Hi-
My name is Sarah and I am the mother of Jessi, who is 25 months. She was diagnosed with Moderate Autism at 22 months of age. She has a genetic disorder called Tuberous Sclerosis, which is the root of all of her problems. She has had severe epilepsy uncontrolled by medication since birth. Last month she underwent a left temporal tuber resection and corpus callosotomy which drastically decreased her seizures.
Ok, so here's the questions. My daughter made a leap with her Expressive Language from 12 months to 20-22 months in this last month since her surgery. Her Receptive Language is at 12-15 months still, which is still the same. Her eye contact is better, but still not great, and she is more interactive. Her Gross MOtor skills are at a 14-16 month level, her Grasping Fine Motor Skills are at a 20 month level, and her Visual Spatial Fine Motor is at 15 months. She also has Sensory Integration Dysfunction.
Is it possible to have that good of Expressive Speech and still be diagnosed as Autistic? Her Receptive Language is still not good at all, and she has problems with retention of things. If she learns one "set" of things, like animals sounds, then she mixes up or forgets another set of things, like body parts, which she only knows a couple of anyhow.
I know we've been extremely lucky to have her doing this well, since the diagnosis of Tuberous Sclerosis warranted her getting Birth to 3 from the age of 10 months, so she's already had 15 months worth of therapy.
So, she can speak, but a lot of it is scripted, but she's getting better with the Expression, she doesn't understand that well, she does a lot of stimulation behaviors, and her "obsessions" of the moment are clocks, phones(for the buttons), and bubbles. She can pick out a clock ANYWHERE and just get fixated on it.
Any ideas or comments on this?
Thanks,
Sarah, mother of Jessi, 2 and Grace 4 w/o autism
hi jessismom, welcome to the board! i think it's wonderful all the progress your daughter has made, it should most certainly take away some of the heart ache you must be feeling. to answer you're question, yes it is very possible to have a wide gap between expressive and receptive and still be diagnosed. my son tested in the normal range in one area and low moderate in the other. i would just say, keep plugging away at it, she's made great strides so keep up the good work and don't be a stranger. welcome again.Hi, I'm newish here myself and in the process of getting my 3 year old dd dxed. She has been given a dx of severe receptive/expressive language disorder with echolalic characteristics by her speech pathologist and is receiving ST. DD is a year 1/2 behind in language.
What I was told was that ALL kids with PDD (autism, asperger's, pdd-nos, etc.) have a RECEPTIVE lanaguage impairment (to one degree or another). That was a requirement or criteria of the disorder. Expressive language may or may not be impaired (also to varying degrees).
Hope that helps. Welcome to the board. Hope you find it as wonderful and supportive as I do.
Just want to say welcome to the board...I'm not really experienced enough to know the answer to your question..but I would think the answer would be yes...I agree with the others, she could have expressive language in a normal range and still be on the spectrum. But she is still pretty young and look how far she's already come!!!!welcome to the board and well done to jessi for doing so well
i think that as the others have said yes the speach can be at all different levels . nice to meet u xx Welcome Sarah! Glad to have you here... WOW! It sounds like you have been through alot already! It must be difficult somedays. Its great to hear how quickly Jessi has progressed
WAY TO GO JESSI
Keep up the hard work! It is possible to have the huge difference in skills and still be on the spectrum.... ASpergers kids generally do not have a significant speech delay with expressive language but often do have trouble with receptive language. Repetitive behaviors stims, OCD's are all also parts of the diagnosis too. Hi Sarah & WELCOME TO THE BOARD!!! I'm kinda new here myself, but still wanted to give you a proper "welcome". You'll LOVE this board! You have alot to handle, my thoughts & Prayers are with you & your Family. I wish I could answer your questions, but I KNOW that SOMEONE on this board WILL! My Son is 9 y/o & is HFA (High Functioning Autism). He's doing really well. PLEASE feel free to PM (Personal Message) me or e-mail me! ~Take care!~ Thanks everyone!! What a nice welcome. Jessi is unfortunately having some more seizures, but I hope they calm down. She is zoning out a lot more during the day, and getting "stuck" on her toys again. Wheels, buttons, strings, you name it. She's getting all her animal sounds and body parts mixed up, and isn't really listening to me that well on the stuff that she used to understand. So, it's just a cycle with her. She does really well, and then she just seems to start "losing" things as she tries to learn new things. Sarah
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