Can anyone comment on the speech therapists report?

[nikos]

Ds (3.5) is currently being assessed for ASD. We have thought he might have language delay which is showing as autistic traits as he doesn't have the core traits.
Speech therapist spent 2 hours with him at nursery (her second visit. She has found him to be nearly a year delayed in speech.

She concluded 'X is experiencing considerable difficulties with expressive and receptive language skills and with social interaction and understanding, especially with peers.'
But their is no mention of ASD and now we are left confused. We are going to speak to her on Monday for clarity. She is an expert in ASD so she must have a gut instinct.

But what can we be looking for to differentiate between language delay and ASD? Anone have any comments about what she wrote?
I just wish we could get to the bottom of what is wrong. This has been going on since last SEptember .

Nikos, those concerns you mention were all typical of DS and it was particularly bad in the school environment when he got swallowed up in a crowd so to speak. They were symptoms of a language disorder and not of ASD.

I would really urge you to get a professional dx and not try to self-diagnose If your DS does have SLI there is every chance he will make excellent progress with help (as mine has and TClangers and others by the sound of it) so try not to worry.

The reason I'm asking for advice is not to try and self diagnose. It's just that I think a track of ASD is being gone down by the professionals (who haven't really spent any time with him but are just going on traits that others have told them about). I'm not sure it is the right track so I want to be armed with others experience when I'm dealing with them.
We have a nursery manager who has done a special needs course and thinks she's red hot at spotting ASD . Need I say more?

Should I go private to speed up a diagnosis? If I do, which type of professional should I involve and how do I find them?

nikos - to answer an earlier question - a speech therapist would give you some exercises to do to help his expressive and receptive language (based on the level he is at, and bringing him up to the next level iyswim), and general advice about suitable games/activities to help his language. Also specific suggestions about areas of language to work on. E.g. my private speech therapist has given me some useful info on how to encourage DS to ask questions, and advice about playing games such as I-spy (with adjectives not letters!!), and a series of pictures for him to comment on, to get him used to relating events sequentially.

to answer your current question - a SALT usually can't diagnose (or not diagnose) ASD. So I don't know that a diagnosis of delay/disorder would get your DS "off the track" of being assessed for ASD. The private SALT involvement would be more useful in giving you and nursery advice about improving his language and social communication.

Thank you both for all that information. It's really useful.
TClanger - can I ask how much it is for the Meath school assesment? How much would a private SALT cost as well?
I would really like to do some work with him over the summer. We've emailed the SALT this morning to ask for some clarity on her report.

private SALT costs in the region of 50/h. Initial assessment and report and plan of work is likely to cost £100 to £150, with follow up appointments of an hour costing £50.

Ds2 (5) has AS and sees the SALT at school. Even though ds2 has a dx I don't think autism is ever actually mentioned in his SALT reports. Instead it just concentrates on the SALT side of things.

As others have said, even when the SALT is as certain as they could possibly be that a child has ASD they are not allowed to say so.

Ds2's language development has always been disordered. He started off being delayed in receptive and expressive language. Recently his expressive language has rocketed and he is suddenly a long way ahead. His receptive language is still delayed and the SALT sends us stuff to work on at home with him.

Your ds being able to use short sentences is a very good start. The SALT should hopefully be able to help him slowly build them up. With ds1 (now 8) the SALT started at the very beginning teaching him nouns. When he was ready he moved on to verbs that he could put together with the present tense verbs, eg "Teddy running" "Boy eating". If you can remember what it was like learning a foreign language at school and how you slowly built up the basics then it should give you a fairly rough idea of what the SALT might be doing with your ds.

This all sounds very familiar to me. We're currently waiting to see if 2.11 yr DS1 is HFA, has SLI or semantic pragmatic disorder. His receptive and expressive language is delayed about around 12 months. There are some ASD like symptoms but the minor ones, if that makes sense, there aren't any noticeable sensory issues, repetitive behavours, behavioural issues or need to keep things the same.

The ASD concerns, other than the language delay are, if this helps, reduced but not absent shared attention, fluctuating levels of eye contact and general obliviousness to what's going on around him. Play with other children is limited to chasing or parallel play. He reads tone and expression when being naughty but is usually oblivous to people being upset or hurt. His speech can sometimes be mildly inappropriate, he'll say "wait" when he's trying to get my attention. He won't wait at all to have his needs met but doesn't particularly have meltdowns. He will also spend time looking at objects and investigating how toys work - not obsessively, but certainly more than a typical child.

At playgroup today a mother of 3 boys with ASD said that the "more than words" Hanon (sp?) speech programme has really helped her children. Not sure if this is a local or national thing - will look into it and post when I find more info..

KT - DS was extremely similar to your DS (probably a bit more delayed though) at the same age. His concentration, eye contact and socialising have improved a lot as his speech has improved over the last year.

I did the More than Words course and it was wonderful. We saw a real improvement in ds's language and interaction with others since doing it. Our speech therapist ran it.

Ds has completely normal eye contact. I've seen him even use his eyes to communicate.

My ASD DS1 has fairly normal eye contact or at least I used to think so - but when I compare it now with DS2's (NT) there are 'qualitative impairments'.

Tclanger - that's exactly my worry. That everyone is assuming ASD and I think it's more complex than that. They probably all think I'm in denial .

Nikos, I didn't mean your DS may be ASD because of eye contact thing - I just meant it as a generalised observation about ASD and eye contact

Cyber - I didn't read anything into your comment, was replying to TClanger

We've had feedback from the SLT. She believes ds's language problems are consistent with those experienced by children with ASD and that his lack of compliance and solitary play is also indicating that ASD needs to be further investigated. I respect her opinion-she's very experienced, probably more so than a lot of paeds.
It was good of her to give me such an extensive and open reply and I feel I am clearer in understanding what the professionals are thinking. I suppose with all these things, time will tell and we just have to take it one day at a time and deal with what is in front of us.