# Determining severity of expressive delay?



## DobbyForever

I’m fighting with my son’s speech pathologist. She is refusing to provide him any intervention because he has “a high intent to communicate, average receptive delay, and a mild expressive delay”. I brought up my language concerns back at his 9 month appointment, and he first was diagnosed with an expressive delay at 16 months. I do agree that he babbles all day and clearly wants/tries to communicate. I agree that his receptive language is average. He is functional at home and at discovery preschool. But I disagree that his expressive delay is mild. I just can’t find any rubrics or questionaires or what not to do at home to see where he falls. You know, like an ASQ3 or an MCHAT-R but for language. He’s 26 months old and only says 17 single words and mimics 5 letter sounds correctly when we do phonics. His hearing was tested, we checked his tonsils/adenoids. He is diagnosed mild ASD, but they are still on the fence if it is a true diagnosis or if it was trauma based. All the reasons that I referred him forbin regards to ASD are actually resolved and gone now. Thanks for any insight!


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## OnErth&InHvn

Speech delays can be common with autism. (I assume by asd you mean that unless it means something else). Have you tried PECS or sign language?


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## DobbyForever

Sorry for the long reply!

We haven’t done anything because Kaiser isn’t offering him anything and our Regional Center is backed up. That’s why I’m fighting with her. But I’m not looking for ways to help him with his expressive delay, I’m looking for a scale or metric to determine the severity of his delay.

I try to sign here and there, but I’m not consistent/don’t know a lot. I do try to google signs I don’t know, but once I have it the moments passed haha. I asked my family to sign, but they don’t. He daycare signs though. So he’ll surprise me with a sign here and there. He knows eat, milk, dog, and cat. He won’t say eat or milk, but he’ll say dog and cat.

I’m just not convinced he’s on the ASD spectrum. He was diagnosed mild at 16 months, but she told me that honestly she was on the fence because a lot of the behaviors notes can be either ASD or regular toddler behavior.

But she ended up saying yes because of a behavior he showed when my mom went on vacation for two weeks and he then ignored her for two months. However, his father was abusive towards both of us throughout my pregnancy and until my son was 4 months old. At that point, I kicked him out and got custody. He’d have routine supervised visitation but then he got banned from the center and he won’t pay any court appointed private supervision providers that are more expensive, so he stopped seeing my son altogether. He did a similar thing to me when I went on a weekend trip but it was much shorter. And my mom went away again for a week but FaceTimed him every day, and when she came back he was totally fine.

The short version is that early childhood trauma and ASD have the same behaviors. But she figured diagnose him ASD because then he can get ABA therapy (never happened either) where’s there are no treatments for trauma under three.


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## OnErth&InHvn

I didnt get my dd2 diagnosed with asd until last year because everyone dismissed me. I knew at 3 something was off. I knew at 5 something was off. At 7 they were treating her for everything but asd! My dd1 was hit by a car and I was looking at options for her, someone said to me " have you considered dd2 has asd?" And I thought, that explains her! 

I think it's good they see an issue with your child and you're trying to get help. It can be hard even to do that part. I dont know of specific testing. Dd2 has expressive issues too but we worked with speech and early intervention to help. Sometimes she still has issues but we work through them.


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## DobbyForever

Thanks. I’m an elementary school teacher so I really support early intervention. My friends daughter had apraxia, was diagnosed after my son, received therapy, and is talking up a storm. I just hate that I’ve dropped the ball on this and let things slide so long on the speech front. I do understand I should be thankful that he says some words, but idk. It just really doesn’t feel mild.


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## krissie328

Have you contacted infant and toddler? They provide free services to kids that qualify. And they will assess before to determine need for services. What's nice they will meet your child at daycare or wherever he stays during the day so you don't have to schedule around your job. 

Both my kids received services and if he continues to qualify once 3 they help with the transition to a developmental preschool. My son was in preschool for expressive language delays and motor issues, he was able to transition on his IEP right into kindergarten this year.


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## DobbyForever

I really have to stress that I’m not looking for speech and language therapy providers or strategies. I really appreciate it. Perks of my job is that I have access to pediatric resource specialists and speech pathologists, who can get me in contact with providers and advocates and so far. I just want a way to measure a his expressive delay myself because so far the only things I find only are by his age he should say 200-300 and combine 2-3 words =\. I want a concrete assessment for his age that I can do because the SPs I know focus more on elementary age


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## babyv13

can’t think of anything that would indicate what the severity is that’s not a standardised assessment that needs to be carried out by an SLT. i quite like elklan resources for checklists (possibly not accessible to the public) and there’s a progress checker on the talking point website, but neither of these would give you what you’re looking for by the sounds of it!


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## DobbyForever

Sorry I disappeared. It’s been a crap storm.

He was re-evaluated today. He now has both a receptive and expressive delay.

The speech pathologist said he needs speech therapy but due to his behavior (Autism) he was denied services. 

Working with advocates and social workers. Still bugging ABA and our early start regional center.

I’m so broken. I’m so tired of fighting with doctors and my ex and my family and life. I don’t have a partner to cry with or fight with me. I’m exhausted.


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## DobbyForever

Thank you everyone that replied though :hugs:


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## OnErth&InHvn

Do you have a disability center? Or autism resources? Is there a special needs group in your area? 
I wonder if they would be able to help you get things covered. 

Here they have scholarships (a very long wait list) and different things. I've never looked into them as insurance covered everything. Only one time did I have to fight. The speech therapist said dd2 needed Pediasure for her feeding issues and Medicaid said no. I called them and literally told them they weren't doctors and when they get a degree, they can deny her. We were approved. Heheheh


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## DobbyForever

I have a few advocate contacts from my job. They’re helping me use the right buzz words to get a response. But Kaiser has been sued several times from denying speech services to kids with autism. The state stepped in and told them to cut that shit out. But clearly they haven’t.

My local school district only services 3+. The regional center says an intake person will contact me in 2-3 weeks. ABA is nonexistent as usual.

I’ll talk to a social worker tomorrow but for now whole lot of nothing. And I feel like shit that now he’s delayed in two speech areas. Like I should have fought sooner and harder.


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## Bevziibubble

:hugs::hugs:


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