Poor eye contact and unusual tone of voice

[susan198130]

My son is 6. His speech is fine, but I've been concerned with the long gaps he leaves when he speaks. It's almost like he can't find the right words to finish the sentence, and generally will end up not finishing what he's saying.

So the school had a speech therapist come into school and assess him. I get the feeling they think he might be mildly autistic. I've just received the report and it says that he's pretty much fine, except he doesn't make good eye contact and he speaks with an "unusual tone of voice". This is something I've never noticed. His tone of voice sounds like a typical 6 year old to me.

It also says in the report that they are discharging him, but the school to consider referring him to the Early Intervention Team for his learning needs. He is a little bit behind at school, but only marginally. And he is one of the youngest in his class.

He's been assessed quite a few times from aged 3 upwards, mainly for poor social interaction and zoning out. Never had a diagnosis. The people he's referred to always come back saying no further action is needed, but I always end up with the impression from his school (and nursery before that) that they think he might be autistic.

He doesn't seem to have any other issues. No obsessive behaviours, he doesn't have unusual sleeping patterns, no major meltdowns, he eats fine, plays well with his brother and cousins. He's very well behaved at school. I do think he is hyperactive though. He is just full of energy and I feel that if I didn't put him to bed, he could probably stay up all night. He's like a teenager, doesn't want to go to sleep, but then doesn't want to get up in the morning.

I feel like we just keep going round and round in circles, getting referred, getting discharged, a period where nothing happens, and then another referral.

Does this sound like autism? I really don't know what to think.

It sounds like you're being fobbed off by the speech therapist. It does sound like it could well be ASD (sounds just like my ds). Ask GP or school to refer to a paediatrician.

Thanks. The thing is, he's already been seen by the community pediatricians at CAMHS,. They spent 90 minutes with him and said they had no concerns, but they then assessed him at school and worked with the teachers to put a plan in place to help him. He then got taken off that plan when he was in reception because the teachers no longer had any concerns. It really is like going round in circles.

If you can afford it book an appointment with a private speech therapist to discuss your concerns and see what they think. You can find someone on the ASLTIP website. Maybe consider seeing a private paediatrician. It doesn't make sense that they're saying they have no concerns as there clearly are!!!

I might speak to the SENCO at his school again. They called me in for a meeting late last year because he keeps zoning out. That's when I brought up the speech issue. So they said they'd refer him for speech therapy again, which I assumed I'd be taking him to. When I got the report through about how he did and that they were discharging him, that was the first I'd heard of it. I had no idea that he'd already been assessed. I was still waiting for the referral letter! I would've at least expected them to tell me he was being assessed in school or let me know what happened afterwards!

If it’s any help my son is 14 and is able to explain his difficulties well. He say he ‘zones out’ when language is delivered too fast or is too complex.

The SALT has identified slow auditory processing and has recommended assessments at GOSH for APD.

S&LT like to observe children in the school setting. It's not great that the school didn't let you know that they were coming in. Ds has very very obvious issues and we got absolutely nowhere with the NHS over the years and only got somewhere when we got private assessments done and jumped up and down screaming. Like Claw's son ds zones out because poor auditory processing but he has also ADHD on top of that. No-one in the NHS mentioned this (and it turned out that they'd long suspected ASD from a very early age but didn't mention it).

I think another reason for appearing to zone out can be hyperfocus on something else, and difficulty in switching topic. I think my daughter does this: she knows you've spoken to her, and sometimes even what you've said - but she's busy thinking about or doing something else so her brain just "queues" it (and then generally dumps it out of the back of the queue before she gets to it... I know this feeling because I do it too - it's like a kind of "cache" for mental processing but stuff in the cache sometimes just decays before you get to it).