So confused! Please give me your opinion.

[shanshan555]

Hello. My son turned 3 on January 28th 2009. He talks but not at the appropriate age level. He says mommy and daddy, he says I love you, I wanna swing, I wanna go outside and many other things. He knows his shapes and colors. Knows and points at animals in books and etc. He had 14 ear infections before the age of 1 then had a set of tubes put in. That set of tubes in his ears got lodged and fluid built up behind them for a period of time, which didn't allow him to hear properly. I am told this is the cause of his language delay so he began preschool when he turned 3 and his language has improved slowly but surely. He will come up to me and talk with jargon and laugh but I have no idea what he is saying except for a few words. He started answering yes and no questions and he answers his name and age. Knows his body parts and so on. He plays with other children and is not really scared of crowds or lights or other things of that nature. I noticed a while back that he would repeat things off his favorite television shows and he still sings the wonder pet song once in awhile but he makes sure we are listening! He is very hyper at times, eats well and sleeps well. When he is tired he tells me to turn off the light and goes and gets a blanket. I am going on the tubes being the reason for his language delay but I don't know if there is an underlying problem. He still at times repeats things that are said to him, I just want to be able to have a conversation with him and he is not at that level yet. He gets speech therapy twice a week for 10 minutes. Any suggestions or am I over reacting. Oh yeah he has good eye contact also. Basically it is the language delay that is bothering me because he has two cousins the same age and they talk all the time. Please give me some insight

[timmysmom2005]

Hello. I myself have a 3 year old son who was diagnosed with autism at 21 months old. The thing that is difficult is that no two autistic kids are the same. It's really hard to distinguish what is autistic behavior and what is just being a toddler. I wouldn't doubt that the language delay is due to the hearing problems. My son had severe language problems. He barely had  any words at all for so long. For awhile they did suspect it was  due to so many ear infections but he had great success with the tubes and then scored normally for hearing. He began speech therapy at 14 months old and had it an hour a week until he turned 3. (thats the age in RI where you stop getting services that aren't provided from the school department) He is now in school getting a half hour twice a week and is a regular chatter box! He starts talking before his eyes are even open. What does strike a cord with me is what you said about him repeating things he hears on TV or things you say and then using them appropriately. That is a HUGE thing with my son and it is called echolallia. It's the repetition of other peoples' vocalizations. Many of my sons workers told me it's actually a blessing in disguise because of the fact that after the child repeats the words for a length of time they tend to learn how to use them appropriately. I also can honestly tell you that watching blue's clues and word world helped my son. A LOT. I also know a lot of parents who ordered dvds called baby bumblebee that helped. It really stinks that your son gets such little time for speech therapy. It's so important, but you yourself can google board maker pictures and download and print them for free. It's such a good tool. My son learned how to label objects and emotions and food with them and used picture exchange by bringing me the card with what he wanted on it before he learned to speak. It absolutely has to always result in positive reinforcement. Don't allow him access to pictures of things you don't have on hand. Ex. if you don't have apple juice don't let him see that card on that day. I hope that helps at least a little. What you really need to do for your own peace of mind is get a referral from your pediatrician to a child neurologist. They can do some very simple evaluations to help figure things out. Your son could very well only have a speech delay and not Autism. It's very common. There are also some developmental delays such as PDD which have some of the same signs but are different.  Honestly I wish you the absolute best of luck. It's a trying road to go down but the earlier the child gets an evaluation and diagnosis and you begin therapies the better. Good luck!

[shanshan555]

My son is very social with other kids he always wants to be the center of attention, although he will play by himself also. He repeats what we say sometimes but uses it in appropriate situations. He seems to understand almost everything we say to him, it is just understanding what he is saying to us.  He has never really showed sensory issues either. I am just going to keep working with him and talking to the doctors and hopefully he will catch up soon

[888mom]

Is he social with other kids?  Or does he have ritualistic behaviors (might come across as OCD like behavior)?  Have problems transitioning?  Have sensory issues, like will have a meltdown from certain stimulus?  Those are things that I have gone through or am still going through with my daughter who is now 3 1/2.  For her continuing to learn language is a struggle.  Right now we're focusing on pronouns like me and you.  She seems to reverse them.  Still.  She also has problems understanding "symbolic language" and things that are more abstract and not concrete, which are also typical with children with PDD.

Still, even if your son does not have autism, keep on top of the speech teacher.  If you are still having problems understanding what he is pronouncing, have they (speech teacher and the doctors) ruled out verbal apraxia?  Hopefully it is just the tubes in the ears and he will catch up.  If he doesn't have speech therapy over the summer, make sure you work with him on his language and get him playing with other kids his own age who are verbal.  

[shanshan555]

Yes, the school did assess his language and this is all he qualified for. His speech teacher sent home his progress report and said that he is progressing very well, which he is. Maybe I am just expecting things too fast because he does get better everyday. He says new things all the time that I never taught him to say so he is catching on to language that has not been taught to him. My son is about 1 year behind also and I am told by his doctor and teachers all of is due to his ears.

[888mom]

Speech therapy twice a week for only 10 minutes does not sound like it is enough.  Did the school system assess him in his language and give you an approximate age level he was speaking at?  My daughter who is about a year behind has received over the last year 20 minutes twice per week.