Getting words muddled?

[Marne]

I have a lovely DSD but have always wondered about her as she is a bit different and now having 2 dd's on the spectrum i am thinking into it even more, the past few weeks i have noticed that she gets words muddled up, for example will say 'up' when she meens 'down' and 'in' when she meens 'out', she then laughs and says 'why did i say that?'. She is a very kind loving child, when she was younger she would always shout instead of talking and often seemed like she was in her own little world, she does'nt have loads of friends and often talks a load of rubbish (things that dont make sense), she's doing well at school and enjoys going to school.

Is 'getting words muddled up' a ASD trait or something else?

There is also a history of dyslexia in the family. I t just feels like something is not quite right but i cant put my finger on it.

How old is she?

She's 11

No experience of ASD, but this is really common in ADHD/ADD. My son has a dx and I'm going through the dx assessment myself. I still get my words muddled up (at 40yrs!!) and can hear myself saying things the wrong way round. My ds is the same and as soon as he's said it, he'll giggle and say it again correctly. Not saying ADHD/ADD is what she has, but sounds like 'brain going faster than mouth' kind of thing ... processing ?? Did she have any language delay?

It's possible she may have some word finding difficulties. Children with word-finding difficulties often tend to say a similar and related (but incorrect) word (e.g. chair instead of table, giraffe instead of zebra). Does she also use 'thingie' a lot or say things like, "you know what I mean...what's that word again?".

Word finding difficulties happen to all of us to some extent (particularly when tired etc).

However, WFD's tend to happen more often than what would usually be expected in children with language difficulties and dyslexia. That's not to say that your DSD has these issues, of course. But, do you have any concerns around her understanding of language? Her ability to use grammatical structures? Can she tell a story so all of her ideas come out in a logical order? What's her literacy like? Do her teachers have any concerns about how she is going in school / with her peers?

Butterfly- it does sound like word finding difficulties, she often uses a related but incorrect word and says 'thingie' a lot .

She was an early talker (no no delay) and is top of her class for literacy (loves writting) so teachers have no concerns what so ever.

Do you, or her, use any strategies to help her word-finding?

If you are concerned about ASD, the key things to consider are her social communication and social interaction skills. A child with ASD wouldn't just have word finding difficulties in isolation, they would be linked to other difficulties as well.

We have only just picked up on the word-finding so we have no stratagies, i don't know how to talk to DSD about it as she already has low selfesteem because of weight issues and i don't think her mum has even noticed that there is a problem , we only see dsd once a week (at the most). She never talks about friends at school (though i'm sure she has a couple), when she was younger she struggled to make friends and was often glued to the teacher at play times, she is obsessed with food (talks about it all the time) and is over weight but always commenting on other peoples weight. When she was younger she would not play by herself and often her mind would wonder (go into her own little world) but all these traits seem to have disapeared or improved. Sometimes i can ask her a question and she does'nt seem to hear me but her understanding (when she does take notice) seems to be good. Its hard to tell if she has any other traits as we don't see her for lng enough or know how she gets on at school (other than when we see school reports).