Confused About My Son's Delays

[bicycleirish]

Hello,
My son is 21 months old and he says no words. He has a very short attention span and, while he will do certain (mainly very physical) activities for a longer period of time, he won't focus on anything that he doesn't want to, and when he gets upset about the most minor thing, he screams and cries and rolls around on the floor. For example, the other day he got graham crackers out of the pantry, and, in an encouraging voice, I said, "Say 'cracker'," and he threw the box at me and screamed and rolled around on the floor for several minutes. I try reading books to him and he doesn't have the attention span to finish even a very short one.

I just had him evaluated by the regional center nearby and they told me he needs to see a behavioral therapist, a psychologist, and a geneticist for possible autism or something else. I have an older son who had speech delays, but he is doing much better and at least he had an attention span where I could teach him stuff, even if he couldn't expressively communicate very well.

Here are my questions, and I would be extremely grateful for any help:
1. What could this be?
2. What can I do to help him learn? Is he just a kinisthetic learner, or could he have something like ADD?
3. Could this be genetic, since both of my boys have had severe language delays?

I'm so stressed out about this. Any advice/info would help.

Thanks!

Angela

[Natta1980]

Sam_s_mom

ASD range in severity. Some doctors' say that my son meets criteria for ASD, while others look at me as I was crazy. My son talks in sentences, has a vocabulary of 700plus words, and uses proper grammar. Never had a language delay identified until 3.5-4 when it was time to start witgh "the small talk". He just lacks social skills (he has friends and plays with them cooperatively.  School said that he has speech delay, they do not see any ASD at all. They tend to think it is a modd-diisorder related anxiety.

As for me, you can call him whatever if it will get him all the help he needs.
And whatever you call it, it does not change who your child is.

Good luck

[Sam_s_mom]

Hello,

I can kind of understand your situation.  My daughter is 34 months old.  She has a vocabulary of about 50 words.  When she was 2yrs. old I began to feel concerned by her lack of speech.  She always tried to talk but we could never understand.  I thought she would eventually learn until I took her to the pediatrician.  Since then, he referred us to the speech pathologist who then referred us to the behavioral specialist, who then came to the conclusion that she had mild ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).  Now this came as a great shock to my husband and I because I had researched ASD and Autism before and the signs and symptoms aren't near to my daughter's personality.  The only thing on the list was her speech delay.  I was so frustrated and confused at the same time because here they were labeling her as autistic just because she was delayed in her speech.  She's very friendly, has great eye contact, uses lots of imagionary play, doesn't have tantrums and is sometimes smarter than me.  So, here we go taking her to our local Regional Center.  They began giving her speech therapy twice a week and an Infant/Toddler Teacher would also visit her at home twice a week.  Finally, RC had her evaluated again and the Psych. said she wasn't 100% sure if she had ASD.  She refused to diagnose her but stated that there was "some sort of autism".  WHAT DO I SAY TO THAT?!!  What can I do with that?  I wanted a straight answer.  So what if she lines up the blocks?  She also stacks them up and then knocks them down and laughs.  What child with autism does that? Anyhow, my point is, do these DOCTORS know what they're doing and saying?  Do they know the stress their placing upon my family?  I'm not saying all doctors are clueless, but if the occupational therapist and the in-home toddler teacher (who by the way, see my daughter far more often than the 30min. the psych. saw her) and they say my daughter ABSOLUTELY does not have autism, what am I to think?  Hang in there.  I've placed all my faith in GOD.  

-Samantha's mom

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Yes, genetic influences can be instrumental in these sorts of developmental concerns. Now, at one level the behaviors (limited attention, limited speech/language skills, limited impulse control and frustration tolerance) are not unusual in a child his age. On the other hand, the combination invites a developmental evaluation so a determination can be made about the status of his development in the various spheres (motor, cognitive - including speech/language - social & emotional).