Is it me.. Or do severe language delayed kids look like autism

[adrianna22]

I went to see a specialist school the other day and this mum, who I made friends with brought her daughter along.

I could of sworn the daughter was autistic as when I said "Hello" to her, she didn't register me... Like she was in her own world and she had strong sensory issues, but the mother said she wasn't, just severely language delayed.

I just think wow, they must find it hard to differentiate between a severe language delayed child and a child with autism.

I think its more complicated than that, because some children are in a grey area between language disorder and ASD, and it can depend on the assessing professional's point of view. Its like the old debate about semantic-pragmatic disorder - Margo Sharp used to say that all children with SPD were on the autistic spectrum, whereas Dorothy Bishop said some are, but some aren't. I've heard (from a professional) of children, diagnosed with semantic-pragmatic disorder and deemed to be on the spectrum, but then when they were put on the gluten/dairy free diet came off the spectrum. The pragmatic difficulties can also impact more as the child becomes a young person, where their NT peers' social skills are becoming much more sophisticated.

Also

1. some children with a severe language disorder/delay appear to be autistic and as the language improves, the autistic behaviours disappear
2. some parents are in denial about autism, because for some reason, they find it harder to admit to
3. some cultures seem to be more prejudiced about autism, so the parents prefer to tell everybody in their community that their child just has a language disorder (even though they know the truth that its a language disorder on top of the ASD)
4. it depends on where you take your child to be diagnosed or not - if for instance it is harder to get into a language unit with ASD, there is an incentive for parents not to get the ASD diagnosed. The same can go for specialist speech and language schools.
5. some professionals tell the parents the child has say PDDNOS - and the parents don't know to question whether that means ASD in reality.

It can be hard to tell the difference, because children can be in the specialist speech and language schools from the age of 7 (where you'd think they have a lot of experience), but the young person is only diagnosed with ASD at 16!

often children are labelled as 'only' language delayed and get a dx of autism later on (happened to my DD).

DS had severe glue ear and a language delay linked to that, as well as interaction issues caused by the hearing loss. We went through a lot of autism assessment because the two conditions present similarly. Autism has been effectively ruled out now but I can see how the two thigs are very alike and very difficult to get a diagnosis.

Thanks for replying.

Yes Tempe I agree with you, even though the mother said her daughter has been assessed three times for autism and each time they have ruled it out. But this could change, like another poster said.

I do think that there's a strong link between sensory issues and language/ communication.

For a long time (18 months-3.5 years) we were told she is delayed and nothing else.

Basically, she is language delayed, gross and fine motor delayed & strabismus. So yes when the language comes, when the gross motor issue go and when she gets ready for vision therapy, she might start acting less autistic. Till then, its a symptom based diagnosis and we dont know if she cant make friends or cant be bothered to make friends for example

Ds has severe language delay, and autistic traits in some areas, but wouldn't get a diagnosis of autism.

A friend of mine battled to get her Dd's Asd recognised because our local CDC was adamant that she was "only" language delayed!!

She has massive sensory issues and we used to say why would a language delayed child struggle so much with taste and texture of not only foods that she didnt like but those that she did too. And why would she be so obsessively restrictive and repetitive in the way that she plays.

My friend eventually managed to get the CDC to agree to a do an ADOS which her Dd "failed" or "passed" spectacularly depending on which way you look at it, and she was then diagnosed with Asd and a few months later Spd as well.

She definitely has a severe language disorder but she definitely also has Asd and Spd and without all 3 diagnoses it would be even harder to get her needs met and believe me it is hard already !

It's so over lapping. Ds has dsypraxia. He has SPd and a lang disorder too. I swear he has asd but told twice by the nhs, his private slt and school that's is most defiantly not.

He didn't respond to his name as a toddler. He didn't babble, he was mute. He didn't play, didn't make eye contact with me. He didn't interact much at all. He flaps, tip toe walks. Put his hands over his ears at loud noises. He has a facail tic. But I'm told it's not asd.

I know of two aspergus (sp? Sorry dyslexic here!) I would never ever guessed - until their mum told me. Then I could see it

Yeah to be honest, I'm not surprised that your kids, even though had autistic traits, didn't get a diagnosis.

I know a mum whose child DID qualify an ASD diagnosis and he had the triad of impairments and failed the ADOS. But he didn't get a diagnosis in the end.

On the other hand, I work with several children who have severe language delays..as in no speech at all aged 7-9, who are absolutely not autistic in any way. Various diagnoses (or none) but communicate strongly in their own ways and show none of the triads of impairment (I also work with ASD and have an autistic son) It's fascinating to see how non verbal non autistic children DO communicate because the desire is very clearly there! (one delightful little lad is the best gesture and mime artist I have ever met !)

That's funny Medusal...

DS is REALLY good at gesturing, mime and he has the strong desire to communicate. That was the only reason why the professionals weren't so sure about him.

Though it's true that all kids are different.