Language symptoms?

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So, my oldest kid, who is 5 and in kindergarten, got approved yesterday by the school to undergo evaluation. they are suspecting that he falls somewhere on the spectrum.

I have a little trouble understanding the peculiarities in the language descriptions they mention that are typical for those who fall on the spectrum? My kid spoke starting around ages 1.5 or so. I feel like he didn't always understand, but he repeated. Word-for-word, actually. I am finding that i can have a very simple conversation with back and forth words with my youngest child, who is 2, since he was 1 years old, and i couldn't have the same type of conversation with my oldest when he was around that age. he just repeated stuff a lot. he knew words for things. he knew when it was time to say stuff. (like when he'd crane his little head out of the car window and try to put in his order at the drive through, and list word-for-word, with the same inflections, what we always order. when he was like, 18-20 months old or so) but there was no back and forth conversation there.

when he was like, 2, 2.5 to 3, he would make known what he wanted known by way of pointing, and grunting and body language. but not so much with words. it wasn't until he was about 3 to 3.5 that i distinctively remember him asking for things by way of sentences. he jumped from naming things with words, to grunting for what he wanted, to using sentences. is this a typical pattern of language for people who fall on the spectrum?

also, when he name stuff, he was very very particular about putting a consonant on the end of the word. it wasn't always the correct consonant, and sometimes it would be a word not even requiring a consonant on the end, but he was very very very EXTREMELY particular about including that odd consonant at the end.

"rop" (rock)
"Fryt" (french fry)
"Grandmop" (grandma)

etc

also, i'm remember now that when he was between three and four, he'd make a statement to you, and when you asked him why, he'd answer with this off-the-wall stereotyped response that he'd heard on tv somewhere, usually when he was done with the question and didn't feel like saying anything more on the topic, or if he didn't have the words to describe something, or when he had spaced out and was thinking about something else.

His favorite response was "From three days." when he would tell you a short friendly sentence, and you asked him why? (in friendly chit chat) and he'd answer quick as a flash, without even having thought through what you asked him "From three days." and promptly end the conversation. we didn't look at it as anything other than adorable and the phrase became a staple response in the household when some one asks you something, or is grilling you, and you don't feel like answering. your answer would be, "from three days."

his other favorite response was "it's old and changed." this he got from Sid the Science kid, i think from the banana episode. it as always his answer to anything involving food. my kid has strong food aversions since he was very young, and this became what he said whenever he thought something was gross, and he didn't want to touch it or eat it. "It's old and changed." he'd say. this term also became a cute staple to our household grammar. anything gross and old (and even sometimes people, if we were being mean about some celebrity on TV or in a magazine, or if it happened upon my or my husband's birthday, and we were teasing each other about it ) would be described as "old and changed". we'd also use it to explain to my kid that something is dirty, wasn't good any more, and he couldn't eat it, or shoudln't touch it, or that's why it looks that way. he wouldn't understand all the words involved with "it's moldy." or "It's been sitting out too long." he'd look at you like So we'd reword it to "it's old and changed now." and a would go off for him and he would "get" it then.

now, after having been made aware of some of the traits of language developments of those with autism, could this things be attributed to that? should i mention them when i have to fill out the checklists they send me for school? or are they not atypical at all?

that is hilarious and so cuuute!! my son talked this way, and he's on the spectrum. he'd make sentences with mixed bits of things he'd heard me say or from cartoons. round age 3 or 4, when asked "when was that then? "he'd invariably answer yesterday, even if he was referring to something from the year before. I had to translate to people sentences like "yesterday i was in the sand with mummy and grandma told"( last year i went to the beach with mummy and grandma fell ( falled _told) ) [edit: it's "something"like this because this all hapenned in french....i'm translating into something that looks a bit like it]
translation was constant until he got to 4 years old, then it got better. Big trouble for him to remember time vocabulary still though.
i remember a funny one, he was maybe 3 years old, and coming out of the shower, he said "i'm firgererated!!"took me some time to understand he meant "refrigerated"......
i don't have a neurotypical kid , but i can tell you his friends at school could be understood by someone other than their mothers. so i think you should mention it.

LOL!! Adorable. My kid still refers to things that happened "yesterday" even if they were last week. very rarely, he'll use "last time" instead..but it's all just "yesterday" to him, he's five. he is just now starting to comprehend morning and evening.

what's more, my kid also thinks i was with him all the time. he'll tell me a brief sentence that happened at school. and i'll ask him more, and he'll get sort of frustrated, "don't you remember mommy? in music class? when ms. __ did this and that." (still not giving the full story. but in complete irritation because OBVIOUSLY i should KNOW these things because I was there.) i just would laugh to myself about it, and then last night I read about the theory of the mind, and it made sense.

"firgererated". That one would have ended up becoming a househould staple around these parts for sure.

it's a lot of stuff that i can't remember all of it right off, because it was so normal to us. and at the time, i was thinking it was normal for other kids as well. he was my fist kid, so i had no other comparisons. but i'll be sure to mention it to his counselor.

Last edited by SonicBB on 21 Oct 2010, 5:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

hahhaa mine is like that too....he'll get all mad at me "yes, REMEMBER!!"i wasn't even there darling, YOU remember....might be a part of the syndrome but i think it would be more clear if a parent of a NT child told us their kids never did this.....it always seemed so normal to me....
quick edit: it WAS a household staple. my sister still uses it. and we accidentally taught him a word that doesn't exist, he was drinking his bottle ( age maybe 11 months) and we both went "et glou et glou et glou"( that's the sound people make in france to incite people to drink, mainly alcohol) and for years he refered to drinking AND water as "glougliglou".........................
we also still say this one, that he used to say round age 4 : "miriculous"for ridiculous. i'll tell my sister"don't be miriculous", it just entered our vocabulary.........there's a thousand others too lol but it could fill a whole book.

yeah, i'll talk to others and ask if their kids did similar stuff. i wish i had something to read for comparison. i can't find much.

LOL!! ! "cookiedough" for "cookie" ended up in our vocabs in a similar mannar. all cookies are cookiedoughs.

I don't know if "typical" applies but what you describe is common to kids on the spectrum and you should definitely try to describe it to the evaluators. We were always fairly impressed at our son's vocabulary but when he was evaluated they pointed out that he really wasn't carrying on reciprocal conversation at all and should have been able to do at least 2-3 exchanges by that time (4 yo). He talks A LOT but mostly he talks AT people not TO them or WITH them. We've had some funnies too, when asked how many there are of something when there are a lot he always replies "ninety-eight two-thousand eight". He also always says "kress" for "press" even though he has no problem saying the letter P, he is just convinced that is the way the word is pronounced. I also get the "Remember Mom?" quite often!

yes, there's that too, sonicbb, does your son seem to talk AT you sometimes? try to interrupt him while he talks and say something like "wait a second, i'm busy"and see if it even interrupts the flow. once with my son i said "stop talking, i'm not interrested"( i was mad for some reason) and he didn't stop. wasn't upset. i think an NT child would start crying and run to his bedroom or something, i saw it on tv lol........

The way you described your son's language development fits my son's to a tee, and he is on the spectrum. I would most definitely include it on the evaluation if you want a true evaluation.

The only thing my son did not do was add the consonant at the end of words like you described. My son is 5 now, and was diagnosed at 2.5. I knew something was wrong when he was not having back and forth conversations and he started saying "Brought to you today by -------Public Broadcasting System...." and "Today, on Sesame Street....
He would also just say words completely out of context. I too remember my son saying "Diet Coke" when he was about 18 mos. old because he heard me ordering it all the time, and he would also say "www.com" when he was about 18 mos old.

My son was also memorizing entire small kids books that we read to him before he was 2 yrs old. I remember him walking around his 2nd birthday party saying "Happy Birthday to You" to all the adults while all of the kids were playing outside.

Oh the other thing my son did was to reverse his pronouns. He would refer to himself as "you" Instead of saying "I want to go outside" he would say "You want to go outside."

Just to reassure you, my son's speech has improved greatly with speech therapy. He now speaks in complete sentences that make sense most of the time. He still throws out random stuff all the time that catches my husband and I off guard and will make us laugh at times. He is getting much better with back and forth conversation, but it is a slow process.

Hope this helps, and I think you are doing the right thing having your son evaluated!

oh, yes, the pronouns. i know i steal every post and rephrase it so i'm going to try and make an effort lol!: my son did that too, not "confusing pronouns"but repeating word for word.
example: - mummy, you want some juice?
_ no, you want some?
-yes, you want some!
- no, YOU want juice!
-YOU WANT JUICE!

he definitely talks at you when he goes into one of his hyperfocus topics, particularly Iron Man. He can recite Iron man word for word, he even perfectly mimics the gear-sounds in iron man's suit when he walks. people not familiar with iron man often don't know what he's doing, and it's gotten him into trouble at school. his favorite stem is to jump and "land" the way iron man does when he entire's the scene. he's got it down to a science. unfortunately, he follows you everywhere you go in stores by means of this bouncing and landing method, and others think he's a spoiled child who needs to be disciplined and calmed down. the people at school informed me that he's just overstimulated in bright stores like walmart. Also, i'm relieved that he even FOLLOWS me in store now. at first he just took off and needed to be chased down and contained somehow, so he woudln't get lost or scooped up by some bad person around the corner, up until he was four even. when hes overstimulated, he will never respond to his name when you call him, so he won't come when you call him back. so i don't care how much he bounces, as long as he comes with me and i'm not running behind him, i'm straight.

but we use to adore his mannerisms when he was first learning to talk. he talked in a lot of jibberish, but had very proffessional mannersims. he was a tiny little dude, very thoughtfully gesturing in elaborate ways with his hands to get his point across in his own language. as he thoughtfully looked up into the air in thought.

I don't think i've ever noticed any pronoun issues. it was a while before he really used pronouns, i think.
right now, he studders on "I" a lot. when he's starting a sentence with "I did this and that." sometimes he studdrs on the I. not on any other word, just the I.

echolalia. its the use of scripted language. they can get the scripts from tv shows, movies, etc, such as a child who parrots tv dialogue as their side of a conversation. or it can come directly from conversations you are having at the time, like when you say "we are going out to eat" and they repeat the phrase or part of it back to you.

goes hand in hand with the inability to initiate or sustain conversation. many kids use echolalia to fill in that conversation gap. it is atypical language development.

this falls into the communication category in the diagnostic criteria for classic autism, so yes you definitely need to let the evaluators know about it. more specifically, this is the category that is not included in the asperger's criteria, so it can make a big difference in the diagnosis.


2. qualitative impairments in communication as manifested by at least one of the following:
1. delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication such as gesture or mime)
2. in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others
3. stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language
4. lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level

Out of the blue my DS will often say " P B S Kids" complete with a perfect mimic of the musical tone of those words from the TV spot. Or randomly, "go to PBS kids go dot org" I think its cute and funny. I do get odd looks from people when he says things like that around people who don't know him at all. He is progressing with the reciprocal specch so I am not too worried about it.

My son sometimes likes to listen to the messages on our answering machine, and he will quote them back word for word. In the beginning, it really worried me, but now I realize that it is helping to develop his language. He is talking more spontaneous on his own now, and makes comments about things and asks questions. He does tend to talk to himself about random things though......