Autism - learned language

[maryanne22]

My son is 4 and has very recently been diagnosed with autism. He will be starting reception this year with and EHCP in place. He has a speech therapist also and she describes his language as learned language - so phrases copied/learned from tv, books, copying from me and his dad etc. it's hard however to have a back and fro convo with him. He's good at sentences he's learned but not able to spontaneously make up his own sentences. Will this get better?

Please no replies about non verbal children as my son is not non verbal - he talks but not stereotypical - so me hearing about non verbal children won't help.

Please reply if u have experience regarding my situation

Thanks

Anyone?!

Yes.
Your SaLT will help you with this, and then the school (working under her advice).

They will help your ds understand that he can use language functionally - ie, to get what he needs, or, for more motivation, wants.

My DS used to do this a lot and for him it has got better. He still does it sometimes but his repertoire of learning phrases is really wide, and he can slot different phases together to to convey his own meaning (if that makes sense). If you didn't know him well you probably wouldn't spot it, as he'll say things that work in the context of the conversation.

He still talks more then he listens, but can have a proper back and forth conversation once you have his attention, both to get needs met and socially. He will tend to try and direct conversation towards his interest, some of that is just what he enjoys talking about, but I suspect it's also that he has more learnt phrases related to his intrest, because that's what he watched videos about, so finds it easier to carry out these conversations.

With the support of your therapist he should start using more spontaneous language

Thanks for all the replies it's lovely hearing positive feedback from 3 different ppl

This sounds a lot like my DS at that age.

The key is helping your child understand that language is not just echoing fun sounds you have heard elsewhere - language is functional and serves a purpose.

DS is 8 now and has a much bigger range of language. You can have a conversation with him but his ability to process other people's speech and respond at the same pace is lacking. Conversations are slower and more clunky. He's at the conversational stage of a 4 year old (lots of 'why' questions all the time at the moment.)

I think he will continue to improve but he will probably remain a few years behind his peers for a good while yet. He's on a different learning curve.

Hi, echolalia can be functional as well though, it's not all just mindless repetition. It's useful to try and figure out what they are trying to communicate when the repeat certain words/ phrases

@Titsflyingsouth thanks for your reply was interesting to read. Great he's making progress. Is he in a mainstream class?

@maryanne22

He is in mainstream. Probably operating towards the bottom of the class though because he has a very 'dyspraxic-y type of autism which makes executive processing harder.

But he can read, which I assumed would be challenging due to lack of speech. Actually the reading was easier to pick up because he's got a very good visual memory.

It's still not commonly covered in the SLT community (we've tried - myself and another autistic SLT have done extensive whining to try to get the autism content of our SALT degrees brought up to date) but have a look at gestalt language processing (www.assistiveware.com/blog/gestalt-language-processing-aac#:~:text=Gestalt%20Language%20Processing%20(GLP)%20is,word%20to%20reach%20our%20meaning for a quick link which will give you the gist if it works). Basically the theory is that, while the majority of children learn language by combining words - almost like lego bricks together into a wall... gestalt language processors learn by taking the lego walls and using them, then gradually breaking them down into what each brick does.

Like I say, it wasn't covered in my degree (I'm a recently qualified SALT myself) but it's something that I've come across from my own personal interest in autism as a recently diagnosed autistic myself. My own ASD report actually mentions several times that I tend to use a lot of these kind of phrases (but in the adult world they're more "smalltalky" than kids who might be using phrases from TV shows etc) and I've noticed DH has pretty much got a "how are you" script that he runs when starting work calls.

My DS (3.5) is exactly the same, and I echo (no pun intended) @CoffeeWithCheese 's point about gestalt language. I found a few resources linked with this online resource called Meaningful Speech www.meaningfulspeech.com/ (you can also find them on instagram to get an idea and see some video examples). It comes up a lot in forums with US-based posters, but it's SLT support that is tailored to gestalt language processing (GLP).

I haven't forked over the money yet for the online parent training package, but I'm tempted. From what I've gleaned from all their free materials I see so SO much of what my son is doing. It turns out something like 75% of autistic individuals learn language in this way, and the delayed echolalia is now a recognised stage in their language development. In NT kids this phase is short and occurs when they're babies, so all we hear is babble. In ND kids it's later and we hear clearly intelligible phrases so it's just more noticeable to us. This resource looks at it as a positive stage that you don't need to fight against or extinguish, but rather help the individual progress through as smoothly as possible as a more effective way to get to more flexible language. I found that really encouraging!

@Scratchybaby sorry I know this thread is 6 months old now but wondered if you did go for this course and how it’s working out? Also in the same boat and wondering how to find w SLT with appreciation for gestalt language processing as it still seems largely something only really seen in the US. Thanks