Provisional DX - HFA

[ladygrinningsoul]

Got the draft report prior to our meeting with paed and SALT on 2nd July. There are a few things in the report which are wrong (mostly issues like toilet training and inability to pedal which have simply gone away since the first appointment) but mostly it is very fair and accurate.

They reckon high functioning autism. They say DS' language is very disordered (and, interestingly, that his grammar is not delayed, just abnormal) and that he definitely does not have any mental retardation.

Not quite sure where to go from here. It kind of feels like when you are in a car crash, and the car rolls over and over down the road, and now it has stopped.

LGS

I hope they can give you some answers next week. xxx

Thanks coppertop, but I doubt it. So much depends on how his language develops over the next year (he'll be entering reception in autumn 2008 and boy am I glad it isn't this year) and they have already said they can't predict that. He talks in quite complex sentences now, and you can carry on a conversation with him but it mostly sounds like weird, bad pidgin English.

I'm hoping he'll be like some of the hyperlexic children in the American studies, who had a huge improvement in verbal skills at around age 4.5.

My 2 both sound as though they have learnt English as a 2nd language. Ds2 (4 and AS) veers between complex sentences and things like "Can I want to have some milk?"

I found that ds1 (HFA) had sudden spurts in language skills. He tended to stay at the same level for a while and then suddenly it would all 'click' for him. Very unpredictable. Whereas other children learned to speak first and then applied that to reading, ds1 did it the other way around.

Yes, that sounds very much like my DS, the reading first and the sudden spurts in language skills. What sort of help did your DS1 need when he started school?

LGS .

Thanks Dinosaur, it is really reassuring to hear that. Feeling less knocked back by the dx now, in fact very lucky firstly in that I am sure DS is bright enough eventually to do the social stuff he doesn't do intuitively, as learned behaviour, and secondly in that we live in a borough where so far they have been incredibly helpful and I haven't had to push for anything.

DS has had a bit of a language spurt this week as well and has started using "if....then" constructions.

Ds1's biggest problem in Reception was probably his fine motor skills, so a lot of the extra help he was given related to that. They also used visual timetables and social stories to explain things to him. He had some 1:1 help to start with. The LSA encouraged him and helped him to keep on task with whatever the class was doing. He needed her less and less as the year progressed. When he moved into Yr1 he had no 1:1 at all, other than the TA who was there for the whole class. He's now at the end of Yr2 and still doing well. His reading skills are still advanced but his teacher also makes sure that he understands what he reads.

Thanks coppertop, that is very encouraging to hear, sounds like he is doing really well now.