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

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Yes it was

My son has been sick for the past week and not able to go out. Today he is feeling much better and about an hour ago he came up to us and said "store." I have never heard him say this and I don't remember teaching it to him. Anyway I took him to the 7-11 down the street to get a snack!

Great! He probably learned it from a video or YouTube.

I was thinking he might have overheard us saying it at some point and remembered.

Could be. It depends on the child.

My younger son picks up a lot of speech this way. However, with my older son with classic autism, just about all new learning comes with the use of some sort of visual aid. This was really true when he was younger and the speech wasn't developed well at all.

Sometimes, he would come up with a new word or phrase that I hadn't taught him. Then I would figure out that he was pulling something from a video that he was watching all of the time. (I am generally familiar with the contents of his videos, but I don't have them memorized word for word..)

I see. My son does tend to pick up words from us. He also asked for "chicken" (as in chicken nuggets) for the first time ever yesterday.

Did you find it helped your first son to talk more when your second son started talking? I have a one year old son too, he does not have a speech delay and is starting to talk. I am wondering if this will help my first son.

They certainly talk and socialize together now (when they are not fighting), which is good for both of them. I have also heard of a younger child helping the older child's speech.

Fortunately, my older son's speech is actually a little better than his younger brother's speech. (Younger brother has speech issues, too, but he is doing much better than my older son at the same age). I think that maybe my older son is actually helping my younger son's speech, in fact.

My older son is a little over three years older than my younger son, and a lot of his major speech breakthroughs came when he was between 3.5 and 5.5,, and my younger son was too little to help during that time period.

My older son has learned a few words on the fly, such as "blubbernuts," a made-up word that my husband says. However, most of his speech can be traced back to home-based speech lessons and our massive library of speech and other educational materials that we have at the house (videos, DVDs, picture books, flashcards, computer programs, posters, games, tons of homemade visual materials, etc.) Our house looks like a combination of a library and a daycare center.

Also, now that my older son is in school, he has to learn specific things, and he has to learn them as fast as possible. The visually based materials are essential for helping him to learn a large volume of specific information as fast as possible.

I will also note that I've done a lot less one-on-one work with my younger son. A lot of times I've worked with both him and his older brother at the same time or let the little one learn this or that on his own or via computer or video. The older one places pretty heavy demands on my time and cannot really learn adequately without help. The younger one learns a lot faster than the older one and could very easily have no speech issues at all at this point if he had gotten all of the individual attention that my older son has received.

A big drain on my time is still finding and making materials--not enough well-made, readily affordable, easy to find stuff for a high functioning seven-year-old. I had hoped to make some more stuff for my website and YouTube channels, but I'm in the position of just slapping things together as quickly as possible to keep up with everyone's needs rather than making products that are appropriate for use by the general public..

Finally, I have remembered that my older son with classic autism did know about 20 "words" at age 2 without being specifically taught. These were actually parts of words or sounds that meant something to him--"ba" for bottle, "brrrr" for car, and a few others.

Oh, I see. That's interesting. You know my son never did this. He totally skipped the whole "mama dada" stage too. He was babbling and started coming out with words like "dinosaur" when he was around 2. He is almost 3 and a half now.

Second son is 2 and a half and is copying a lot of what #1 says...most of their interaction at this point is wrestling like puppies though. For a while my son was initiating peek-a-boo games withe the little one.

Having the kids so close in age, that will help a lot with the speaking, and socializing, especially with the one who is neurotypical being the younger one.

Did your first son use a lot of jargon/babbling? Mine does all the time. Sometimes I wonder if he's actually trying to say something. For example we often get a long slew of jargon followed by "Do you understand?"

Or sometimes it seems he's pretending to join a conversation by using the jargon. I wonder how long it will be before this develops into real language.

No, my first son was very quiet until we treated him for selective mutism with Prozac at just under age four. Then, he started chattering a lot, but it was not correct speech--a regurgitation of various lessons from flashcards and videos.

The majority of kids with classic autism that I've seen have been quiet, too at young ages.

My second son (more AS and OCD) was never quiet. He has more in the way of articulation problems, not understanding how to answer "why" questions yet, and I think that his vocabulary could be better for his age and intellectual ability. Also, my second son has such fixated interests that appropriate social speech is a problem. He wants to ask over and over what color something is or ask me to read every "exit," "warning," "employees only," and "no smoking" sign that he sees.

I have heard of other kids with classic autism babbling. There is one that goes to my son's OT office that shouts and screams quite a lot,, in fact.

I personally think that a child's personality and comorbid mental health issues can play a lot into the presentation, particularly regarding sociability.

You know based on what people say about "classic autsim" kids here and on other forums (and vidoes seen on Youtube) I honestly don't think my son fits this diagnosis at all. My wife has brought this up with the doc and was told "let's just assume it's ASD for now." He does not have any official diagnosis and the doc just says he has "autism-like symptoms." This is so frustrating.

Another thing, maybe you guys can't identify with this but HALF the kids in his "social skills/OT" class (quite literally the only service we get here) have a foreign (not Japanese) dad--yet no one questions this. Doesn't this sound strange?

I can't wait till I am out of this country and can get a real diagnosis and services.

He could be autistic without really being "classic," like my younger son, with an apparent combination of Asperger's and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (for which he is now on 20 mg/day of Prozac and has shown a lot of improvement). Kids also vary a lot on the level of functioning, depending upon amount and type of therapy received (home-based therapy counts), comorbid psychiatric illnesses, and intellectual ability.

High intelligence has a much better prognosis, even if no therapy is received.

About the foreign dads at the OT place, I bet that they have other things in common, too, or maybe foreigners are directed to this particular facility.

Around here, there seem to be a lot of engineer/lawyer combinations where the child ends up with classic autism. (Dad is an engineer and mom is a lawyer). Austin has a hugh tech industry and a huge supply of government lawyers. Some people theorize that certain professions are more AS-friendly, and ASD has been associated with increased education and increased maternal age. I have a law degree that I'm not using, and my husband has a civil engineering degree that he's not using.

Anyway, being around other kids on the spectrum and talking with other parents can certainly help you figure out what is what.

Yeah. You know, now that I think of it, I read a study once that said ASD/Aspie guys are more likely to live abroad at some point (and marry there) than NT's...

I have the feeling that my son is probably more like your younger one.

The testing they did here was so limited...the diagnosis we got was basically based on a couple of 2-hour appointments if you can believe that. No evaluation by a team of experts, no home evaluation, etc.

I think it would be great if he is more like my younger one. I mean, my younger one's behaviors can drive a person crazy, but he has a long-term better prognosis because he functions at a higher cognitive level than the lower one.

Also, when I went to the child psychiatrist yesterday with my younger son, he pointed out that the Prozac will not completely eliminate his fixations. He just won't have a complete meltdown if prevented from engaging in a desired behavior and will still need therapy. I have found this to be true, and I am working with an ABA therapist to help modify his behaviors. (He is a lot calmer and happier and less fixated on letters. However, he has developed some new wierd interests and fixations, incidentally).

The ABA therapist is also helping him to use the scissors and eating utensils correctly, dress himself, try new foods and eat a full meal before saying, "I'm finished," and use the toilet.

I can figure out how to do just about everything that needs to be done, but trying to do it all is overwhelming. It is very good that you help your wife so much.

I have also used a "mother's helper" at times in the past--basically a nanny who comes into the house a few hours a day to help me with this or that. That could be an option for your wife since there is little in the way of therapy where you are. There are a lot of household and childcare duties that she is probably performing that could be performed by someone else, giving her more time to work with the kids.