Language disorder (receptive / pragmatic) - could you please share your experience?

[veryhopeful123]

Hello, I wanted to ask your advice as we are just beginning this journey.

My son is 3 years 10 months and has been exposed to 3 languages since birth. We knew that he was always going to take longer to speak properly, however the nursery recently voiced their concerns about his lack of comprehension and also some repetitive behaviours. We did a full assessment with the speech therapist and paediatric neurologist (including screening for ASD), and so far established that his main problems are language-related. No ASD diagnosis. His motor skills are also lagging behind.

Specifically, he is about a year behind in his receptive language and seems to take a lot of visual cues to understand what's going on . When we talk to him, sometimes he seems not to listen/hear and not follow instructions. His hearing has been checked and is good. His expressive language is ok, but is made up of phrases that he has heard before (he is using them mostly appropriately, although sometimes they are a bit irrelevant). When he talks, he can describe what's around him (look, there is an airplane!) or (I don't want cereal for breakfast), but never speaks more spontaneously (for example, he would never ask "why are apples round?") He has a difficult time with describing what he did at the nursery, other than answering yes/no to our questions "did you paint" or "did you play outside". He is also unable to maintain a conversation beyond one question / answer exchange. He also is obsessed with certain games like playing the lift or bus, and likes the clock and asks a lot "what time is it". I find the latter a little ASD-like, but the experts who saw him said that he could easily be transitioned to a different activity and sometimes is making jokes about it, so it is not enough evidence to suggest ASD but could be just a soothing mechanism given his other difficulties.

Other side issues are his lack of focus / concentration and sometimes difficult behaviour (I don't want to brush teeth, I don't want to get dressed, I want to sleep, etc).

We are keen to intervene, and so far are doing the following:

• Dropping other languages, focusing mainly on English
• Intensive private speech & language therapy (3 times a week)
• Starting occupational therapy to help with motor skills

I would value very much any advice someone could give who had a similar experience, especially in a child with receptive / pragmatic language difficulties.

What did you do? What therapy / intervention worked best? Has there been any progress? Shall we also consider ABA given his other traits / behaviours? Listening therapy? Biomedical / diet?

Many thanks in advance to all who reply!

My son has a speech delay, mainly we think due to his dyspraxia. It has mostly for him just taken time as nothing much helped. I talk to him using simple sentences so I cut out all unnecessary filling words. So when he is struggling I am more blunt. So rather than 'did you have a nice day at school, what did you do? Did you eat your lunch?' I ask one at a time. ' have you had a nice day?' Kind of thing.

He has come on so much at school but he's still 2.5 years delayed at age six. He does wonder about the world dispute never asking 'why does it rain?' I realised about a year ago he just wasn't able to vocalise his wonder.

I hope someone can be more help.

Ds was diagnosed with delays in receptive/ expressive language and pragmatic language disorder nearly 2 years ago. ASD was also ruled out first.

Its not been the easiest thing to deal with with because the speech he does use now is very clear so people straight away presume he can hold a 2 way conversation and he can follow whats being said when he cant. He tends to walk away from them/ bounce or turn the talk to Minecratft which he can talk about for hours as long as you dont interupt!

Ds can say what he is seeing or doing at that specific moment but could not say what he did yesterday or is going to do tomorrow which makes life very confusing for him.

He has just been reassessed and scored a bit better whilst listening to very short stories and trying to recall details but didnt do at all well in listening to instructions. He always remembers either the beginning or the end of a doubled up instruction hence his problems learning at school, he relys on picking out key words

2boys has given the same advice as I would so i'm not much help!

Nothing the NHS has thrown our way has really helped but i think thats probably because you cant teach a child to 2 way chat and I really dont know what we can do to help. We are still a bit lost with it all and are muddling our way through. Ds is nearly 6 and is very behind at school because they just dont understand his needs and dont appear to have any interest in supporting him because he is very well behaved in class.

Hopefully someone else with a positive experience will pop up x

My dd2 had a severe language disorder when she was 4yo. Her expressive skills (2yrs) were better than her receptive skills (language age 18months). This is the opposite of typical language development, and is common in ASD. We also used intensive Speech and language therapy. This focussed on making the best of her listening skills, working on her attention to language, eye contact, using touch and visual cues to aid improve joint attention skills. Therapy also identified where here language levels were and built back up from there. She made remarkable progress in this time. ASD was initially ruled out but diagnosis finally given aged 8. I agree with zzzzz that the impact of bi-lingualism or tri-linagualism has been overstated so I would relax about that because he probably needs lots of practice with language across the board and he needs tools to make relationships with family members. Sounds like you are on the right tracks with him, good luck.

Veryhopeful123 did you eventually receive a diagnosis? Watching with interest

See if this article rings any bells:

img.tapuz.co.il/forums/9823587.htm

@gemsynermal

This thread is 6 years old, started by veryhopeful123 on Tue 10-Dec-13 10:44:49

Perhaps starting a new thread will generate more interest?