Don't know the wood from the trees anymore...

[genieinabottle]

Hi, DS is coming up to 5, dx of autism and speech and language disorder.

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to know what behaviours are due to the ASD, which are dues to the speech and lang.disorder and which are simply due to him being still a young child.

It doesn't help that there are no other dc of my ds's age in the family near us. And the few friends all have oldren dc apart from one who i don't see often.
My DS1 is 17 and i don't remember much of what he was like at that age, DD is 2.5 y younger than DS.
Also school seem to be saying they don't see many issues with him apart from the obvious the sp. and lang. delay.

There are so many days when i feel that DS isn't that different, i seem to see lots of NT behaviours and starts doubting that he has autism. I end up putting down his limited conversational skills on his language delays, his limited imaginative play (although this is improving) and his repetitiveness down to the sp.and lang. delay too. i don't know why i do this... maybe because it is easier to accept the language disorder than the asd.

The thing is imo, DS isn't clerly obviously autistic. Depending on the situation and environment somtimes the asd becomes quite obvious and i feel like i've been punched when this happen; but at other times it isn't obvious.
I had a bit of a shock when they (CAMHS) said DS meets the criteria for autism, i've always felt he was more atypical and i even told them that. But we were told at the ADOS his scores were in the range for autism.

Why is it so hard to fully accept... i though that when we would get the dx i'd stop the wondering but i haven't. i keep thinking maybe when DS's language skills improve more then he'll be a regular kid.
Sorry having a bad day ...am blubbing over the keyboard now.

Thanks if you've read this far.

...Semantic and pragmatic were mentioned by psych but also referred to her autism...DD has issues understanding for sure, although she does talk a lot! At the first assesment the SALT said shed refer us to SALT in school...4 weeks later the next paed said hows she getting on??...no contact yet...said shed chase it up, then Psych said has she started SALT...who do I ring? I have no numbers but all the specialists seem to think SALT is a priority....and school dont even get ASD!

...I should stop moaning and wait for the dx report! Just feel stuck....or maybe I should go into school to demand an IEP? staff training? 1:1? Im sure they think nothing is wrong with DD! :(

So when/how/how much SALT has your DS had? How is it going?

as i understand it, they don't diagnose semantic pragmatic disorder on it's own any more, as they consider it part of the autistic spectrum these days. I've always felt semantic pragmatic disorder was the closest fit to my DS...

Have you got that dx Total...or any?...has your dx changed with SALT? At least I can use the NAS printout to suggest how DD needs learning support....I read it out to DH the other night and he was amazed how it matched DD. :)

verbal DX was - probably not ASD, that social difficulties were probably due to language delay. written DX was - language delay with subtle social communication difficulties. as his language improved, specialist salt verbally said that she wasn't concerned about his social communication. so a bit of a wishy-washy absence of diagnosis really!!!

...how frustrating!!!