RE: Kids w/ Classic Autism, PDD-NOS & Speech Delays

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Mine started flushing cookies...

My three year old non-verbal son, who is not potty trained, just spontaneously came out of the bedroom and went into the toilet and peed in it then ran back into the bedroom.

Me and my wife were both like WHOA, then she said to me don't say anything to him! LOL

That's great, he deserves praise but I know what you mean, you don't want to jinx it!

That's great! My son is nowhere near that. Though he will sometimes go to bed by himself without being told or anything.

My son still has to have a bottle of goop(milk plus baby cereal heh) before going to bed. It must be served in a baby bottle, even though he is fully weaned and eats solid food.

We've given ourselves such a headache trying to get him to stop, I feel we should have accepted it sooner.

Potty training update - this morning my son was just standing in the bathroom for no apparent reason. Clean diaper. I thought maybe he had to go so I helped him onto the toilet and he pooped there! This is good, I hope it means he's finally understanding the process.

Sounds good! My biggest hurdle was just getting him to willingly sit on the toilet.

So my son is 4 years old and after being on the ADOS waiting list for 6 months we finally got scheduled date for November. We understand a label is just that but having some more information will really help us as it's been a long last couple years.

Can anyone enlighten me what happens during the test, there doesn't seem to be a lot of detailed information online.

I'm trying to find the best way to describe it to him in a way he'll be excited when we have to take him out of school for it so he doesn't feel out of place. He does better at things with a lot of lead time and understanding where he's going.

Thanks

Hi, I don't recall my son ever taking that test. He was diagnosed by a neurologist who observed him in his office at somewhere around 18 months, he noted stereotypical behaviors and tried different ways to engage with him to see if he'd have a typical response. For example he would say his name to see if he'd get a response then ring a bell to see if his lack of response was hearing related, sang half of "Happy Birthday" to see if my son would complete it, watched him spin in circles, flip light switches and play with the blinds rather than toys. This would probably go much differently for a 4 year old who's already in school, my son started responding to his name regularly and communicating more effectively around that age. He had another set of tests when he was enrolled in early intervention too, I don't remember if that was one of them. I think most of the parents who've been active in this thread have had early diagnosis ... I don't know if that might be a factor in whether or not their kids took that test and why no one has responded yet? Or maybe my son did have to do that when he was enrolled in Kindergarten and I just don't remember what that test was called ... sounds similar at any rate. My son hadn't been to school before but was excited to go, the Child Study Team at my son's school did similar testing to figure out which class was appropriate to place him in, what areas did he need help with and to figure out whether or not he needed a personal aid. I just told him we were going to school when he went for the testing so he was excited about it. Maybe if you just sound upbeat when you tell him about it (if you haven't already gone) he'll assume it's something fun. Sorry, that's probably not too helpful.

You just described the ADOS module 1. There are 4 different modules depending on age and language. You can tell him he will meet the doctor who will play with him with some toys, ask him to look at pictures, and ask lots of questions and its okay to ask the doctor questions too and talk to the doctor about his family, friends, and (special interests). Sometimes with younger or anxious kids they will have the parents stay in the room.

I am looking for a book/advice that can help me understand how to help my son expand his expressive language. He is 32 months and usually speaks in two-word phrases. He has a good size vocab (200+) but does not use pronouns, articles, and such. Mostly adjective + noun or noun + verb phrases. He does not use correct grammar at all. He's been putting two-words together for about 4 months now and although he does use some 3 - 4 word phrases it is things like "Dada blue car in garage", that was a direct quote and I guess it is 5 words but this is very rare and lately I feel like it is taking some prompting to get him to use more than one word phrases. For example he will say "Kitty" and I will say "what about the kitty" and he will say "Kitty move", I just made that up but you can get the gist of it, I hope. I am not trying to sound like an over anxious or fanatic parent but I just need help with where to go from here. He does get ST once a week through ECI. I've brought up my concerns many time with the therapist and she has said that what I am asking for is not age appropriate ( like using pronouns - he doesn't use ANY - not "mine", "my", "me" or "you", NONE) but I really beg to differ and we are on the waiting list to see a private therapist. I would really like to hear from parents that have been in this situation and what helped them and their kiddos.

Also, during the next couple of days I am going to be writing down exactly what his phrases are and their intent. I think this will give us all a clearer picture of what is going on.

Thanks!

Putting aside books for a minute. I found the most useful way to expand my daughter's spoken language was to focus speech on her passions or special interests. If your son like cars for interest then obtain flash cards or PECs for your computer with sentences that relate to the pictures of cars (as an example). This definitely accelerates the process faster than relying on some generic system.

Sounds like your son is maybe a bit more verbal than some of ours at that age. My son started acquiring language around the same time and is definitely verbal now but at 5 1/2 still struggles with some of the things you mentioned. If he uses bad grammar I usually repeat essentially what he's said the way I want him to say it and ask him to repeat what I've said. I don't know what to recommend in regards to the specific areas of language you want to work on but in general using educational apps on the ipad and almost constantly having English as a second language and educational kid's shows playing on the TV helped him progress.

My son is quite similar. He's 4 now but at the start of the year he only spoke 2-3 word sentences. Over the past 3 months he has suddenly excelled greatly and has a large vocab and can speak 10+word sentences. His grammar is still very poor, he also repeats a lot and even we have a hard time understanding him at times. Communication is still his biggest struggle but really he's made leaps and bounds. A lot of autistic children seem to struggle for so long and then something just clicks and they can astound you.

I wouldn't worry as much on the grammar as just expanding his vocabulary and trying to give him every opportunity to speak for himself. We as parents tend to know what they want before they ask, example we just say "do you want a drink?" and expect a simple yes/no response. Giving them an empty glass and having them speak for themselves really helps the process along and helps get the brain thinking differently. This is all taught in speech therapy and they would give you some papers to help you at home with guidance.

Does anyone have a non-verbal kid that "speaks" a lot but only in sounds and gibberish? I say non-verbal but that is just communicative words which he has two of at three, car and bubbles. But he is constantly making sounds and gibberish, veeWORP da da DAHHHHHH KendoJAH Ajao aJAO. Well you get the idea, none of this seems to be communicative and although some sounds and gibberish he repeats a lot is random or original.

I've been watching youtube videos and reading boards and I'm not sure I've seen this anywhere, it could very well be a verbal stim at least some of it.