worried about toddler

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Hi. We have two girls, one with Aspergers and one NT. We have also got a 22 month old son, we didn't know about our daughters aspergers when we got pregnant with him and now that we know about it I have been watching him like a hawk since he was 6 months old (when we got his sisters diagonsis). I am getting more and more worried that he may also be on the spectrum mainly because he is hardly saying anything. In all his other development he is fine, good motor skills, running around, climbing, laughing, does what you tell him too, kicks a soccer ball. However all he says is 'oh dear', 'dada', 'there ' (for when he wants something) and 'quiere' (spanish for 'want'). He is being raised bi-linguel so that may be part of the reason. He does look at me in the eyes and he can anticipate feelings (goes to hide behind the sofa when he doing something naughty). Am I worrying about nothing or could this be another ASD child?

I am more interestes in how and where you got your daughters Aspergers diagnosis at 6 months old!

It sounds as if your son might be speech delayed, and yes the bilingual learning might be slowing him down.

Good luck!

I think you might want to take one step at a time.

If it's only his language development that is worrying you for now, then you could take him to be assessed for that. He would most likely work with a speech language pathologist.
If after seeing this person for awhile, they notice anything else, you could discuss next steps at that point. This would give you time to do your own research, and build trust with someone from the professional "side."

It's tricky when children are so young. Sometimes a delay is very obvious from a young age (like if there is a medical reason) but other times, it will take another year or two (or more) to see it.

My youngest has a speech delay that was diagnosed when he was not quite three. Then as his speech was very slow to come even with intervention, he was assessed for cognitive delay and ASD. When he was almost four, he seemed even more out of step with peers his age. We could understand more of what he said, but then it didn't make much sense. His behavior had also not progressed beyond a 2 year old's level.

An MRI revealed some damaged spots on his brain from lack of oxygen either before or after birth. The professionals still aren't sure about an ASD diagnosis, so we'll be checking in again in a year when he's five.

It will be an ongoing process, and it's actually been a relief to be able to deal with one new piece of information at a time.

MMJMOM is right about bi lingual speech delay. It is fairly normal for children to learn languages slower when they are around more than one (its also normal for parents to worry). How old is he now? I assume that he's over a year old if you are concerned about language accquistion. One of the things I found with my sister (autism) was that she became much more verbal but only when it was required from her. If your son is only using a few words to ask for things, it may be because he gets them so easily (All he says is 'there' and 'quire' but it works for him). By no means deprive him, but try to encourage him to pronouce words for things he wants and add to his vocabulary. As annoying as it sounds, repetitive childrens shows may also help if he likes Dora or Diego.
From everything else you've said (good motor skills, climbing, running around) he sounds like a happy kid. You said he kicks a football, does he play football games with his sibliings or yourselves? It could be another thing that requires some sort of speech (even if it is just cheering GOAL!).

It is actually a myth that bilingualism causes a speech delay.

http://www.spanglishbaby.com/2010/06/as ... ech-delay/

Here is one article. There are many others. What it does do is for example, if they should know about 20 words, they may know 7 in one language and 13 in the other, so they don't have 20 words in one language. Rather the learning of both languages should be taken into account. This can make them appear delayed in one language.

I agree a speech and language eval would be a good start. At 24 months they expect to see at least 50 words and the use of 2 word combos (" more cookies"). The Shriners offer free speech therapy in some areas of the US to kids whose speech delays don't qualify for Early Intervention. The book It Takes Two to Talk is very also good for how to encourage speech development.

I'm a bilingual teacher and it's true that it's not really a "speech delay", it's just that the acquisition may be slower or unbalanced, as a previous poster mentioned. For 22 months and being a boy, he doesn't sound too off. You say that he follows directions and commands well, so that seems like he's understanding you and everything. Does he have a tongue tie or ear infections? My 20 month old son just got his tongue tie clipped and tubes for chronic fluid and infections, and it was like almost immediately he started to attempt more words. His speech is still really unclear, but he's trying to talk a lot more. I also think it's a good sign that he is acquiring and using both languages. His motor skills sound really good as well. I would recommend talking to your pediatrician about his language skills and then going from there. He sounds okay to me though!! But I'm no expert.

Do his older siblings do a lot of talking for him? I don't know if there is any truth to this or not but I have heard parents say that the youngest kid, especially when there are more than 2 kids in the family, are slow to talk because of all the talking that others in the family are doing. Keep an eye on him but try not to be overly concerned. The other things you mention, especially that he does what you tell him to, would indicate to me that he is not on the spectrum but that is my quite biased opinion. One of the big challenges we have at our house is DS not following directions, not even acknowledging that someone is talking to him if they are asking him to do something he doesn't want to do. Also, a language delay could exist on its own without any other impairments.

You might also ask for a developmental screening of your child at the doctor

5 minute screen - good pediatricians should do something like this at least
http://www.autismunited.org/blog/5-minu ... 80268.html

Here is a list of good screening tests for 0-36 months to pinpoint specific problems.
https://www.firstsigns.org/screening/tools/rec.htm

thanks for the replys. Sorry, wasn't very clear, my son was six months old when we found out my daughter had aspergers (she was six years old). Being in New Zealand our system is different to the US. At this stage he is too young to be referred to a speech therapist, they would say he may just be behind a bit and to wait. I have talked to my daughters psychologist about it and he said he will keep an eye on him and can refer him later on if he really doesn't take off, he said because my son can anticipate our feelings (he knows we would be annoyed when he gets into my wallet so he takes the wallet behind the sofa to play with it,so he can hide) this shows 'theory of mind', a sign that is not consistent with ASD. He does make a lot of noises and he tries to sing to music, but I can't hear any actual words in most of the sounds. However I know he can hear because if tell him to put something in the rubbish bin he goes and puts it in. His two older sisters do talk for him often, which doesn't help either. It just seems that he is not interested in talking, he is extremely active and only wants to try to climb things, open things, ride on his ride-on car and get into things. He had tons of toys but is not interested in them, except the last few weeks he has started playing with the blocks (stacking them). He can get out of anything (stroller, highchair, cot) so we never get a break from him. He is very good natured and smiley, which is very different from how my aspie daughter was at that age (always distressed, grumpy). I guess I just don't know if I could handle another diagnosis, am still getting over the first one. Also because he is a boy and boys are more likely to have ASD and the likelyhood of it reoccurring because of being genetic makes me over sensitive to everything he does (or doesn't) do.

It really does sound like he's just fine. My 20 month old is also very gregarious and physical. He was able to climb a ladder at 16 months!! (It was my oldest son's bunkbed ladder) and my older son was soothing his crying saying, "It's okay!! It's okay!!" I went in there and he had scaled the ladder and was stuck!! LOL!! Needless to say, the ladder went up in the attic until he can be trusted.

I think some kids concentrate on one area of development and then other areas later on. I read that in What to Expect the Toddler Years.

You know, my brother is an NT and he could not talk until he was four while I was able to talk when I was nine months yet I am the one with Autism! Just give it time.

I wish the best for you and your son.

What do you mean? He was completely non-verbal and then when he hit four it was suddenly *boom* and he was speaking in full sentences?

Just something to consider, it is going to be very easy to see symptoms of AS if you are as you say watching him like a hawk for any signs of it. That could very possibly cause you to see things as more severe then they are. I mean I understand why you would want to keep an eye on it if your other kids have aspergers...but too much hyperfocusing on it could just cause stress for you and stress for him if he's concious of other peoples vibes.

I would give it some time as was suggested before, I mean I don't know that most people are talking fluently around the age of 2...but I can't quite remember if most two year olds I've seen do talk fluently or not.

Could you contact a speech therapist directly (perhaps informally) and confirm this is the case? Your pediatrician and even the psychologist may not be up to date with the criteria that are currently in use by the speech specialists.