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

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My husband did that a few years ago when we took our son trick-or-treating. At one of the houses we went to a little boy dressed as Dracula was jumping up and down, flapping his arms and making noises. Given that it was Halloween he just as well may have been hopped up on sugar and excited, or maybe not ... hard to say, the person he asked looked shocked and didn't really respond. I was mortified.

LOL! parents get quite defensive don't they. In this day and age asking a parent if their child has autism is essentially (for all intents and purposes) asking if the child is disabled...,

I'm sure your husband is more careful after the Halloween incident as am I.

My son actually attempted to order his lunch at a restaurant today. He said, "I want soup" when the waiter came. I have never seen him use spontaneous language like that.

The only functional language he has at the moment is "I want" though...

Hi Wreck-Gar, your son is now 5/6? that's exactly the same age my daughter started using "I want" and it's the most basic use of language. It's a good sign that your son is reaching another speech/communication milestone. Please keep encouraging him. Now that he is asking you should give him incentives when he wants something.

Just be careful, I made the mistake of telling my daughter what do "you want" and now she copied early on and now says "you" instead of "I"...another one is "are" and "is" make sure your son hears the correct context/use as if he was asking.

Hi Cyberdad

Yes he will be turning 6 in a month. He's been saying "I want" for a while but lately he's been saying it more and without much prompting, if any.

I should also note that we started Zoloft a month ago...the doctor prescribed it for OTC symptoms, basically counting over and over all the time.

Didn't you say your daughter was taking Prozac and it was helpful?

When she started school she was put on Ritalin for her ADHD and prozac for her tantrums when she was 5. This was (to be honest) largely precipitated by the school as a tradeoff to allow her to stay in school. Her behavior has certainly moderated since she started her medication but I have deliberately not increased her dosage as she gets older (and bigger!) as I am hoping she can learn to cope with maturity.

I see. When did she start talking more? My son still only says "I want" for the most part.

He does know the vocabulary, just doesn't seem to be able to put everything together...

In my daughter's case she was around 6-7 (probably closer to 7) before she started using short sentences in speech. Yes, like your son we detected (using various methods/signs) that her vocab was ok. I know of a boy who was 8. that seems to be a common milestone age for communicative speech.

How much is she talking now?

Over the last 6 months she is telling me things that she did, however it's rarely stuff that happened during the day, she likes to map things by calendar so will tell me (randomly) something that happened to her in say Dec 3 2013 or Jan 4 2012 and recount her activity, the person involved or if she was on holiday what she as doing that day. She is still nowhere near communication skills of an 8 yr old but she is improving but lots of catching up. If prompted she will construct full sentences but otherwise resorts to two-three word short statements like "it's hot" or "Daddy sit here"

My son, who is 4, got diagnosed with PDD-NOS when he was 2 1/2. He's considered non verbal (and this still confuses me). Right now he repeats a lot of what we say to him (echolalia (sp)). I'll say "close that please" and he'll repeat the same. Still a lot of his language is gibberish (don't like this word but best way I can describe..he talks super fast and it sounds scrambled). He also has made up words that only I understand what they mean. A lot of grunting, whining sounds, and the like when he's frustrated.

I feel everyone frustration. My fiancé gets frustrated sometimes with our son and I don't blame him because I do too!

I'm already worried about preschool and all the new paperwork that'll accompany it

For kids with communication delays echolalia is what they use to compensate for processing speed in relation to verbal stimuli. It's something you just need to encourage and after while they learn to use the words in the correct context (the developmental timing varies with each child).

I get annoyed with psychologists and speech therapists using "non-verbal" to label all communication delays. It's not like they follow our children around anyway so how encompassing is this label going to be?

Just an update. We had a meeting at our son's school this morning and were given the option to either have him continue in the same contained special ed class as a first grader or hold him back and repeat Kindergarten this time in a mainstream class with an aide in the morning and return to the spec. ed. class for more specialized work/therapy in the afternoon (mainstream Kindergarten is only half a day). They said he's advanced academically for a PDD student and has been learning things in one year that typically take three - on the other hand his social skills and comprehension are delayed and he's also quite small for his age ... we decided to let him repeat Kindergarten.

About to start toilet training in our house again. This time with the help of some ABA professionals and a programme that uses video modelling and has proven to be quite successful, including toilet training adults.
So I'm cautiously hopeful but it's a bit daunting. Still will be worth it if it works, wish me luck!

Good luck!

I wish you luck as well. Toilet training, to me, is more an issue of health than of most anything else.