way. Maybe that's just my judgement.

Enyhoo... one more with her. And then he'll be evaluated for the over 3 group.

Plus will have a formal eval with the hospital speech therapy group beginning of August.

Absolutely moving forward.

I've had a handful of statements over the past few weeks... my neighbor who works in special ed says "well now that you mention your concerns, yes, he could have some aspergers"... and other friends... "he is so much more coordinated recently, look at him on the pedals!"...

I love friends/family/neighbors... I'll take their words, but I'm not processing them. It's not affecting me. He is learning, where he should be right now, and I'll know more after the more formal eval.

Hate waiting. But having a great summer regardless. That's the point... right?

[SpottedFoxx]

Great attitude Jordan and yes, you are right.  You can choose to sit and worry or you can choose to sit and enjoy your child.  The later is definitely the better choice for all :)

[JordanKX]

Just have to post here about the formal eval that we had here....

"articulation disorder" is what she ended with and how she'll code her request to OHP for future therapy sessions. 

She said he's very advanced in his vocabulary (much she didn't expect for kids under 4yo); all correct on his pronouns, lots of -ing words. Has lots of CV combinations, although not consistent from word to word, however his pronunciation (or mis-) of words is consistent... which to her, ruled out apraxia.

He is not consistent in the consonants he can/can't say... he will say Purple, puppy, pop.... but drops the "p" on most other words. So it's not that he CAN'T use a P, he just most often uses a hard-G sound for everything or drops the consonant entirely, especially if at the beginning of a word. All of which she said can be remedied with therapy, although it might take time.

And time, I'm OK with.

She had zero concerns about overall development and anything processing; that he understands, can hear, and can respond... you just can't understand his response. So that means... Articulation.

I'm OK with all that for now.

It was so good to hear something more formal, and to hear her response that OHP will cover private therapy for him 2x a week for 6 months, likely continued after that, but they initially only give 6months at a time. That's fine too!

All very positive. So.... moving forward :-)

[SpottedFoxx]

That's wonderful news!  Good for you for pushing the issue and getting your child the help he needs.

[kentuckymom]

I picked up on this thread late, but I just wanted to encourage you to hang in there, and keep pressing to get your son what he needs. My son had an articulation disorder that is almost cleared up at this point (he's seven and will soon enter 2nd grade). He received speech therapy through our state's early intervention program from 2-3 at home and then moved into public preschool at 3 where he received speech therapy twice a week for 1/2 hour. The therapy helped him and he made progress, but, even so, his kindergarten teacher said he was the hardest to understand of all the kids she'd had in her 12 years of teaching. What made the biggest difference was finally having his tonsils and adenoids removed between kindergarten and first grade. If you haven't already had that checked for your son, make sure you do that. My son still struggled with speech after that, but he made much faster progress. There were all kinds of sounds that his huge tonsils were stopping him from making, that he could suddenly learn to produce with relative ease.

This may not affect your son, but I wanted to give you a heads up that speech disorders are often an early indicator of eventual reading disorders. This was true in my son's case, and our big battle has moved from teaching him to talk to teaching him to read. This may not affect your son at all, but it's something to look our for when he's beginning to be taught to read. 

Also, I know from experience that random friends and relatives who know a little (or even a lot) about ASD just love to "diagnose" a child with speech disorders with ASD even if he shows absolutely no other signs (or they manufacture the signs from something else, for instance, my son was noted as exhibiting "flapping" behavior when he was pretending to be a bird :)). Trust your instincts, not random friends and a relatives.