Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, hoping to get some views and experiences from other parents of children with ASD. Our little girl is now 2 yrs 2 months old. Officially, she is pre-diagnosis and is due for her Multi-disciplinary Assessment later this year. We have had meetings with the Paediatrician, and all things point towards an ASD diagnosis, which we are prepared for.
Obviously, she is still very young, but we feel it would help us to get the experiences and views of other parents who've already experienced similar to us.
She currently has no words, so no coherent speech. She makes 2-3 repetitive noises, some constantly for long periods. She doesn't really ever mimic us, sometimes when we say "bye" to her, we'll get the occasional "bah" noise, but not the actual word. She doesn't make any attempt to talk to us, and her non-verbal communication isn't good either, i.e. she has never really pointed for anything she wants. She doesn't usually respond to her name, maybe 2-3 times out of 10. She always lacked eye contact as a baby, this has improved slightly but I would guess not to the point of being considered normal. She has good fine motor skills. She was a late walker (18/19 months), she had 'cruised' for a very long time before letting go to walk. She never crawled, and always hated it on her tummy as a baby. Her play seems relatively age-appropriate, and there is no doubting she is intelligent - but very much lacking in social engagement and interaction, which we imagine are stereotypical traits within ASD.
We just wondered, if you're the parent(s) of a child with ASD (or even a now grown-up child), what experiences did you have with speech and language delay (if any)? We've heard stories of some children with ASD not talking until they were 4-5 years old. We haven't heard that first-hand too many times, so would be good to hear from parents themselves.
If your child did have speech/language delay, what things did you do to help/do you feel could help? (i.e. we've tried Makaton, but it just doesn't work with her at this stage). We've done a 'Let's Get Talking' module via the NHS, but it was more about forming strategies for us to encourage speech, but our daughter doesn't seem ready to talk just yet anyway.
As and when your child did start to talk, did they 'catch-up' with their peers, to some degree? Appreciate everyone with an ASD diagnosis is different, but any experiences you can share would be reassuring for us.
Many thanks in advance!
Our son is 4 and starts school this year. Although he has not needed speech therapy, he was a late starter with talking, and he still does not hold full conversations like others his age, instead repeating conversation parrot like both with us, and even on his own.
We have been offered a place on the 'Early Bird' course through the Early Years and Childcare team in our county. I believe this is nationwide, but it covers many different types of communication aid, for a variety of levels of communication. The 3 main areas of the program are:
1. Understanding Autism – learning how children with ASD experience the world.
2. Communication - how to change communication to help the child’s understanding
3. Behaviour – understanding why the child behaves as they do and how to respond to this.
This is for parents and children, and has had a very positive effect on many many families over the time it has run. We are looking forward to starting this, though we will not get to begin till February. It does require a diagnosis, and is aged from 4+, but if this is something you are working towards it may well be something worth looking into for the future.
Between 2 and 4 years, there will no doubt be more supprt that once you have a diagnosis, your pedeatritian will be able to point you towards, and hopefully you will gather a network of formal and informal support as well. The more you learn about all the help available the more you will be able to be proactive. It is sometimes the case that if you do not chase, you get nowhere fast.
Stay positive, it sounds like you are on the ball, which is always a good thing!
Thank you Daniel, really appreciate your response. We will certainly look into the 'Early Bird' course as and when appropriate.
As with anything, it's the journey into the unknown for us... Our biggest frustration currently is that our daughter cannot communicate with us (verbally or non-verbally), and she doesn't seem inclined to even want to do so (yet). We just hope that this changes over time, as she is still so young.