20 Month Old Babbling With Inflection

[CT529]

You were kind enough to reply to me a couple of weeks ago regarding my twenty month old who has lost the four or five words he was saying (I would say his receptive skills are also fairly weak) and routinely does not respond to his name.  He's got excellent eye contact, seems very social, plays with toys appropriately and has no repetitive behaviors at this point. He has not been diagnosed with anything but we have him in 5-6 hours a week of ABA and speech therapy.

My question is he babbles with a lot of inflection quite a lot while he's looking directly at us for extended periods of time ---- uses his index finger many times pointing and shaking it at us.  It's very much like he's trying to talk to us but the words just don't come out.  Do you see this routinely with children diagnosed on the spectrum ---- ie (is this a positive sign?)

[cetta5]

Hi,
I have a son that sounds very much like yours except he is 24 mths.  He too is in early intervention with 4 days a week, 2x speech, 2x special ed.  If you don't mind me asking, why did you chose ABA for him?  Is ABA real tough for him?

[Jason C Bourret, Ph.D., BCBA-D]

Taking this post in context with your previous one, it looks like you are doing exactly the right thing.  At your son’s age, it can be difficult to tell if his language is developing a little slowly or if he might have a diagnosable condition.  The eye contact, the fact that he is very social, him looking like he’s attempting to say something to you are all great signs.  The progress that you are reporting from his ABA therapy also is really encouraging.  The best way to address your concerns, at this point, is to identify potential deficits that he may have, areas that he seems to be behind, and seek out services to help address those.  If it turns out that he ends up meeting the criteria for a diagnosis for an autism-spectrum disorder, then you are ahead of the game.  If he doesn’t, you’re still getting him valuable services that can help speed up his development in the areas you’re targeting.  I would recommend having him seen by a specialist in another few months to see if a diagnosis is warranted given the progress you will have seen by that point.