salt says it's not autism!!! I am shocked...

[mysonben]

Why can all these professionals agree ?
Today was the last one of ds' salt session for this term, and salt had a chat with me , she says ds has severe language delay/disorder, but she cannot agree with the paed verbal dx of asd because ds gives her good eye contact!???
I told her he doesn't give good eye contact at nursery . She says she can only give her opinion regarding what she does see.

I bit my tongue , i wanted to say "ok so what about his "obssessions " with doors , vehicles and noises, his repetiveness,... why doesn't he play appropriately with other children, why does he get upset over the fact that our local Coop is been refurbished? Should that matter so much to a 3 1/2 years old if he was so "normal" NT i mean!

I'm upset because she will be sending her report to the paed and she will be saying that her opinion is ds has SLI but not asd.

On the other hand she is putting forward an application to a SN nursery who specialise in speech and language therapy, very good ratio of 10 kids for 2 salt and 2 TA.
She is hoping ds could be accepted and attend 2 mornings a week next term. So that 's a positive step.
I hope they accept him because he needs it badly, bless him!

Thanks lingle..I was so pleased to hear what they said about your son at nursery too, it must be such a LOVELY thing to hear,..hope we will hear it too one day.

I have to admit to being amazingly pleased when she just looked at some other children last week!

No, indeed it isn't an exact science.
Autism isn't like measles where you either do or don't have it.
A suitably qualified and experienced(one hopes) clinician makes a diagnosis based on information collected during observation and parental (and other professionals)interview.

It is lovely, and I am torn between celebrating and trying to teach him the meaning of the verb "to like" which he still thinks means "to want".

Thanks for all your replies. Not quite sure if ds' salt is autism trained or not?

Magso- yes the unit the salt is referring my ds to is solely for children with sli/ severe language delay , not asd formal dx. The salt made it clear before getting me to sign the paperwork for applying. Well ds hasn't got a formal dx yet ...so i was ok with that.

What do you mean by "playing the system?"
Do you think the salt is deliberately saying it is not asd so that ds has a chance of getting a place within that salt group?
If that is the case i'm happy for waiting a bit longer before seeking a written dx because i was very impressed by the work they are doing with the children in there.
God i hope ds gets accepted!

Eye contact (or lack of) is NOT a diagnosing factor.. the triad of impairments are.
SLTs are not qualified to give a diagnosis or refute one....

I'm both the parent of a12 yr old with ASD (and MLD) (who has good eye contact.. stare you out style!) and as a TA in an ASD school with young men who have severe autism , non verbal etc at 15-16... some have no eye contact..others have perfect eye contact.. their style of autism is as individual as they are...

With my own son it took years to get a formal dx of autism as he was labled purely as having 'severe learning difficulties' (wrong in itself as at 12 he reads and writes some).. everyone said it was his LDs and that he was too social (ha) to be autistic. Ie he sat on strangers laps.. no play or imagination just lined up stuff...
when I finally got the referral to the psychs it took them very little time to dx his autism...

Hang in there!

Lingle- it's funny you mention the confusion between ' to like' and 'to want' ... my ds doesn't make the difference between the two neither. it all means the same thing to him.

Today he surprised me with "you are bothering me!" ( a long sentence for him to say! obvious delayed echolalia as i say that all the time when i want 5 mins rest!) but he got it spot on , because he wanted me to turn the music off as he was trying to watch enjy benjy! ha ha ha...

you too huh? "to like" seems to be hard because you're saying "I want to have this/do this but not now" so there's a time element.

I was thinking I might try to ask "do you like x?" at times when X is obviously not an available option eg "do you like going to the zoo?" when he's tucked up in bed.

funnily enough he can answer, "what do you like best, X or Y?" with the emphasis on "best"

I am not sure about ds 'understzanding of "best" , because when i ask him "which/what do you like best?" he usualy select both items ,(he doesn't always get the fact that he needs to chose between one or the other i think)

Talking Mats is a really useful low tech tool used by SALTs to elicit independent choices like this 9without child being swayed by intonation, order or preferences of the person asking as often the case).

Read this and follow link to a video where a child using a Talking mat.

My sons SaLT has just completed a report on the request of a social communication panal.
In it she says that he has good eye contact and imaginative play. She has observed DS playing chase games and playing with water. Therefore says he is interacting and being creative. She does say about my sons pronoun reversal and difficulties with some speech sounds though. Expressive Language now a year above his actual age and Receptive age appropriate. But nothing about him repeating himself, repeating others, or his exactness and his literalness.

The EP hasn't observed him yet at school but has seen him at other times and mentioned that he is exact and literal and that he looks away when he is trying to think of an answer.

The Clinical Psych tried to get DS to play with some soft animals and draw a picture of a Jungle. He drew round one of the animals then got up to carry on throwing a ball around the room instead.

The OT thinks it maybe that DS's Sensory issues that are causing some difficulties.

The PAED's first thoughts were Aspergers.

I think it is that different people have different experiences and views and that our child can be completely different with one person than another and in different situations that they may be observed in.

I do hope that the SaLT report won't slow any decisions down either way as we have been waiting and seeing people for about 18 months now.

Moondog -thank you for the link.

Wasuup- It is a hard road when our dc are assessed and observed and suggestions are made by differents professionals as to what the problem is. Add to this the worries we get as parents and what our gut feeling tells us!
What a rollercoaster life can become hey?
Not easy!

I long for all of this to end , more and more i find myself leaning towards pushing for a formal dx at our next meeting with the paed.
Maybe then all the speculations will end...
i cannot stand this state of limbo.

I mean i cannot see how difficult it could be to see that ds has impairments within the triad. Never mind the eye contact (who varies with the situation anyway)

DS has some imaginative play but it's basic and not age appropriate, limited role playing without much variation, narrow interests in toys and books (mainly vehicles), and he will copy others kids' actions but not in a normal way ,he does it TOO precisely iykwim?

DS has speech delay/sli.

DS has a few rituals especially with the toilet and closing doors, gets overly upset over little things, he becomes anxious and withdrawn when he is put on the spot in a large group , he doesn't like lots of people crowding him, he is sound sensitive, his laughter is loud and a bit maniac sounding and often inappropiate to the situation ...and the list goes on.

I mean it's obvious to me that not all of the above can be explained by his speech delay!
How many more symptoms /signs does he need to display before these so called experts finally agree with each others?

Sorry for the rant, i got carried away... i'm just a little fed up today

Thank you ladies for taking the time to read and reply to my threads.
Don't know how i'd cope if i had not found MN and talk to understanding people!