GLP and autism

My 6 year old sometimes can't choose between things either. He is definitely NT.

OP I think you should see someone about this anxiety, you are excessively worrying about your child who is developing perfectly fine.

A GP and HV will not refer a child that is ticking the boxes of all of their developmental milestones, which your child is.

The HV won't refer you because there's nothing to refer you for and services are so stretched that even children who desperately need it can't get seen!

Seriously OP, your child sounds bang on track. So what if she doesn't make choices, she's not even 2!
I was exactly like you and really regret the time I spent stressing about my baby instead of just enjoying him. Seriously, what will be will be. If she's autistic, she's autistic, but NOTHING you are saying here says that to me.

Is this for real?

My nt dcs all repeated the last word of what we said - v normal toddler speech

Autistic female cousin was very different with speech at this age - would repeat the intonations of words without actually saying words, or repeat the same syllable over and over

@Claire123ee I think you need to relax a bit and just model good language for your DD.

DD1 has ASD (not diagnosed until 15) and learning disability. Her language was really quite disordered as a toddler/young child. For example, she would say 'it pink and it go wee' instead of 'slide'. She'd say 'chicken and handle' instead of 'satay stick'. She referred to herself in the third person (still does, often, at almost 19). She missed out connectives (I not know what to do).

https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/conditions-and-treatments/procedures-and-treatments/speech-and-language-development-12-24-months/ This might reassure you.

She’s not even 2! My 3 year old often struggles with choices.

It really sounds like you’re looking for something when it seems from what you’ve written you have a typical 21m old whose learning lots

My now 21 year old was a late speaker for who went from saying very little to speaking in whole sentences. My dad reckoned that she was simply absorbing the words everyone around her were saying. All LOs develop at their own pace. Your DD is still very young; enjoy her, read to her and talk to her.

Seriously, just stop. You are massively over thinking and over researching instead of just enjoying your child. I really don't know why you're doing this to yourself.

They're is absolutely no reason for you to be looking for something to be 'wrong' with your child. I speak as a career long teacher of autistic pupils, and well educated in child development.

Even if you approach a private SaLT they will probably say that it's too early for them to assess her.

GLP has been popularised by instagram and Marge Blanc who makes money from selling a therapy package based on it (the NLA). There is a soon to be published systematic review that has found that there is no evidence base supporting the idea that children need the NLA and in fact the idea that children are either GLP or not is in fact problematic itself. If you have concerns about your child’s language development talk to a professional such as a health visitor or a speech therapist. Please don’t diagnose your child based on instagram posts (or mumsnet posts!)
For people interested this is an example of some of the concerns raised about GLP as a concept. - less flashy than instagram but perhaps more measured.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11113044/#:~:text=The%20term%20'gestalt%20language%20processor,of%20NLA%20lacks%20empirical%20support.

So he is a bit older. We initially had SALT through the NHS, but the appointments were few and far between, and he was eventually discharged from them as sessions weren’t deemed necessary for him anymore (though they very much were necessary, he just didn’t meet the threshold). The referral happened very quickly, when he was eventually out of hospital he started with the NHS so around just over a year old, but again that’s due to his medical history which we’ve discovered causes medical professionals to act with alacrity (we never had to wait more than two hours for a GP appointment for example). I really don’t know if he’d have been referred without his medical history to be honest. Anyway, I work with children so knew his speech was still way off where it ‘should’ have been, so we went private, and he still attends. The appointments have me by the throat. They are financially a huge commitment for us, but the difference they make to him is just unbelievable, so we make it work for which I am very thankful!

HI OP, my eldest is DS is autistic and a gestalt language processor. He could do pretty much none of your list at 21 months. He had probably 6 words and his understanding was almost non existent. I don't see anything concerning in your OP.

For us the echolalia, when it came, was very pronounced - repeating entire questions back to us (not just the last word). Total pronoun reversal as well. Scripting was the ability to recite an entire Peppa pig episode word for word whilst not being able to answer "What's your name?". Interestingly his pronunciation was always perfect first time.

(He's now nearly 7 and doesn't stop talking, still reverses pronouns here and there though!)

In most areas it's extremely hard to get SaLT intervention from the NHS before the age of 3. I strongly doubt a child with 100 words before this age of 2 would qualify anyway I'm afraid, which is probably with the HV doesn't want to refer.

I don't know how to say this without sounding a like a patronising dick, but you will drive yourself mad with all the developmental stuff (I've been there) so just step away from Google and try to enjoy your DD, who sounds lovely btw.

My DS has GLP and autism.

When he was 21 months he had very little speech, but when he 2-5 this is what he was like:

1. Showed little understanding of what was said to him. Couldn't follow instructions, answer question or make choices.

1. Could talk, but most of his speech was recited. He could recite books, whole scenes from TV (e.g. Bingo, Peppa Pig etc).

1. He would attach phrases to objects e.g. the street light on the road outside was called "all dark night" because of something DH once said when holding DS up to his bedroom window at night.

1. As he got older, he showed some understanding of what we said, but had limited means to communicate back. He once accidentally hurt me, and DH told he he should say sorry, so he recited a scene from Bing where Bing has to say sorry to Flop. I think that was his way of saying sorry!

Funnily enough learning to read massive helped his independent speech - which goes against conventional wisdom that speech skills come first before you can learn to read!

He's 10 now and his speech is fairly normal, but he's not alway clear and sounds like younger child. He occasionally gets a little jumbled. He still struggles to follow instructions sometimes.

Our NHS SALT is only just learning about what GLP is, and this is where she was able to identify it in my son. Private speech therapists may be more likely to knowledge about it. Meaningful Speech online is helpful if you wanted a simple no nonsense overview of it. In simple terms GLP is a whole > parts way of acquiring language whereas analytical is parts > whole learning. Most NT people are analytical learners and only take the information they need from their environment, which leads to flexible, buildable language skills. An autistic GLP will likely take everything in from the environment and take whole chunks of information in, and will use this to break down and place meaning to at a later stage.

Your DD isn't presenting any traits of anything, despite you looking for them really, really hard. There will be kids with GLP and autism doing these things at 21 months, because all kids are doing them - autistic or not. This is not evidence and the fact you've latched onto that one answer, rather than all the others reassuring you, shows you aren't coming at this from a healthy place.

Instead of GPs and HVs analysing your healthy, completely normal DD, go and talk to them about you health anxiety.

Otherwise enjoy your baby, enjoy her changing and developing without googling each milestone to see how it compares.

i have just read about GLP (never heard of it before) and from your posts your daughter doesn’t seem to have any signs of it at all! I think you need to stop going down rabbit holes on Instagram, stop worrying and enjoy your daughter

I’d be more than happy if my son were able to do all of that at that age. Yes he’s a boy not a girl yes, but for example he is a gestalt language processor, speech delayed, hyperlexic and autistic. His language acquisition has been many single word gestalts, still at the age of three he rarely strings two spontaneous words together. He has gestalts that are short phrases, that are scripts, so ‘bye bye’ ‘all gone’ it’s (whatever it is)’. Everything is factual and I do not ask him questions given he doesn’t understand reciprocal language yet.

Some NT kids can be a combination of both analytical and GLP, and yes echolalia is common at that age in typically developing children. I don’t think you need to be overly concerned, I hear my son’s peers do exactly the same thing all the time and they’re mostly NT. Makes notes if you’re concerned, but there’s so many typical things there that I really wouldn’t be concerned. the imaginary play, the shared interest, the back and forth conversation, the joint attention etc. all signs she’s not autistic. To be diagnosed autistic there has to be three main atypical presentations: rigid and repetitive behaviour, atypical language development (can be either overly advanced OR delayed) and atypical social and emotional communication and processing.

I don’t know why you’d want your child to be autistic it really is a different and more difficult way of parenting, I see this all the time on here and it’s quite tiring. Just being honest.

Nothing in there points to Autism. She sounds like a completely normal 2 year old. I don't have experience of GLP, but lots with Autism including 3 Autistic DC. Not all kids it obvious at this age, my DD wasn't obvious to much later, so it's worth keeping a list of concerns, but not if doing that is going to rule your mind. 2 of my DC have had extensive speech therapy for speech delays in both receptive and expressive speech. One of the methods working with very young children is repeating what they say back to them with clear pronunciation so they'll hear the difference and eventually hopefully copy you. I wouldn't be worried by echolalia on its own at this age. If you do want to discuss the echolalia you may be able to see a private speech therapist without a referral, but you'd have to pay of course.

Eta: just remembered what that technique is called, it's recasting.

You are waaaay overthinking this OP.

Forget about GLP and autism etc... she seems completely normal.

Stop reading books or googling.

Just enjoy your DC

I use both Asperger's (it's what DS was diagnosed with) and high functioning - both are frowned upon by some people but I find them correct (for ds) and useful. Now everyone falls under 'autistic' not matter what their capabilities or difficulties are, it's ridiculous IMO. I don't know much about GLP though.

The problem you have OP is that your dd is still very little. The fact she toe walks might be a thing or not. Her speech patterns may be a thing or not. I would read up on Autism/Aspergers and write down a list of things you've noticed (because you will forget over time!) and add to it if you notice other things. This will be really useful if she does ever get assessed. If she's high functioning it's quite possible she'll end up masking and the differences might not become more obvious until secondary school. DS wasn't picked up till then - and only was due to his teacher going on a course and having an inkling.

I would absolutely keep an eye but I would try not to stress, just enjoy your lovely dd she sounds adorable.

She sounds like an entirely normal 21 month old, especially as you say 100 plus words with two words string together, that’s entirely normal language development i.e learning single words then joining into 2 words/short phrases.

With GLP children will repeat whole phrases they’ve learnt first (that’s the echolalia) and then they tend to progress to single words.

I have 1 DC with ASD and she used to script a lot as a child, but you’d know it if you saw it, she would basically become a character from her favourite show and repeat phrases over and over and over (and refer to us and her younger sister as the other characters).

I also have 1 DC without and both of my DDs have and haven’t done things on both sides of your lists. She’s still very little and not presenting with any clear ASD traits, she sounds happy and like she’s developing well so I really wouldn’t worry.