Semantic Pragmatic Disorder

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Hi - my son receives Johanssen Sound Therapy, which involves listening to a piece of music each evening for 10 minutes. The CD is changed every few months and the idea is that it stimulates the neurones in the brain to process language more quickly. We don't know if it will work, but anything is worth trying...my son (T) has at least average intelligence but performs really badly on tests because of his processing speed, and like your son, by the time he has processed the first part of an instruction he has forgotten the next step. How are you finding the software? It sounds as though your son is doing really well if he is keeping up with his peers - T works at a level well below his peers and we are continually fire-fighting to make sure that this does not widen too much. Due to the Semantic Pragmatic difficulties, he is unable to generalise learning, which means that he learns something in one context, but then is unable to transfer that learning to another situation. As a result, everything has to be taught and re-taught a number of times before he learns to apply it as a general rule. Also, on occasion as he has learned something and we have thought that he 'had it', we have found that when we revisited it some weeks later he had 'lost it' again. Abstract thinking is almost impossible - T can only relate to what he has experienced, but this will expand as he grows older and has more experiences to draw on.

T had also retained a number of his primitive reflexes such as the Moro and several neck reflexes. You may remember that the Moro reflex is the one that makes a baby jump and raise his hands in line with his head, and this should disappear by about age 6 months. If you do an internet search on retained primitive reflexes you will find that it is now recognised by the medical profession that where a child retains these reflexes, learning difficulties will result. OT is necessary to integrate these reflexes. Do be careful though if you go to see someone about these, as the reflexes MUST be integrated in a certain order.

We did wonder if T had Asperger's, as his eye contact is poor, however we have discovered that he has problems with visual tracking (so his vision drifts when he is reading), and his eyes don't work properly together: to work properly, eyes should converge and focus at the same point, however T's eyes have different focus and convergence points so his focus drifts in and out, making it difficult to look at something for long periods of time or to maintain things such as eye contact. We found a great practice in Cheltenham (UK) called Keith Holland and I am sure that similar things exist in the US. At Keith Holland's practice T has vision therapy to strengthen his focus and convergence, and OT for the retained reflexes. The practicioner is well-renowned in the UK and writes for some of the leading medical journals, so we have complete confidence in him.

It would be nice to know that everything we are doing is having an effect, but I guess that only time will tell. T's teachers and speech & language therapist tell us that he will get there and we are laying the foundations now for the jumps in learning that will come. Naturally we worry, but hey, even if nothing was wrong every parent worries about their kid! I would be really interested to hear about the software and if you have found anything particularly helpful to your son. Take care.

my story is a story of defeating the odds at any cost.
Although I was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental disorder at 8 years old, I fit more into the aspergers dx nowdays. It is funny how they have so many names for different points on the scale...its really all the same thing.
Anyway, my mom was told that I would never be happy or be able to live a normal life outside of an institution by doctors. Another person told her that there was no point in teaching me social skills that I would be like a trained monkey. This was not the reality she wanted for me, so she worked really hard getting the resourses I needed. I have to admit that I was a mess as a kid. I was afraid of buildings falling on me, the dryer, people in general, electricity. At one time I had a list of 52 things that I was afraid of. I also did not want to be human...I wanted to be an animal, so I spent most of my time acting like one well into the 4th grade. I also had to be taught english as a second language because I did not congergate verbs correctly. "Being" was my all purpose adverb. I would say I being gone...or I being at my friends house. The shocker was when I scored in the moderately ret*d range on an IQ test, but when I took a non verbal IQ test, I scored 135. Now that is a language processing problem! After I was put in a hearing impaired class (I am legally deaf too), I started to "wake up" as I call it and notice the world around me for the first time. Before then I was in my own world...people were welcome to it, but I did not venture out of my world until then.
Middle school was a rude awakening to someone just seeing the world for the first time. I was picked on alot and ignored the rest of the time. My friends I would only talk to in certain places like I had bathroom friends and lunch time friends, but never spoke to them in the hall or class. Well then I went on to high school, but I developed OCD during the first year there and I just remember high school as just one long scream. I did however learn that I had special talent in art and took to learning art very easily same with poetry.
In the later years of high school, I learned that I am who I am and I cant be who others want me to be, so I stopped trying to fit in and just be myself and I found peace there. I also found healing in my art. I went on to college and am still working on a degree, I want to be an art therapist. I am also learning to be a small scale organic farmer, and I am also a caretaker for my worn out mother...Lord knows she worked hard to get me where I am.

So even though I dont have what your son has techically, if I can make it, so can he

From what I can learn about this disorder, people with SPD don't grasp the proper usage of language.

Perhaps it is similar to being told a few phrases in Chinese or some other foreign language, and knowing how to use those phrases to get what you want, but at the end of the day, it's just sound, the entire meaning and patterns of which one can't grasp.

I had/have an auditory processing disorder, which I believe is quite different. I had no difficulty with language comprehension, fluency or proficiency. I just couldn't tell that the way I pronounced words differed from the way others did.

I could cry. If you only knew how long I've spent reading & rereading everything I could get my hands on to understand my daughter - and then to read these last few posts and to find her within them.

... is unable to generalise learning, which means that he learns something in one context, but then is unable to transfer that learning to another situation. As a result, everything has to be taught and re-taught a number of times before he learns to apply it as a general rule. Also, on occasion as he has learned something and we have thought that he 'had it', we have found that when we revisited it some weeks later he had 'lost it' again. Abstract thinking is almost impossible - T can only relate to what he has experienced...

Exactly. And other pieces from other posts.

My 5yr old daughter is hearing impaired (mild/moderately deaf) which has confused the issue of her language. I have been told her language difficulty is not characteristic of her level of hearing impairment. She is obviously an intelligent girl, scoring average in an Ed Psych test due to high cognitive scores outweighed by very low verbal scores. So she doesn't have a LD. But she has a communication problem - language - and the very same difficulty with generalising learning/abstracts as mentioned above. The latter is notable among HI children - why? No-one seems to really know (I am thinking along the lines of lack of incidental learning and sensory processing).

We've had SALT assessments galore, referals back and forth from HI team to SALT - all baffled. APD has been mentioned. I'm thinking she may have APD but not in isolation as I believe one problem can cause another.
A new Communication Team has formed and they will be conducting yet another new assessment from a SALT perspective. I've given a strong hint in the past about SPD and mentioned my own father's AS, but was told by one professional (in a horrified voice) "Good lord, she's not autistic!" No, I know she isn't classicaly autistic, but yes, she does have sensory issues - food, smells, loud sounds - needs routine, rocks when tired/upset/overloaded, and in my opinion this should be considered if anyone cared to do an holistic assessment.

By chasing a "diagnosis" (not helped by my GP who said he didn't agree with "labeling" and refused to refer to anyone) I've managed to get my daughter's language/communication issues noticed, much to the schools relief as they are very supportive. We need clarification and identification so that the professionals can work with something rather than floundering in the dark as they admit they are doing at the moment.

Reading real-life people's experiences on here is very educating (and a relief). Thankyou.