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

Post Reply New Topic

How old was your younger son when he started to communicate verbally? Did he have a speech delay at all?

My younger son did not have a speech delay at all, just speech irregularities and articulation problems (lisping, cannot say the /l/ sound). I thought that he was completely normal (other than having separation anxiety) until he was a little over two and started showing the letter fixations, and chewing on clothing. He has always been more notable for being a ball of anxiety and wierd or repetitive behaviors.

At one point, I thought that your son seemed like he was a cross of my two kids or somehow in between them on the ASD scale. Maybe that is correct. It is hard to say without seeing the child.

You know, you are probably right. I've made a bunch of videos but I don't really feel comfortable putting up "hey look at my ASD kid!" type stuff on Youtube...

My son's separation anxiety seems to be abating a bit. He was able to watch me leave for work for two days in a row without crying or grabbing on to me!

Also at his day care, the teachers have started to try and use English with him since he responds better to it (not that they really speak it with any fluency.) They have reported that my son corrects them when they mispronounce words.

Oh yeah. He also answered a question with a gramatically correct sentence for the first time ever last night.

Mom: Are you thirsty?
Kiddo: I'm thirsty.

(He usually just repeats the question or just totally ignores us when we ask something like this.)

Sounds like he's making progress!

My boys are making progress, too.

I have a collection of children's picture books on appropriate behavior by Joy Berry. For my older son, I had put adhesive labels over each page of the text and replaced it with a simple question and answer about the picture. I always used one color of marker for the question and another for the answer and made everything nice and large. I also have the Social Stories Picture Book by Jed Baker, Phd.

I am now using the books with my younger son, and he is really enjoying learning about correct and incorrect behavior. I don't read all of the text (not that there is a lot) in the Social Stories Picture Book with my younger son. I just look at the side by side pictures of right and wrong choices and go over that.

My older son is having trouble with retelling fiction stories that he reads. He can now read fluently and answer questions as we go along, but he has difficulty summarizing the story after the book is closed and put away. I have a bunch of books based on Disney videos (we have practically all the videos and DVDs and always use close captioning or English subtitles). He has a bunch of Disney books where all of the text is replaced in the fashion that I used with the Joy Berry books, and some with the questions and answers written in the books under the text. Now, I am putiting structured, written retelling of the story sections in the backs of these books in order to make sure that he at least has the concept of retelling down and has an appropriate model in his mind. We did reading the story and writing in a journal about it for several months, and there was a lot of improvement, but not enough.

Anyway, how is everybody else doing? What is going on with all of you?

I'm coming back from Stefano's ABA monthly supervision. He just turned 4 and he's beginning to repeat syllables and animal noises. That's beyond my expectations, but there's so much work to be done...

So much work to be done is right. However, I know several people with adults with LFA, who are much harder to work with and take care of than little kids. The more progress than you can make when the kids are small, the easier it will be for everybody in the long run, I think.

I'm glad to here that he's making progress!

I don't know LFA people, only some HFA kids that do speech therapy with my son. I don't know actually if Stefano is LFA or HFA... he functions pretty well when he has to reason and can make friends and play with peers, but his language is really impaired. He progressed this summer because he understands better what people say.
I'm doing ABA with him since I joined WP, 11 months ago. Many times I tought I never would see a day like today, but I didn't want to complain with you. I'm doing it now... I know I'm really weird.

We all have bad days. I recently got on Prozac myself, which helps with both anxiety and depression. I told the doctor that trying to help both of my kids was making me stressed out. I told the doctor that I'd rather go on meds than just give up or fail to take care of my kids properly. I know several moms here who end up on Prozac, Zoloft, or Xanax because the situation with the kids is so stressful. (Also, those who struggle with depression or bipolar are more likely to have autistic children, so some may have ended up on meds anyway.)

So you are not alone if you are tired, stressed, or depressed.

I know this question comes up a lot but what exactly is considered LFA? Not really for our kids but when they get older? Completely non-communicative with massive sensory issues, having to live in some sort of group home once they reach puberty?

LFA stands for low functioning autism, and a lot of people don't like that term. With adults, it is generally applied to non-verbal individuals who pretty much cannot function independently or live on their own. You know it when you see it.

I don't think that it is really very useful to label a young child because the functioning level can change a lot.

I would personally say that my own 7-year-old is HFA. He has classic autism, but between loads of therapy, tutoring, and medication, he is talking, reading, attending a regular second grade class at school (with some assistance at school and a whole lot at home). How far he will get job-wise, education-wise, etc., I cannot say. He is a gifted artist, and I think that maybe he should pursue something in that direction down the line, but I don't know about a regular 8 to 5 job in an office, and I cannot see him doing unskilled labor.

I also don't know if he will ever move out on his own. If you've seen the Rainman movie, that is kind of what I'm dealing with with my older son. He's only seven, though, and I'm trying to take things one step at a time.

Thank you

My brother got married last night and children weren't invited to the wedding so my son stayed with his Dad nearby until the ceremony was over - it didn't take long. Children were invited to the reception though - it was held in a large hotel and we only knew a few people there (only a handful of people were there for my brother and well over a hundred for his wife most of them filipino), the music was very loud and there were a lot of people dancing with sombreros and maracas ... it was not an environment that my son had ever been exposed to before and I didn't know how he would react. My son has sensory issues when he's in a public bathroom because he can't stand the sound of the toilets flushing ... I figured he'd have a melt down with that level of noise. That's not what happened though ... as soon as he heard the music and saw the flashing lights it was like he was high. He repeatedly went on the dance floor and started dancing, breaking out all kinds of moves I'd never seen before. He was the life of the party. When he wasn't dancing he was running laps at top speed down the hallways and playing with the elevator though that got pretty old after a dozen or so trips ... this went on for roughly 6 hours (the wedding was at 6PM and we left around 1AM) and my 3 year old never got tired.

Sounds like great fun!

My older son flipped out at my sister's wedding reception when he was 3.5 years old. My mom was supposed to be watching him, but she left him alone at the buffet table when she went to go put her plate down on the table where she was to eat. Well, he freaked out.

I heard this loud screaming. My son was terrified about being left alone and had crawled under the buffet table and started screaming.

I was annoyed with my mom at the time, but I think I'm the only one who remembers the incident today.

Personally I don't like big parties and chasing my son around for 6 hours wasn't fun either ... but watching him dance was priceless. I wish I could have filmed it (I tried) but the room was too dark and it didn't turn out.

I have been reading some of the posts and I have to admit I'm really more confused about the labels than before.

I've been having a love/hate relationship with our child psychologist who has now told us our 6yr old daughter is
- highly intelligent (which is good) although she refuses to cooperate for full an IQ test.
- but has not had enough ABA therapy in her early years so she is "severely autistic"

So "severely autistic" I take to mean LFA. The issue is our daughter is selectively mute in front of people other than immediate family. She has, of late, become hyperactive and little physical and defiant with the teachers at school which has flavored the psychologists observation.

Since putting her on medication (Ritalin) she is concentrating better at school but her social skills are still developing. I am keen to try SSRIs to help with any remaining anxieties she has but my wife is not. Another trip to the pediatrician to talk about meds.

Glad he had a good time and glad he didn't have a meltdown!