Constantly saying "yes" mid sentence.

[McFarts]

DS is almost 9 and has a diagnosis of ASD, Learning difficulties and ADHD.

Over the last few months he has been struggling to get his words out, and is saying yes mid sentence constantly. So he will say - Today at school yeah mum, yeah we were baking yeah yeah, and my friend yeah Toby was yeah helping yeah me. All with lots of pauses as he struggles to find his words. He doesnt seem to notice he is doing it, but its now at the point where he is constantly losing his train of thought, and forgetting what he wanted to say.

School are going to do a SALT referral, but the wait i suspect, will be a long one. Im not sure if i should contact his pead for advise in the mean time.

Your thoughts please.

It could be a habit he's picking up from school friends too. There's a phase where children start to punctuate everytihg that they say with "so, um, like, yeah...".

It sounds like it's actually an issue for communication with your DS, so I'd ask your pead to advise on it and see if you can do any drop-in SALT anywhere? I used to take a DD to drop in SALT, which ended up speeding up her referral for hearing tests as the therapist leading the drop-in sessions chased up all the referrals, and was able to bypass some steps for us as she'd seen and assessed DD in the group sessions.

It sounds a bit like "cluttering" his brain is working faster than his mouth, so he's using the filler word "yeah", tripping over his words and stuttering.

Springerlink Yes initially yes i thought it was just something he had picked up from school, as it started with the "yeah" just being on the end of each sentence, and then its progressed. I will look into if there is an SALT drop in clinics, i know they do this for pre schoolers.

Captain Yes i also thought cluttering, he certainly seems to be using it as a filler whilst he process what he needs to say.

I had wondered if could possibly be a tic.

Our DD8 has the same diagnosis. We notice phases similar to your description and also tics.

These phases are bad at the time but always pass so I think it's just a developmental phase.

It sounds like your DS is buying time while he processes what to say. No harm in getting SLT though as I'm sure he would benefit anyway.