semantic pragmatic disorder .... please help!

[joburg]

does anybody have experience with this or heard of it? my daughter shows all the signs but nobody, including the teacher seems to make the difference between a real autistic case and an autistic spectrum disorder (which is by far a completely different thing). i post here the link to a brief description of it: www.spdsupport.org.uk/
some symptoms (listed on the website):

Inappropriate eye contact/facial expression
Speech is fluent but lacks content and direction
Explanations and answers to questions are not specific
Comprehension is poor, particularly of abstract concepts and understanding can be literal
Interactive and imaginative play is poorly developed and there is difficulty in recognising and expressing emotion
There is difficulty following the "unwritten" rules of conversation such as turn-taking, appropriateness and non-verbal language
Weak temporal concepts cause confusion over school routine and chronological events
Auditory memory is poor but rote learning is often a strength
There are poor attention skills, erratic motivation and distractibility
They rarely ask for help or seek clarification
Behaviour can be described as naive or eccentric
Mechanical reading skills are good but there is limited understanding
Self esteem is low (this is not a criteria for SPD but is often an unfortunate consequence)
Can appear rude, arrogant, gauche

any of you, moms, know anything about it?

Hi - I suspect my DS shows all the signs too (he has language delay including receptive language and subtle social communication difficulties) but he has never been diagnosed with this. Is the issue that the school aren't taking the language/social problems seriously enough? What do you mean by "but nobody, including the teacher seems to make the difference between a real autistic case and an autistic spectrum disorder"?

You will find there are plenty of us parents on the special needs board who have children with similar language problems - but you may find that using words like "a real autistic case" without further explanation might not go down too well......

hi TotalChaos (what an inspired name, when i myself feel like this ) when i say a 'real autistic case' that means autism is not my daughter's problem. I tried to explain this to the teacher, explain the differences between autism and autistic spectrum disorders, because i started to read and learn a lot since our first worries (even though i am not a psycholog by profession) so those further explanations were there but nobody wanted to listen. i would say 'autistic spectrum' they would say 'autism', so obviously the knowledge was missing. the story is long, no idea going into details, fact is that i have to try to find out myself if we need to worry about it or not.

The teacher is extremely unlikely to be trained to the extent that they can distinguish between these different conditions. You need specialist advice. There is a SALT on here called moondog who may be able to help you. Are you in the UK? Can you ask your GP for a referral?

joburg, can you explain what you think the difference between autism and autism spectrum disorders is?

joburg - I think you need to focus on what your daughter's problems are, and where she needs support rather than spending too much time thrashing out definitions with her teacher. Is the issue that you feel her teacher is underestimating her needs, by saying your daughther doesn't seem autistic?

is she under any sort of professional such as a speech therapist or paediatrician?

Do you feel that your daughter's problems are primarily with language/social skills rather than behaviour/sensory?

hi Silverfrog, this is a difficult question. I've been through so many articles around the net and unfortunately i didn't save many of them (too lazy to bookmark everything and too many things to save). anyway, here is a simple definitation from wikipedia: The way the media presents it, you'd think that autism is autism. But not so. In fact, "autism" is actually a collection of diagnoses, each a little different from the others. At its most severe, autism is sometimes termed "classic autism." and it goes on and on from mild to severe.
the SPD link i was asking about seems to be a very mild form of it (maybe i should not even mention autism, becausee people freak out and tend to get blind when they read the word).

"people freak out and tend to get blind when they read the word"

Yes you're right joburg - many of us have been there - so come to the special needs board where you'll find lots of parents who do understand a lot about it and can share stories and possible tips....it's friendly there I promise and the people who know an awful lot about autism are very patient with those of us who don't.

Tell us more about your daughter.

TotalChaos you are so right, my daughter has been diagnosed with sensory integration severe problems (which can be caused by autisitc associated disorders or adhd, but i didn't yet manage to discuss properly with the therapist because the teacher told me straight in the face that the psychologist report is crap, she totally dissagrees with it (and she can do that because the therapy is gonna take place during school hours.) This is the reason why i am askind here for previous experiences with SPD. And, Cornsilk, no, we are not in the uk, we live in dubai and there is no damn structure, system, whatever you want to call it, here. We had anather psycholog assesing our daughter for like 6 or 7 sessions half a year ago and never giving us a report but mentioned slightly the autistic spectrum disorders, so right now i am on my own. i need to find out as much as i can about all these things in order to know wehere we are standing.

right, I'm with you now - that school are being unsupportive/sceptical and underestimating your DD's difficulties UK state schools always have a Senco (teacher who specialises in special needs) - does your DD's school have such a person? will your DD have a different teacher next schol year?

I would have thought you could do with an Occupational Therapist working with you and your DD about the sensory integration problems, and a Speech Therapist to look at your DD"s language/communication problems (they can pick up the subtle problems with use/understanding of language etc). It is of course a lot harder if school isn't behind you, but if you can pay/get insurance cover and arrange for DD to see the correct professionals yourself there is plenty you can work on with your DD based on that. Again if you post on the special needs board there are posters with experience of the therapies for sensory integration problems, and who are working with sensory diets etc to help their kids.