DS2, 4.5, has limited speech - two/three word phrases. I'm not sure of his understanding - sometimes, it is OK and others, he is on another planet. He doesn't have hearing problems.

Initally, a year ago, a SALT and a developmental expert (not doctor) said it was autism and to only use Spanish. We live in an area with a regional language and speak English at home.

The school received considerable extra help and DS2 got weekly sessions at a local under 6 intervention centre. The therapist there says she doesn't think he is autistic. He has been very uncooperative in school. He used to bite a lot. He disconnects and appears to be in cloud cuckoo land, although it isn't that difficult to get his attention back.

A nasty separation and a year later, DS2 is making progress but is clearly struggling with language. He babbles a lot. He tells me things - often, no idea what. If I give him a very clear question, he can use part of it to answer back. We don't have conversations per se but he is trying to initiate them, just can't keep them going.

We are about to start tests at the local hospital - with a possible referral to a neurologist. The team has a good reputation. So, my questions are: do you have a child with mild autism and what are they like at home? Does your child have a speech delay at 4.5 and how are they coping? DS2 responds well to Something Special - Makaton - and the Hanen technique. How do I know if it is delay/disorder? Given that everyone is saying speak Spanish only, is there any validity in the one language approach?

Yes to specific langauge disorder, very delayed at your son's age. Great experience of Hanen,especially 'It Takes Two To Talk' our son was only diagnosed last Oct by ICAN. It was a private aseessment over two days in a classroom setting.

We have an independant SALT who visits DS at school and works alongside his TA.Disconnection tick, cloud cukoo land tick, but I guess if we were surrounded by people speaking gobbedygook all day we would zone out too.

Here is the link to my blog and our experience of Ican. there are a lot of links on the left hand side, of books and resources that I found along the way. Moondog is the lady to speak to on here, she is a SALT.

sunshinetc.blogspot.com/2008/04/ican-meath-school-assesment-part-two.html

I disagree wholeheartedly with 'orders' to only use one language.If more than 1 language is natural for you at home,then continue to use it.
I'm a salt and a product of a bilingual home, and work in a bilingual community and have a bilingula child with SLI and am a specialist in Autism so i know my stuff.

Were these peopel expecting you to switch to using a language with him that is not your native/usual one?
Where are you?

Thanks.

Already read a lot it, Tclanger - it was one of your posts that finally galvanised me to ask for some advice. Will definitely go through your references.

"It Takes Two to Talk" does work but where next? He has gone from one word to two and sometimes three. And now?

Yes, Moondog, they want to "simplify" the situation and for us all to use Spanish, as opposed to English (for me) and Galician (for the school). Obviously, pigs might fly - given the school system is in Galician and I nurture and try and support him in English, with English based resources. Nothing similar to Makaton is available here .

After the initial diagnosis, I went away and read about autism and bilingualism and nothing convinced me that dropping down to one language was such a good idea. However, if DS2's problem is a S/L disorder, would he make more progress with just one language?

Thanks, you two, I'm off to bed - all the emotion of posting is definitely too much.

Hi 1066. My DS doesn't have autism but a developmental delay due to brain atrophy. He is 3.3, his understanding is really excellent, however his expressive language is very delayed, he only speaks using single words but the list of words is very extense (he is starting to atempt little 2 word sentences). Sorry I cannot advice anything about autism, but can share our experience as a bilingual family.

For DS's first year of life I spoke to him in my mother tongue, when I found out about his problem, ALL the (excellent) professionals I saw adviced me that two languages would confuse him and that we should switch to only one language. DH is English, we were living in England so we chose to speak to him in English. In my very VERY honest opinion, it is the best decision we ever took. There is no way DS would have the comprehension he has now had we confused him with two languages. But then it took plenty of hard work to get him where he is, I am not sure how severe your DS's problem is.

What they told us is that we can include more languages after he learns English which is what I plan to do.

Hang in there 1066, I know just how you feel, Do email if you need to bend an ear.

Morning.

TinySocks - that is excellent about your DS. He sounds like he is doing really well. What sort of things do you do with him at home to support his language?

No, we're not a bilingual family. I'm English, living in Spain and I was quite shocked at how strongly I feel about raising my DSs in English.

We're getting a lot of support here but I don't quite trust the SALT who originally diagnosed because he arrived with an agenda, IMO. Mind you, he isn't the person who works with DS2, so that is OK.

Realistically, the only way of going down to one language would be moving us all back to the UK, and I am loathe to do it. The overall quality of life is wonderful here BUT if it would make a real difference to DS2 .....

Tclanger - how did you go about getting your assessment? I have thought of doing that, alongside what is happening here to decide what to do next. By the way, I am off to look at ICAN more closely, in case that answers my question.

I just wanted to clarify, when I say "But then it took plenty of hard work to get him where he is, I am not sure how severe your DS's problem is." What I mean is that my DS's language problem is severe (it took plenty of long long months of hours and hours of work to get him to start understanding something) I am sure that two languages wouldn't have worked out with him, but if your DS's problem is not as severe then things might be different for him.

You can contact ICAN via the talking point website on the left with the useful links. It was very expensive and we had to raise funds, but we have a 41 page report details M's strengths weaknesses and his needs. If we need to transfer to a speech and language unit we'll be armed with the necessary info for a statement

My DS, 4.1 has big problems with speech/understanding. ASD has "probably" been ruled out. I am waiting for a written follow up to DS paed appointment to find out whether they have pronounced on whether it's a delay or disorder....

This book (written for parents of kids with ASD) has a very useful last chapter about how to keep a "conversation" going with a kid with very limited vocabulary

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Giggle-Time-Establishing-Connection-Communication/dp/1843107163/ref=sr_1 _1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209456380&sr=8-1

One thing that massively helped with sentence length (other than hanen type building up - you know - ball! kick ball! mummy kick ball!) is using PECs (picture exchange system). So DS had a little book with pictograms - so to get him
to say "I want juice" I would get him to point to the pictograms and say the words for "I" + "Want" + "Juice". Then he progressed after the
basic 3 word requests on to more complex requests, such as I want mummy run on grass!

These websites have more info on PECs:-

http://www.pecs.com/

www.do2learn.com (has plenty of free pictograms you can print out).