my 3yr old doesnt say much

[kizabr]

Hello! I am new to this message board thing, not really sure what to put here. I guess I will start from the top. My son turns 3 in January. He only says about 15-20 words. I had a company called First Steps come out, they did their testing, and came back with he was mildly Autistic. THey said that on the scale they use, He was ranked at 3.5. I dont see it. I have looked at all the "symptoms" of autism and the only thing that he seems to have, it the being non verbal. I am trying to see if anyone else has or has had this problem. I dont know what to do to help him. It doesnt seem to bother him but it is driving me nuts not knowing what he wants. We started Sign Language and he has learned over 30 signs in about 2 months. He completely understands what we tell him, he does what he is asked/told to do, he just dont talk. I dont think he is autistic...I think he is a late talker. I just dont know what to do to help him. Does anyone have any suggestions????
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Thanks a lot! Dont really know where to turn!!!

[Mom2Adam]

Message boards are a learned art. You will get there just by reading and searching and watching what others do.

As for your question....I am pretty new to THIS board, but very active on others. I came here because my 3YO son is 'delayed' with his speech. Although I had him evaluated at 17MO with our local EI team, I had to force the request for speech therapy through and even then was not pleased with the work the that (young, inexperienced) SLP did with him. I quit that after 7 months of zero improvement that I could pin on what she was doing.

Fastforward to today - he turned 3 in August. He says 35 words and thankfully knows 100+ signs. It is SO painful when we cannot get something that he is trying to tell us. He doesn't get frustrated, thankfully, but we can see in his eyes how sad it makes him.
We finally had another evaluation and he was given the diagnosis of DEVELOPMENTAL VERBAL DYSPRAXIA. We are glad to know what we are dealing with, but crushed at the reality of the hard work we ALL have going forward to get him to where he is understandable to others.

My thoughts for you are: apraxia is unique in each child. It is hard to diagnois. If you are not comfortable with what was given as a test result, then ask for another evaluation. Kids are hard to pin down and definitely perform at varying levels on different days.

You might be describing Aspbergers- a very high functioning form of autism. There are MANY adults with it, who went undiagnosed because it is a pretty recent acknowledgement by the medical community.

Anyhow - read up on apraxia. Read up on phonetic disorders. Sort through the unfamiliar language and perhaps something will ring true with your child. I know that apraxia only partially meets what I see when I look at my son, but I can tell you that with specific therapy, and Omega supplements, he has added some brand new words and sounds, in just 2 short weeks!

Be an advocate for your child - no one else will do it as well as you can. Ask 1,000+ questions....and read everything.

I wish there was a perfect answer, believe me, *I* want that answer too!

HTH. (hope that helps )

[Mac]

Hello,
I would recommend reading The Late Taker by Marilyn Agin, Lisa Geng et al for more information about delayed speech. You are already moving in the right direction by questioning a diagnosis that you see as incorrect. Developmental Pediatricians are usually good at discerning different forms of language delays and disorders.
Sign language can be a great tool until your child develops a larger vocabulary. If you don't have access to speech therapy through public school or a private SLP, you can still work on speech issues at home. My son has apraxia and couldn't move his tongue to even lick his lips when he was 2. Giving him pudding (with a bit of milk to thin it slightly) to drink with a straw helped and so did lollipops. Two years of speech therapy helps too. We repeat everything back modelling correct pronunciation. If we know he can say it, sometimes we'll repeat what we heard (like when he says 1,2,3,door, I say "Door?" and point to a door and wait to hear "fff"- "or" or 4.
Good luck!
Mac

[MOM2CHRIS]

Hi,

So nice to see proactive parents . I see so many parents at my sons school who are either in denial, or find the going too tough.

Go with your instincts!! If you think the dx is wrong, go to a developmental pediatrician and say that you think it's wrong and here's why. Don't be afraid to second guess a doctor, they are only human after all and alot of them just go with the flavor of the month dx.

My son too was initially put on the autism spectrum. I told the doctor that no way was he autistic, not even low end. When I went to the dev.ped she totally agreed with me and for exactly the same reasons I had without my having to say a word

It's great that your son doesn't get too frustrated when you don't understand him. And kudos to you for starting sign

The only thing I can tell you is what mac says. Go to a developmental pediatrician and go from there. They are usually a great resource of information and a starting point to where you need to go next.

Even though we go to speech privately, we also turn everyday life into some kind of fun way to learn speech. Lots of kids games are a great way to practice. We have the go diego,go matching game and Christopher has to at least try to say the words and numbers on it.
I really have to make speech fun at home because my son is stubborn with a capital S. so, i go with the flow with which game he wants to play, and i've been able to turn every board game we have into therapy.

Remember, go with what you think is right. You're already doing great!

Sandy