Does delayed language and understanding indicate LD's ?

[bee169]

DS is 3.9, he still has very limited understanding and limited use of functional language. I am becoming more and more concerned about him as he has not made much progress over the last few months.

help!

I'm sorry. I know how hard it is to write this thread.

Have you spoken to your GP?

Not necessarily. Sometimes language is delayed as part of a specific language impairment, sometimes language is delayed as part of a social communication disorder such as autism, and sometimes language is delayed as part of an overall developmental delay. A paediatrician and/or ed psych can look at overall learning and development. Are you using anything like makaton or pecs? Is he having speech therapy?

Sorry- should have said ds has autism. He was diagnosed a year ago but his language and understanding is very slow in it's progress. Is this an indication of additional ld's?

Each child is an individual..and no two develop in the same way or at the same pace. However I would say (based only on my own experience as a parent of a child with autism and having 10 years working with children who have severe autism ) that there is a possibility that your ds will have LDs.

Not necessarily 'additional' as such although of course children can have learning diffs separately to or in addition to their autism. Autism by its own nature can prevent a child learning in the ordinary way.. by imitation, by social interaction and so as time goes by the gap between the autist and his peers grows. Add on language delays and it gets trickier still.

Having said that, I have worked with children who present with quite severe autism in the early years who have become verbal and shown themselves to be quite able (a few have left our special school and gone to mainstream). My own son was totally non verbal at 4 and didn't show much cognitive ability either... he's now 14 very very verbal and while he has significant learning diffs, he can read, he can write at about the level of an 8 year old and so is relatively functional. I thought having a learning disabled child was the worst thing ever, but in the end DS2 has been a happy child who is learning and capable of learning..but at HIS pace.

Does your son use PECS? It is very worth going down this route as communication is key, and the more input now, the better:)

Hang in there.. be realistic but optimistic, at 3.9 he has a lot of time ahead to learn, to grow, to develop and he may well surprise you:)

bee169

Both autism and dyslexia are diagnosed via subjective observation of traits / performance, and the next step should be to begin to identify the underlying learning disabilities that cause the traits or poor performance. They are both only a screening process that indicate the existence of more specific learning disabilities, scientific research is increasingly more able to identify the individual learning disabilities, and with much improved technology will be able to untangle to multiple combinations of learning disabilities which cause the various observed autistic traits. Research has identified the three possible underlying cognitive subtypes of developmental dyslexia, which seem to also be part of the more complex multiple sets of issues that can cause observed autism.

So they are not so much additional learning difficulties, more identifying the underlying problems causing the diagnosed autism.

Thank you for all your replies.

zzzzz You are right- he is still so little and I think I am letting my anxious feelings about the future go into overdrive! You have made me see that I am confusing apples with pears. His core difficulties are behavioural rather than low IQ as when he actually attends, he learns very quickly- its just that I haven't seen an improvement in his behaviours ( attention, engagement, social interaction) in addition to communication!!

It def feels like I am forever waiting for improvement. I have found this last year very difficult, esp watching the gap between ds and his peers increase. Thanks for your kind words.

dolfrog You have so much technical knowledge- very interesting to read. If you get a chance please could you pm me links on the research you have spoken about in your post?

Medusa they have introduced PECS at nursery because of his anxiety in social situations but we have not at home at he can name what he wants. He is happy to use nouns and verbs but that's it! He is not able to expand on that so I will need to guess if he wants it on tv, computer, i pod or the toys!! Do you think PECs can help him expand his language?

Thanks for your posts tocha and eandz.

My DS is similar. His IQ has been tested and is normal. There are some very well high functioning adults with ASD who had no speech at 4 so its not unusual. The lack of progress could be about the quality of teaching - are they actively targeting attention, engagement and social interaction with systematic programmes? My DS made no progress in mainstream school even with 1:1, speech therapy and autism outreach. We started doing ABA and after a very hard fight won this at tribunal. He now has proper programmes targeting these areas properly and has made a lot of progress. Still a long way to go but specialist teaching has made a massive difference. For my DS it wasn't an inability to learn, it was that he wasn't being taught properly as the LA wanted to skimp on costs and put in provision that was massively inadequate.
If you don't get direct speech therapy (and few pre school autistic children do) you can apply to Cerebra for £500 voucher for private speech therapy. Local education charities may also help. If you can find a good speech therapist who specialises in autism that may be a solution. Also looking at specialist units / schools.

private speech therapist used PECs symbols to get my DS speaking in sentences when he was doing nouns and verbs but not really combining much. Having the visual structure of a sentence helped him massively.