A mummy who could really do with some advice...

[LaurenH86]

Hi All,
I am really new to the site, but I don't have a lot of mummy friends with children the same age as my son.
I feel very frustrated at the moment as I really feel there is something not quite right with his learning and just wondered if any mummys out there had similar experiences.
I should let you know that he has had a small assessment with a child development psychologist who has reffered a pre school advisory teacher to come to his nursery to support the day care in how to work with him in developing.
He is 28 months old and has no speech at all, he will only babble or make one sound over and over and then change the sound and start that for a couple of months or whatever instead....
Since nursery his interaction with me and my partner has increased at home i.e. increased eye contact and we will play more peekaboo games and he will laugh more at these types of games than he did before.

Socially he will not interact in large groups at birthday parties etc...and lately becomes quite distressed at being there and will only feel comfort with the tv on or sometimes me holding him....it has become really hard to go to any type of gathering as if there are a lot of people he will really not be happy.

At home he will spin in circles a lot or run around a toy over and over, also more so I have noticed lately a lot of hand flapping ( i have a video i took of him laying on the floor when dressing him after the bath and him flapping his hands really fast!)

He has moments of interaction with strangers and sometimes giving cheeky grins but i would say this is like 5 % of the time. He has become a lot more responsive at nursery to when they call him but there is still struggles.

I am a little bit thrown as sometimes he will be really responsive but then there is still no progression with speech and still does not follow a direction as well as i feel he should be?

It's really quite hard sometimes and i am hoping wen the lady comes into nursery she can advise me on games and things i need to do at home, because when he doesnt give you anything back, you get into a habit of leaving him to it.... I really try whenever possible to interact but it's hard to get him interested.

Any personal experiences would be greatly appreciated ? xxx

 

[smatheson]

Have they mentioned autism.

 

[LaurenH86]

When I went to the child psychologist, she said due to the improvement in eye contact since nursery and his interaction at home, that they wouldnt rule it out but have referred a pre school advisory teacher to help bring his communication and language up to speed.

If there are no improvements then I think the next step is testing for autism.

Which in my heart feel that is the route we'd be going down. Because he does interact a little more and he doesn't throw huge tantrums and brings toys to u, things like that i think people will quickly say it's down to a delay in his communication. But i still feel there is something not quite right....it is like his communication at times is like at a babys level.

He takes ages to settle at night too.

 

[Marleysgirl]

Has your son had his hearing checked? (Always a thought when speech is delayed and there are other communication issues)

Andrew is 27 months and doesn't babble, he just vocalises noises, but this is definitely related to his hearing difficulties. He has a pre-schools advisor working with him fortnightly, a teacher of the deaf every three weeks, and is being referred for speech & language therapy (again) in the new year.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

I would get him checked by a professional xxx

 

[sun]

I would share your concerns with your doc/ped. Write a list of everything that is worrying you and show them, because often kids act differently at appointments. Also if I don't write everything down, then I never remember it all lol. They might refer you to a developmental pediatrician (don't know where you are, but that's what they do here in Canada if there is a reason for concern). Our dev.ped. has been great for assessments and recommendations. Lots of hugs

 

[LaurenH86]

Well the pre school advisory teacher came and was really helpful gave us some good strategies to work with my son. She did say his communication, speech and interaction was at 6-12 months.
That he is responding more to visual clues and the language is just going over his head.

SO we have some ideas, she is coming back in Easter...by then we would have been on the speech therapy waiting list for 6 months , so should in theory get a call to get that started...

Was really helpful as she seemed to really grasp where his strengths were as well as his weaknesses.

SO we will see how we get on! xx

 

[sun]

Glad to hear you got some good strategies from someone helpful.

For us, signing has been SO helpful - also pictures of things he can point to or show us. My LO is communicating more now, but for a long time we used only these tools. It took a while for him to get it, but was really worth it. I also too a course on how to encourage speech and language with toddlers with developmental delay and it was really really good as well. Maybe there is a resource for this in your area? It really showed us how LO was communicating with us, even though he wasn't talking - and when we started responding to that it really helped with his frustration level.

It can be such a long wait for speech. We are in therapy now, but it took a long time to get in the rotation after the initial wait, assessments, the course, and now finally we have appointments with a regular therapist. So it is great that you have some tools to work with until you get in. Lots of hugs

 

[lilbumpblue]

glad you have some strategies in place now. How is he physically? Research dyspraxia hun x

 

[LaurenH86]

It really made sense in what she was saying and how he was communicating... I think there still maybe assessments for autism later on i just have this feeling but at least we can work on getting more communication between us, as it becomes very frustrating at times!

I will have a little look, thanks everyone xx

 

[JASMAK]

I would see a speech language pathologist and a developmental paediatrician. When my daughter was assessed at 2.5 years old...she was at a 9mth old level. She also had eye contact...but not great eye contact. No speech. Her diagnosis was autism at age 2 (PDD-NOS). Now she is listed as Classic Autism.

 

[LaurenH86]

Hi Hon,
We went to see a child development psychologist and she referred the pre school advisory teacher. By easter we would be on the list for speech therapy for 6 months so they hope we will start then.

I am 80% sure it'll be diagnosed as Autism, but they are keen on trying these strategies first, the pre school advisory teacher also comes back in easter...to review if any progress.

I wanted to ask, do you use communication flash cards? I am struggling to find any as I cannot print any off ! x

 

[sun]

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but I made cards with pictures for my son so he could point to them. I just started with the words he needed most and made more as necessary. Actually our very first card was just the picture of cheerios cut out of the cereal box lol. We also took pictures and put them in a mini photo book (like water, different foods and toys). This might help until you can get some?

 

[Marleysgirl]

I've been hunting for flashcards too - plenty with animals and suchlike, but I want basic things like "bottle" and "food" etc. I don't have a decent printer at home, so I think I'll have to take photos and get them printed at the supermarket

 

[deafgal]

Have you consider sign language as well? I read some kids with autism without speech do well in sign language.