DLD

[AshleyMcguigan]

I have a 5 year old diagnosed with developmental language disorder. Didn't know it existed untill then.. worried about his future with school and understanding struggles, advice or comfort welcome. x

What advice was given with the diagnosis ?
How much difficulty does he have at school ?
What have school put in place so far ?

Mine has DLD. Diagnosed at 2.5. Understood everything and could pronounce the words she said well. (less than 50. Had less than 16 at 2)
Is 4 now and only 6 months behind. Hers was sentence structure. We did several courses of therapy, the best one being BEST. It consisted of pictures and the child needed to describe what was happening. The therapist described it first, "the man is laughing". So it was teaching a sentence rather than DD saying "Man. Laugh". It did work.

My DD has co morbid ASC (what was once described as HF.) At home we focussed on reading. So much reading. I taught phonics at 3 since I was desperate for her to talk. She's ahead in reading now and it helped with her talking.

I think DLD is a broad spectrum, however there is a DLD support page on fb. Keep googling and doing stuff at home. Mine is a bit younger than yours but I used to describe everything all the time. If we were at the traffic lights I would say, "it's a red traffic light. We are waiting at the red traffic light."

It will get better. The right therapy will help.

Kevin's Carter, your description doesn't sound like DLD as it is not generally diagnosed so young and wouldn't normally be diagnosed if a child has a diagnosis such as ASC which could account for the language difficulties.

Kevins sounds like he is doing really well now.

Sorry just realised that my first post was confusing, a child can have DLD and another condition however if that condition can account for the language disorder on its own a diagnosis of DLD will generally not also be given.

@CircleofWillis That's what the peads said in their diagnosis, I am not happy but all I can do at the moment is go with it and fight for a better diagnosis, since she is only 4. Long running saga which may not help the OP. But we can at least help to help her DC with experiences of therapies.

Should add we got DLD before ASC

Not much yet done at school.. just a couple of speech therapy classes, I'm finding it difficult because there should me more support for him, we are a fluent Welsh speaking family and he's never spoken a word in Welsh.. all the schools are Welsh and they pressure him to speak it when he clearly prefers English.. I'm happy to speak whatever language he can communicate with. He's such a happy lad, has never thrown a tantrum in his life and nothing gets him down.. he's been Held back now at class from progressing to year 1 and he's upset with all his friends leaving. I of course am a very defensive mother and I just want to bubble wrap him and keep him safe from everything. Just don't want nobody to hurt him :(

@AshleyMcguigan @KevinsCarter @BackforGood

Hi everyone, I think I'm where you were at 5 years ago. I'm just wondering if anyone could update on how your DCs are now?

Hi,

I think I am struggling to know about my son's language development too. He has no issues with communication. Never had them. Gestures , understanding all well. So ASD ruled out.
But he has a severe language delay. He is much less behind in receptive but is only at single word and learnt phrases stage at 4 years of age.
He has never been non verbal but his progress is very slow.
He did have mini language explosions. Like when he started identifying people, objects, colors , animals and actions at 20-21 months of age. At the time he only communicated by pointing.
Then at 2.8 years when he started speaking. Words came fast. And now while he communicates mostly in words and phrases his speech is very far behind his peers.
He is doing good academically, always has. Knows his letters, reads small words, knows animal sounds. Understands categories like fruits, veg, animals,cloth etc
He even tells us what he did in school but in words or phrases.
You can have short conversations with him too. But very limited.
How can I help him if there indeed is a langauge disorder.

I also want to add that his language functions are largely appropriate. Answers all types of questions, labelling, choice questions, yes and no. Greets people with hi and bye. Responds to social greetings. But he keeps singing and has lots of delayed echolalia. Uses echolalia while playing with his toys. Replaying scenarios from his favorite stories or events.

@NewMum118 i don’t want to reply this and come across like I’m trying to worry you but what you said in your post rules out autism, actually doesn’t rule it out. My son is 4 next month and he hasn’t had an issues with what you’ve listed but he’s still on the pathway for an autism assessment. He can communicate, tell you what he wants and doesn’t want. Started to say when he’s sad and hurt himself. Can speak in mini sentences etc and has a decent understanding now. Also knows all his colours letters shapes animals etc but he does use echolalia in play etc. if you look look up gestalt language processing that might make things a little clearer on things from the echolalia side of things. X

@ag12345 Thanks for replying. You did not worry me at all. My son is on the path to receiving severe adhd diagnosis. In his case ASD was ruled out due to his play and non verbal communication. But we are still wondering.
Might I ask, why is your son being assessed ?

@NewMum118 That’s really interesting you’ve said this.
my son is similar to yours, we have mini conversations but not about his day but we are getting there. He is being assessed for asd/adhd. Our speech therapist has said she doesn’t think he will meet criteria for asd but thinks he has adhd. And possibly the inattentive type which has lead him to have a language delay as he doesn’t pay attention to what’s being said around him in the early years.
the hardest thing is, like your son, his play skills and other things that are typically affected by autism he doesn’t have. He enjoys playing with other kids running around etc. his main area is language development and he does have big emotions but to be honest, since his language has got better that has got so much better. What has lead to your son being on the pathway for an adhd diagnosis. I’d love to connect with you, if you want to PM, please do xx

For my son there were some classic adhd symptoms. He shows signs of combined type adhd. Always on the move. Running all day. Lack of attention on demand. So it isn't difficult to grab his attention but sustaining it is tough in activities he doesn't like
He always seeks new things, gets distracted by external stimuli very easily.
His fine motor skills were good (so we thought) but he has issues in handwriting.
Addicted to screens and I don't use twh word addiction lightly.
He is good in activities one on one but a completely different child in group. He is very defiant.
School is a big challenge. This was a surprise for us as he has always been very good in academic things. Including listening to stories and answering questions from them. He enjoyed it a lot from close to 2.5 years.
He also has an articulation issues along with expressive language delay. That is getting better now.
He was suspected to be a gestalt language learner but doesn't completely fit that too.

And the only thing pointing to autism was his mild sensory seeking and some finger posturing.
But sensory seeking is common in adhd. Finger posturing I am not sure.
It so either found in autistic kids or typical kids(primary motor stereotypy).
Only time will tell. Right now my focus is on his language development.
I don't need to work on receptive langauge. He can answer questions like what he did in school and some why questions too. But he is far from making complete sentences. And that is odd.

@NewMum118 thanks for your detailed reply. It’s difficult isn’t it. How old is your boy now?
we are also working on expressive language too as well as receptive but that has made a huge leap to be honest. My son is 4 next month.

My son is 4.5 years old. He had a similar leap in receptive language at 3.5 years. That was the time we felt a huge difference in following instructions. Seemed age appropriate to us. The SLP we consulted said his understanding is appropriate but he couldn't follow more than 2 step instructions. That came just after 4.
I wish expressive language had a similar explosion.
It is very very difficult but I am optimistic as with my son , when something clicks it stays with him. So his issues, whatever they are seem workable to me.

@NewMum118 yes so my son can do 2 step instructions now and can do some 3 step but he needs to be completely focused. He can say things like ‘I want chocolate please mummy’ and ‘come on brother let’s go on trampoline’ those are examples. Although he does sometimes need prompting to use those sentences. Our SLT says he will be conversational. It’s always so hard isn’t it. Has your son started school ok? I worry about that x