Autism

[sherrardk]

Is anyone here an 'expert' on Autism and autistic tendencies? I have started looking on the net but it is all a bit confusing. thanks.

[NOX]

Hi Sherrad, I didn't realise that you too have a non talker. My son Ciaran didn't speak ( his elder sister spoke for him) until he was 5 or 6 years old. He's on the lighter end of the autistic specturm, so much so that most people would not notice anything unusual about him, except that he can ocasionally suffer form sensory overload in crowds and has a maths obsession and acan obsess over odd things occasionally, but all to such a slight extent that to an outisder it's entirely unnoticeable. We went down the speech therapy route etc and found it to be pretty frustrtaing, and health visiotrs are a patronising nightmare, so I'd entirely disregard them if I were you, as we found them to be a total waste of time. One to one is certainly the answer, and he's now perfectly understandable to the vast majority of people, and suddenly seemed to pick up and run with the idea of talking rather than signing or speaking through his sister. I am sure everything will be well with your little one, and as his mother you will know best, so don't be pushed into a method that you're unhappy with, but for us one to one was definately the answer so I think you're on the right track.

[bertiebear]

Just a thought, but could your son be suffering from selective mutism? If his speech is clear when he does speak this could be something worth considering. BB

[boxtops]

If it's any encouragement, my OH didn't speak at all until he was 4 - his older brothers and sisters used to understand what he wanted, he didn't need to speak, just gesture.

Re health visitor training - yes, they are healthcare professionals, they have to have qualified already as a registered nurse or midwife, then move onto a full-time university HV course for a year before they gain the HV qualification.
They are not medical - medical relates to doctors - they are clinical.

[sherrardk]

Hi all - I've got the boy an appointment with the doctor tomorrow to see if she thinks there is any value in getting him assessed by someone (not sure who) to see if he has a problem elsewhere which is making him not talk - he has some traits which seem unusual in a child of three so there might be something not wired up correctly. (Unfortunately it is the mean doctor so I am not holding out much hope of getting a sympathetic reception.)

[cathfromsaron]

mmm ... not an expert per se, but i have an adult daughter with dyslexia . what i have learned is don't rely on the experts to have enough time to tell you anything and use your mother's instinct.

maybe that certain group was unsuitable - maybe you could have stayed a bit longer - but at least there are services for you. 100 jigsaw pieces at aged 3 seems brill to me. have you had all the hearing tests? do you speak clearly yourselves (not being funny but if the tv is on or you have a house full of noise this can affect development to a certain degree).

understanding/comprehension comes before speach. do you play pairing games and snap? any colour/number/letter recognition? does he sit and enjoy a story?

http://uk.ask.com/web...=dis&siteid=&gct=serp

don't know how relevant this will be?

good luck and don't let 'the professionals' get you down!

cath x

[sherrardk]

Hi cath - his hearing is fine (had it checked), his understanding of how words are formed is excellent (from games played at previous speech therapy, the report states the he is beyond where he should be for his age). We speak very clearly as the old children have all had glue ear at some time (to various degrees).

With regards to the language group it genuinely appeared to be a group for children with a range of issues plus speech problems where they were encouraging the children to sign rather than improve their speech. I didn't feel this was appropriate for my son and the speech therapist seemed to agree that he was too bright to be in the group. I think the main problem is that they don't know what to do for him as they have taken it as far as they can for his age, he probably wouldn't be able to do any of the exercises that should come next as they are most likely designed for older children.

[sherrardk]

Older ^

[annie0000]

Hi Sher, I just noticed the remark about the puzzles, my eldest son was like that - he astounded the nursery when he did jigsaws - usually without any picture too. He then moved on to lego and drawing and reading. He was slower to talk than my younger son but not so much that it was ever identified as an issue. We recently had an appointment with the psychology service (he is now 11) as it appears that he may be on the Asperger spectrum. In the end we and they decided against going for a formal diagnosis as it was felt that although he had the traits, they were not consistent and at best any diagnosis would be borderline. It seemed to be more manifest if he was stressed.

You may very well be dealing with something similar. Definitely worth persuing, but I would say that he had a session with Speech and Language therapy when he 7 (we still have no idea why he was referred there as our view was that he was inattentive in class because he was bored!!) and they concluded that he had no issues with language etc. but was very bright though hesitant to voice opinions (he is still the same) and was most likely bored.

Let us know how you get on.

[sherrardk]

Hi Annie, thanks for that.

Took the boy to the doctor and she said he would have to be referred to another professional (not sure what sort) by the speech therapist if they thought it was appropriate.

The mean old witch then went on to infer that I haven't been helping him as much as I should have because I have five children! Last time I saw her she cast an eye over the children and asked me if I had heard of the morning after pill. She really is an old trout and I am going to refuse to have any appointments with her in future.

[annie0000]

Sounds like the Speech and Language therapy people are the ones to be dealing with for now then, not only do they seem like reasonable people, they should be considering all the options in terms of the reasons for his delayed speech.

and as far as the doctor is concerned, she sounds a total cow and very unprofessional. Actually she sounds jealous, so maybe she is to be pitied. She obviously can't stand to see a family of beautiful well behaved children. I am the youngest of 7 and my mum always felt that we had to be the best turned out and behaved in the street so people wouldn't say that she was a crap mother........and she and my dad worked, made all our clothes, cooked us proper meals and taught us proper values, big families aren't always trouble.

[albaqwerty]

oooh sherr, that GP is lucky to still be breathing. What a total utter insult to her profession.

My now 17 year old son was sent to Speech Therapy when he was 2 1/2
(Sent is too strong a word but I hope you get the gist) He was just lazy.
His brother used to try to speal for him but we discouraged that as best as we could.