Autism

My son is getting screened for autism. While I am waiting for the appointment to come could you please answer a question for me? My son is 2. He has what I believe is regressive autism because he was fine 1 year ago. The words he knew at 1 was dada, mama and bite. He now says Mom and bite. In the course of the last year we could get him to say wow, uh oh, ball and other misc words but after he says them for about 2 days he doesnt say them anymore, like he forgets, is that normal in autism? I dont know how he will ever learn to speak this way. He goes right back to just mom and bite. He doesnt understand words either, he calls me and my husband mom, and a bite is anything that will go in his mouth like pacifier or cup. He also just says bite sometimes all day long. He mumble jumbles all the time when we are out which we are used to at home but when we are out in public people just look. Last time we went to the store he made monkey noises which was really cute. Anyway, I have tired over and over to teach him words and its just like it dont work at all. He also stims, lack of eye contact, anti social etc. ....

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

The term autism can sometimes be used as a synonym for Pervasive Developmental Disorder, a category of conditions that includes Autistic Disorder and sevral other conditions (Rett's Disorder, Asperger's Disorder, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, e.g.). It is possible that your son displays a condition along the Pervasive Developmental Disorder spectrum, though on the basis of his language functioning alone it would not be possible to conclude that he is actually autistic. Because of the pattern of his condition and the way it has progressed, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder would certainly have to be ruled out. A diagnosis of autism in a two-year-old, except in extreme situations, can be hard to determine, simply because we do not yet know how your son's development is going to proceed. Nonetheless, the evaluation you have arranged is the right thing to do. We do know that the earlier a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Disorder can be made the better, because remedial measures (particularly re: social interaction and communication) can be implemented.

[ape26]

I have worked with children with Autism for several years.  My step daughter has autism and I also work with children with developmental delays and speech is often one of them.  Try this for starters, instead of trying to get him to say a word, try to get him to say the noise.  An example is to get a ball and instead of saying "say ball"  simply say "b,b,b,b,b".  During his babling, if he babbles something that even just sounds like a word, say encouragement such as "Good job, you said dada" even if you are not sure he did.