Anyone with experience of specific language impairment?

[alimac87]

Hi all, I am looking for information to try and help my 11 year old DD. She's just had an ed psych report which (as expected) showed severe dyslexia and dyscalculia. The ed psych also pointed out the oddness of DD's language - her vocabulary is quite simple, younger than her age and she really struggles with abstract concepts. Ed psych said she was 'neurodiverse'. Her speech is clear but it's as though there is some sort of central issue of understanding. Teachers tend to think she isn't trying/she's exaggerating but she's not. Primary was OK but secondary is proving massively difficult. We are seeing school later this week.

What I really wanted to know is whether anyone else has come across this kind of pattern? She's clearly not autistic or ASD and her basic communication is fine. I looked up SLI but again it doesn't seem to quite describe her difficulties. Would be very grateful to know of any similar experiences.

Thanks very much for those links zzzz, and I didn't know that about ASD in girls. So many terms to learn. I think the language issues have been masked a bit at primary school but now at secondary she is quite 'different' from her classmates.

My 7 year old dd is like your dd ( not dyslexic or dyspraxic - though her sister is both). She is mild-moderately hearing impaired but her language issues are not related. There's "something else" - it's well hidden under clear speech, the ability to chat about subjects she knows well, the clever use of distraction if she doesn't understand, etc. Big trouble with abstracts like time. We've had many assessments in the past but the HI confuses the issue and, to be quite frank, no-one has a clue as to what this language issue is (incl salt). Support has all dried up, no one listens, and I'm finding it hard to be my child's advocate when I can't clearly explain or define this "something else".

I think dd will "get away with it" whilst at primary but I have a big gut feeling that once at secondary dd will not be able to hide it anymore and will crash and burn

I suspect my dd has HFA (and therefore APD [auditory dyslexia] as part of that).

Hi spottyblanket, yes that sounds familiar. DD struggles with all aspects of time and tends to control conversations when she can. She has a lot of difficulty with word finding for, well, everything, and comes up with great roundabout ways of explaining things. Sometimes she just gets stuck, and we both get incredibly frustrated trying to figure out what she means or how to explain something.

I can see how the hearing impairment would confuse everyone. Hadn't heard of auditory dyslexia, I think I need to do some googling. Thanks. Really helps, at times it feels like trying to grab jelly underwater. :(

By auditory dyslexia I'm referring to auditory processing disorder - a lot of the info I got on that was on this forum (best source of knowledge MN!).

Yes - dd has word finding difficulties too exactly as you describe.

I confess I've been lurking this board for 3 years now - reading every thread on language & hearing impairment. I always feel quite emotional when I find something I can relate to dd - it all helps.

Thanks. It makes such a difference to know there are other people out there.

I've now read about ASD and HFA - dunno, those don't quite sound right. She's sociable, co-operative, friendly, no particular obsessions, no particular behavioural problems. Occasionally anxious and lacking in self esteem. Having said that...DD comes across as quite young for her age. The main thing other people notice is real confusion (&curiosity) about all sorts of abstract things that most kids seem to have picked up automatically - is London a country, do I have to get married, why do people die...sort of stops you in your tracks!

There's going to be no magic bullet, I can see that at least :/

Hearing impaired children lack what they call incidental learning - the things you learn by just picking up on & absorbing conversations etc around you in everyday life. Abstracts are also difficult for HI children to comprehend.

In my dds case her difficulties here are more than expected for her level of deafness (so I've been told), plus there's the word finding problems & literal thinking & difficulty generalising.

My dd doesnt tick all the boxes either. Sensory yes as she doesn't like the smell nor texture of a lot of foods. Has anxiety, but is sociable and no obsessional interests. I found semantic pragmatic disorder quite close.