Expressive Language Disorder - help! (and ABA?)

[GloriaTheHighlyFlavouredLady]

You lot usually know me as Star.

DS has had a very thorough 2 day assessment with an EP and SALT. The conclusion is that he has an expressive Language disorder and that people had been missing it and blaming his problems on his ASD which thanks to ABA has very little impact on his life now and is not his primary need.

Now I spent yesterday going out of my mind with the thought of having to try and become an expert on another disorder but today I realised that I just have to get on with it.

I know ABA help loads and perhaps be even more helpful now that his difficulties are less social motivation and more expression which 'might' lend itself to DTT style of teaching which is perhaps easier to implement than classroom based activities with non-complient peers.

But I've only had a day of thinking about this.

Any ideas, pointers, books, resources, discussions etc would be so grateful at this point. The thing that has to be remembered is that ds still does have autism so that will always have to be borne in mind with any strategies.

If you haven't got a clue about any of the above then I'd appreciate a joke instead if you know any good ones as I'm a bit miserable.

Sorry Star. But I can help with a very funny link. Damn you autocorrect

LOL. I have tears running down my face. Thanks.

Hasn't the s/lt come up with any recommendations and concrete ways forward?

Have a look at October as well!

No. The SALT was booked for a kind of different reason. She was assessing his language levels, ABA and evidence for tribunal. She asked the EP to investigate how much of the language issues are autism as she believed that sorting the language difficulties would reduce the effects of the autism iyswim but thought the EP needed to be consulted re. autism. The EP came a few weeks later.

Both are cross that this wasn't picked up as they think it is an additional need to the autism.

I'm trying to hold on to the idea that it doesn't matter, and that all there is is a child with a list of needs for which we need to find strategies and solutions but I think the cause of the difficulties does have an implication for the things you might focus on.

'Both are cross that this wasn't picked up as they think it is an additional need to the autism.'

Yes, easy enough for them to say when presumably they aren't being asked to sort it out.

I wouldn't get bogged down in yet another label. None of these things are discrete entities.
With few (very few) exceptions they are vague catch all descriptive terms.

What difference does giving a name do?
Not much.
It just puts another brick into the massive wall that is the SEN industry.

The good news is that again, since restarting the ABA ds has flown.

Sorry to hear that star.

DS was also diagnosed with expressive speech disorder with fading autistic traits this summer. The consultant said he either did have autism which is not a primary concern and issue for him or he displayed autistic traits because of the disorder?!? Their recommendation was only salt therapy with a person with relevant experience.

Well actually it has always been my plan to get ds rediagnosed with a SAL disorder in order to get the hell away from the Autism team and their pessimism and ignorance but I just found out the Head of SALT provision has been made redundant and the Head of Autism has inherited her job as an addition to her own.

Oh well!

Perhaps though, a SALT unit type place can now be considered as I know usually they don't like ASD messing things up, although I think whilst he has language problems that appear to be quite severe, he is scoring cognitively 2 years ahead and might not be able to learn if the pace is too slow or too low academically. i.e. a mainstream private school with SLT base was working on prepositions for the year group two years ahead and ds (due to his autism and visual strengths probably) became very secure with that vocab a year ago.

So probably stuck with the battle of mainstream plus ABA support (especially as one of ds' very new tutors is a qualified SALT). She has never done an assessment though and since we have started up the programme again we've had to concentrate on complience, behaviour, team building and pairing rather than jump straight into expressive language iyswim.

blueshark. That describes my ds perfectly, but it hasn't always. His autism was moderate-severe when he was diagnosed and I have no doubts it was the right diagnosis then.

No-one is saying that he doesn't have autism though, just that it might not be a problem for him if we can sort out the expressive language disorder.

The trouble is - how? And what can I do (given that if we're honest I'll be the one doing it, or at least managing it).

So anyway, where do I start with this one?

And in the meantime:

Gloria star - correct school placement is my currvent dilemma also, since the speech disorder diagnosis were private and he is still asd on the nhs books I cannot get DS in the language unit in the local ms school as they don't take asd. And asd the way it looks can never be removed...so planning to do ican assessment where they will hopefully confirm that asd is not his primary issue but speech so that I can attempt the unit. I really feel for you though...!

Currvent?? Meant current

Gloria - am watching this thread with interest.

Last year, during the assessment for the tribunal, the LA SALT suggested to our pte SALT that she thinks ds might actually have a language disorder as he did not seem to be displaying many ASD traits, no obsessions, strong eye contact etc, etc. As we were fighting for a place in the ASD unit, our SALT reinterated that ds was dx as ASD.

But Moondog is right - in the end, it is a lablel, and although that can be useful but what I really need is help with dealing with it.

Please share any useful information you manage to acquire.

Gloria-we are in the same position as you regarding DS. With intensive ABA, his asd traits are very mild, but a recent Ed Psych report has brought up the issues of expressive language disorder. The Ed Psych says unusally for autism (does not dispute he has asd, but not classic anymore, on a mild to moderate level) his receptive language is nearly age appropriate, but his expressive language is at the level of a 2-3 years old (DS is 6.4). Our ABA supervisor (finally we have a new supervisor who knows exatly what she is doing) is drawing up a new programme for him which will focus on his expressive language. I will pm you with the details if you want to have a look. DS will start his new programme after x-mass.

someoneoutthere - please may I have details of your programme too?

Ok, trying. We have a meeting with the supervisor next wk to finalise his programme and then I will pm or email you.

That would be great someone. Thank you.