
Autism / Autism Spectrum Support Group
Autism is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder which manifests itself in markedly abnormal social interaction, communication ability, patterns of interests, and patterns of behavior. Although the specific etiology of autism is unknown, many researchers suspect that autism results from genetically mediated vulnerabilities to environmental triggers.
Also, before he started to say full words he would say word approximations. He said mo for more, ba for bath, etc. This was from my son who said mom and dad since 18months and would not try any other sounds. Just keep working on any communication and verify everything he his 'saying' no matter how he gets his point across. Kids need to realize their noises have a positive outcome. Just my thoughts.
just 2 cents.
Apraxia is when the child can't speak or can't speak well due to muscle movement problems in the mouth. This causes the child to have trouble forming words.
I have a very good friend whose son only had a couple of words (that were very hard to understand) until he was 12 years old. Then he started talking more because of direct therapy to work on his apraxia. Today he is still hard to understand but he actually has better sentence formation and actually asks and answers questions (something my son who has always spoken doesn't do well at all!)
Another BIGGIE for increasing language is using a visual schedule. When my son was 8 I finally listened to the experts and put together a visual schedule for him that showed the main activites of the week and showed all everything for the day. I broke each day down by morning, then after school through dinner and then dinner until bedtime.
I only put up pictures (with words) for each period of time, so after he left for school I would put up the afternoon schedule.
My son's language not only blossomed within a month but he learned SO MANY concepts that I was astounded! He learned before and after, now and later, today tomorrow, next week, AND he learned to negotiate with me which was amazing. A visual schedule that we used EVEZRY SINGLE DAY was easily one of THE BEST things we ever did for him.
Also it is important to remember that not being able to speak is not the same as not having anything to say. That was a t-shirt that a dear friend of my used to wear all of the time. This is because his son was non verbal and was considered profoundly mentally retarded. Later on when he started using facilitated communication he was able to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was intelligent and had a lot to say.
By high school he was taking advanced placement classes.
Just something to remember and to give you hope!
Note on Janneane's comment, did you get a good evaluation? There may be that the therapy is not targeting the correct need. I am having that problem with the school SLP. The private one and the public school summer session SLP result in great progres and the other regular on has had limited results at best, and she also messed up my 8 year old since he was 5 when she has serviced him for years with no result.