[Adamsmama]

My oldest son (4yrs4mo) is delayed to a 2yr old level. He is globally delayed. He is verbal but but speaks in very short sentences and doesn't know how to pronounce all words that he tries to say. He has been very difficult to teach but originally I thought it was just his delay and the fact that he wasn't very verbal (over the past year he has become much more verbal and understands everything I say). We've been working on animals for about 2 yrs now. His ST is now working with him on farm animals, etc. He used to know that a pig said oink, oink, and a sheep said, baa, baa. Ok--that was about 3-4 months ago he got those totally learned. Now, he has lost that or they've gotten jumbled in his head. He insists that a cow says, oink oink and sometimes he thinks the sheep is called a cow instead of a sheep. This is very frustrating for me and my NT son is 2.5 and doesn't have the problem of remembering--he can remember something if I tell him 1-2 times. What could be causing this? I feel that there is something causing him not only to learn more slowly than a NT child but sometimes forget what he already knows. (Last year he knew the letters in his name and now he knows none of them). His ST thinks he has Apraxia but there is more to it than that--because he is globally delayed, as well.

 

[sbgrace]

I'm going to babble a bit hoping something helps.
My son does learn and forget at times--though not as dramatically as what you are describing. The one thing I noticed with my son is at 18 months he knew all his letters and was following really simple directions. At two years he knew no letters and had a severe decrease in his comprehension. He got it all back but it was slow. My son goes up and down a lot actually. Does your son seem to regress at all? I know in my son's case mitochondrial/genetic conditions can cause regression and skills to come and go. Has your son had a genetic work up? MRI? Any evidence of seizures? It could also be that those things weren't mastered and so he forgot them. For my special needs kid he for some things he isn't interested in he has to have a lot more exposure and repitition to master something compared to my typical kiddo. I also have problems with attention with him so it is hard to say if he is focusing--when my son is really interested in something he can learn it and remember it at least now. If he isn't interested he may parrot something but he won't learn it. For something as dramatic as what you are describing I'd be looking at underlying issues. Another thought might be that sometimes my son will answer incorectly or just ignore the question when he is not interested. Some kids hate to be questioned (like mine) and can get pretty smart about resisting that kind of pressure.