Speech Delay or something more serious ???

[runnermom234]

Daughter is 37 months old.  At 30 months, she had a 6 month speech delay.  We put in ear tubes.  After 5 months of tubes, she then had a 8 month delay (she "progressed" with language but her delay increased; didn't get better with tubes).  Told the hurdle is much higher at 35 months with speech.   She is in speech therapy 3x a week.  She's a little spacey - doesn't always respond to questions.  She does initiate conversation.  Examples of speech.  "Want to play tea party with me?"  "Come to the playroom"  "I want to watch Dora."  Sometimes will answer questions and make a choice but this has been challenging to teach her.   She cannot yet carry on a conversation.  "In her own world" could sometimes describe her.  

No fine motor or gross motor delays.  

She can follow directions pretty well but could be better I'm sure.  She's spacey - not sure she always knows what is going on.  

Generally a happy child but if she doesn't get what she wants, she will tantrum.  We probably have 4 tantrums a day, one bad one.  But this is fairly recent and I think its a late onset of terrible twos.  

Feels most comfortable at home and speaks the most here.  When out, she shuts up but is just starting to talk (after 4 months) in her preschool class.  I'd say she has maybe 500-600 words.  Intelligibility I would say is 70-80% to us.   She does have so-so eye contact but then again so do I.  

She can count to 8 in English and Spanish, knows 1-2 colors, and a few shapes.   She loves being read to and is happy to cuddle with us.  She has two older brothers - they only sometimes try to play with her.  She doesn't have any real friends - mostly because she's the third kid.  She's probably had way too much TV time also because of that.  She loves Dora, Wonder Pets - whether it is the show, toy items or books.  (That is her friend).  She has one boy that she has known since she was little but has to be facilitated to play with him.  She still parallel plays but I am working on teaching her how to play with other kids (need more time on this).  She loves to play alone (with her dollhouse) but loves to play with our babysitter (come play with me she says alot) and loves to play hide and seek.  

She has a few behaviors which are to note:  She "rocks" on the sofa when watching TV, rocks in her car seats sometimes, head / back and forth.   Never saw this with the other too.   She likes to sing in the car a few nursery rhymes that she has memorized (Three Blind Mice).   When she talks she sometimes sounds like a deaf person would but her hearing has so far checked out fine (had it checked a few times).

Overall, I'm not sure she's aware of what's always going on.  She doesn't talk about what we did in the past.  I might say "Did you like that?" and she won't answer.

Posting because I want to know whether she sounds like a full-blown autism case or could this all be related to a speech delay?  Does speech delay always have to meet autism spectrum?  

[allmymarbles]

P.S. Since you did not say your daughter was diagnosed with autism, I am assuming she was not.

[allmymarbles]

Since all of my children were chatterboxes, it came as a surprise that two of my 10 grandchildren did not speak at all until they were three. There was nothing wrong with them. They were not deaf. They were as clever as all the others - they just didn't speak. (They made normal noises, so there was nothing wrong with their vocal chords.) We did not consult doctors about this delay and simply sat back and waited. When they finally did speak, they made up for lost time. By the way, even before they began speaking, they understood what others said.

Children come in infinite variety. We have the duty to be careful observers. We also have to be careful about choosing intervention for what may just be personal developmental peculiarities.

[dollyn]

look up   landau kleffner syndrome    it seems that some children are misdiagnosed because parents and doctors don't look at everything. and parents don't know about this condition and not told about it.

[alpina]

Sorry, I have just noticed your doughter is more than three. In this case she still would need the assesment and if she is in the spectrum, than she will have the right to specially taylored for her needs program in the special needs preschool.

[alpina]

Child who is younger than 3 years old and has been diagnosed being in the spectrum will receive free therapies- either behavioral or speech, you just pay monthly copayment - and the amount depends on your income.
Speech terapy contributed to a lot of improvement and so did behavioral, but in the latter's case it's hard to assess whether the development is due to therapy or just your child's catching up.
Ask your doctor about "birth to three" program and your chil'd assessment.
Good luck!

[runnermom234]

thank you kindly for your response.  

what kinds of therapies is she getting?  what has worked for her so far?  what has she qualified for.

[alpina]

She does sound like my doughter (now 2.5 year old), although my doughter is more delayed with speech than yours. She'll say what she wants or doesn't want, and that's about it. Good great/fine motor skills and delay in social behaviours (only parallel play and also has to be faciliated), so-so eye contact (good with me, ok with adults, pretty much none with peers).My doughter also loves to play with me or daddy, but it is mostly reading, drawing etc. She will not play or even acknowledge other kids, unless she is forced to, then she will play, but paralel only.
Also no answers to questions like: did you like it, are you happy, how was your day.I think that speech will come eventually, more worried about the social aspects.
Anyway, she is under the autism spectrum disorder program right now.