Child with very sing-song voice

[Flighttattendant]

Hi all, I posted this in Behaviour/development but due to lack of response, wondered if it might be more appropriate here. Sorry to intrude, if not.

I've been a bit worried for a while now about ds2. He seems fairly 'normal' in many ways but his voice is really peculiar.

He has just turned 3. His speech and language are fairly good but the intonation is odd. Everything he says - actually nearly everything, not just here and there - he says it as though the final word has two tones - about a third apart.

He's been doing it for a few months now but it seems to be getting worse. It's almost a monotone but with a different note at the end. So the sentence will start fairly ordinary but kind of on a single note, iyswim, and then the last word will go 'do-oh' with a drop of a major third.

I have had previous minor concerns re autism but had got past those - lack of either type of pointing until beyond 18mo, etc. He does that Ok now.

He seems OK ish socially too. Could it just be a toddler thing?

Any experiences or thoughts welcomed - thanks.

gut feeling - I'ld be concerned re:delayed point etc - and worth mentioning to HV/GP at this stage but I doubt you would get any further referral in terms of ASD assessment- have a chat with nursery now anyway, in case they have had concerns but not got round to mentioning yet, it does sometimes happen.. - I'ld read around aspergers, and keep a careful eye out re:play/behaviour/social skills, so that if things did start going a bit pearshaped, you would go back with more grounds for a referral. might be worth speaking to HV/GP as well seeing if the intonation would be anything SALT might be interested in - I honestly don't know!

I second the reading around Asperger's syndrome partly because the pointing was so delayed and partly because the monotone voice is a strong characteristic.

When I started to read about it I recognised many things about my DD1 which I had not realised were abnormal - she was my first child.

However do keep reminding yourself that there are many many people with autistic traits to there character but who function perfectly well and do not require a diagnosis. Your son may well be one of them. He may adapt his voice to fit in with others when he starts school and that may be that last you see of this.

If he gets more problems in the future at least you'll be prepared to identify them and obtain support for him early on.

Hi guys, thanks ever so much for your answers. I half thought you might say 'it sounds perfectly normal' (like my mother says, about almost everything!) so am glad you understand my concerns.

He did OK at the 2 and a half year check a while back, and it was the same HV I originally raised my concerns with but he wasn't doing 'the voice' back then so when she asked if I was worried about anything, I said not really.

He's always been a bit 'different' and when I tried the M-Chat on him at about 1 and a half-2, he was getting a pretty AS score - a couple of majors and some minor flags.

Obviously he's come on since then - he does do pretend play, points at stuff, etc. but to me he does not appear 'normal' iyswim, in subtle ways - and people are often surprised or interested in his responses and behaviours which also indicates he isn't as they expect I suppose.

I will do some more reading - I have the AS book by Tony Attwood? as I suspect I have some degree of AS, but I haven't found time to read it yet

Thanks again. Btw he isn't at nursery yet - starts preschool in Sept so will see how they find him.

Tony Attwood is brilliant. His book on AS could have been written about my girls in many places.

One of the things I've learned from him is that children with AS often do the social interaction but they do it later, less well and it exhausts them so they often choose not to bother.

My DD1 didn't do pretend play at all so I was very reassured when DD2 did. However I've since realised that her pretend play is completely solitary and is her retreat from an unforgiving real world. We're just beginning to wonder now how to get her to differentiate between fantasy and reality because the edges are getting too blurred. So, anyway my relief went out of the window when I realised that her play is not cooperative pretend play.

Just make sure you trust your gut feelings and if you feel that the impact on him is becoming too large and especially if you worry about transition into school then see your GP and ask for a referral to CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service) because getting a diagnosis and support in school will probably take months at least.

Thankyou for such a brilliant post Alison.

I will need to keep quite a close eye on the little chap I think. His patterns of interaction are very undeveloped as yet so not sure what he is going to be like.

Thanks for warning me about the referral process, too. I do social interaction and can do it very well but as you say, it is exhausting so I avoid it.

Wishing you all the best with your lovely girls.

Ds2 had very odd prosody and innotation... Sing song in areas that aren't needed.. Monotone in other areas... The wrong gaps and pauses.

Basically it's pretty odd to listen to..

We get more sing song when fantasy and reality blur.. Which is actually kind of helpful as it makes him a terrible liar!

keep an eye on things.. Particularly when he's playing as it can be easily missed if he's playing along side but looks as if he is playing with iyswim. It gets more noticable the older the get.