It's good that you have EI coming out. In the meantime, do you have a neuro
you could take him to? Personally, that is what I would do--given your older
son's dx & this pattern of gaining/losing words. (((Hugs)))Hugs - I am sure its soooso frustrating - I am scratching my head here
You ceratinly dont sound lke you are in denial - looks like you are looking at everything pretty closely
Still its funny that there is word loss without other red flags
I know there are plenty of language disorders - maybe someone else will post something more useful
hi hun
language regression around 18-20 months is often one of the first signs of ASD.
and should be checked asap
also
Landau-Kleffner syndrome is another dosorder which affects speech
Landau-Kleffner syndrome (LKS)is a childhood disorder. A major feature of LKS is the gradual or sudden loss of the ability to understand and use spoken language. All children with LKS have abnormal electrical brain waves that can be documented by an electroencephalogram (EEG), a recording of the electric activity of the brain. Approximately 80 percent of the children with LKS have one or more epileptic seizures that usually occur at night. Behavioral disorders such as hyperactivity, aggressiveness and depression can also accompany this disorder. LKS may also be called infantile acquired aphasia acquired epileptic aphasia or aphasia with convulsive disorder. This syndrome was first described in 1957 by Dr. William M. Landau and Dr. Frank R. Kleffner, who identified six children with the disorder.
I'm sorry you are going through this for the second time and all that
Defining language regression is beset by a number of problems that make it difficult to compare studies and evaluate prevalence data. None of these problems has received a clear answer to date.The first problem is clinicians’ reluctance to give an ASD diagnosis and their lack of uniform diagnostic criteria, especially in toddlers whose motor milestones are on target and who seem otherwise healthy. Yet until recently physicians wrote the bulk of studies on language regression because of the search for the biologic basis of developmental disorders and loss of milestones. Physicians typically rely on clinical diagnostic criteria rather than on standardized research questionnaires designed to define subtypes of ASDs. Consequently their diagnostic thresholds vary, understandably since all behavioural diagnoses, including autism, language disorder, and regression, are dimensionally, not categorically defined. Physicians are prone to label the more severely affected autistic children retarded, demented, or psychotic rather than autistic, especially children with a defined etiology like a malformation syndrome or the sequelae of an encephalitis, and those who fulfill criteria for disintegrative disorder (DD) (Table) in whom catastrophic regression occurred after language was fully developed (e.g., (23;24)). Many clinicians, not just physicians, are still reluctant to assign an ASD label to the less severely affected children and call them language disordered with “behavioural issues” or “autistic features” rather than autistic in the sense of an ASD.
A second difficulty has to do with the criteria for regression. How many words must the child have had–five?, ten?–to fulfill criteria for regression rather than failure of language development? Must the words have been spontaneous, or do prompted or echolalic utterances count? What about younger children whose communication skills had not progressed beyond pointing, or waving bye-bye and showing to body parts, or imitating a few words? Where to make the cut between autistic symptomatology that has been present since infancy and very early regression at a time when communication has barely started?
A third problem is stagnation versus loss of skill. Loss of skill implies prior achievement of some language, social, and play skills before the regression sets in. Stagnation or developmental plateau implies that learning itself is affected, so that already acquired skills are retained but no new ones are mastered. Are regression and plateau on a continuum or are they distinct processes? Could the pace of the underlying process be the deciding factor? Precipitous regression will result in a loss of skill that is noticed by the parents and measurable with standardized tests, whereas insidious regression is likely to pass as a developmental plateau that goes unheeded. Plateau in turn may be interpreted as a regression because it results in a drop of scores-for-age as the child matures and has learned little or nothing.
For a long time, there was some doubt about whether regression was real or was an artifact of parents becoming aware of their child’s inadequate development and denying or being oblivious of earlier symptoms. The sheer number of very young children on the autistic spectrum my colleagues and I and others had the opportunity to evaluate convinced us of its reality as we listened to parent after parent recount that their previously well developed child had become much more difficult to bring up because he (or she) no longer listened and had stopped saying his few words, was less interactive, no longer played with toys the way they were designed to be played with, and now had fierce tantrums and sleep problems. I had included several questions about regression in the questionnaire parents fill out before they came to see me. Among 269 parents of children with ASD (excluding 12 with Rett syndrome), 39% reported language regression, compared to 5% of 235 parents of children with DLD (25). In another cohort of 196 children whose parents responded yes to my questions about language regression or developmental plateau, chart review indicated that my diagnosis was ASD in 93% of the children and DLD in 7% (26). In a third study carried out by several child neurologists over a 6 month period in four cities, 177 consecutive parents who reported language regression in their child completed a brief questionnaire; 88% of these children were on the autistic spectrum (27). Mean age at regression centred around 21 months in these three clinical studies in which children were often evaluated several years after the regression. It was 16-17 months in a research study of 10 ASD children aged 2 years or younger who had had at least 3 meaningful words and lost them all according to their parents’ responses to the Autistic Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) (20;28). They reported regression of vocalizations or words in 38% of children with autistic disorder and 21% of those with PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified). None of 21 non-autistic mentally retarded children or 33 typically developing controls had lost words, whereas loss of vocalizations was associated with low IQ rather than autism. Sixteen per cent of the 100 children had had at least one seizure by age 2 and 19% by age 5, but seizures were not specific to children with regression. There were few cognitive or language differences at age 5 years between children whose language had and had not regressed.
Any question about the reality of autistic/language regression and about whether at least some children were normal prior to the regression has been laid to rest by the study of videos parents collected before they were aware there was anything wrong with their child. Werner and Dawson (29) analyzed home videos of first and second birthday parties of 20 typically developing control children and 39 children unequivocally on the autistic spectrum at age 2 years, 18 of whom had a history of regression during their second year. They defined regression as loss of language (spontaneous communicative words as well as words without communicative intent) or any other skill between ages 12 and 24 months on the basis of parents’ responses to the ADI-R. The videos showed that those toddlers whose parents reported a regression during the second year did not have impaired joint attention and communication at 12 months, thus vindicating parental reports of a subgroup with autistic regression after normal or near normal early development – some parents did report an increase in non-specific subtle signs of dysregulation before age 1 year, such as being more passive or oversensitive to sensory stimuli, which were not reported in the typically developing controls. Differences between ASD children with and without regression on the 1 year tapes were no longer significant at age 2 years.
I am sure youremember me posting that my 16 mo DS wasn't talking yet and we were having him eval. by Early Intervention. They did come out last mo. and we will be doing a 3 hour eval. in two weeks. In the meantime I am worried. I do not know what is going on with this child.
He spoke 5 words from 11-12 mo, then over a 1 mo period he pronounced the words less and less clearly, then they dissapeared all together (except for DaDa) He started talking again at 17 mo., saying 9 words, then he pronounced them less clearly and all but 3 words dissapeared. The 3 he does say are "DaDa, uh-oh and ewwww)
He has ok eye contact, points, brings us things to show and jabbers on and on. We can tell by his jabber when he has found something like a bug because he comes running to us and looks at us jabbering excitedly. He loves to play with us and loves tickle games and chase games. So from what I know about Autism in my DS, these dont seem like red flags.
The only thing that is are red flags for him is.....
*He will "study" toys or an object with facination for 5-15 min. ingnoring us when he name is called many times. He does this throughout the day many times.
*He does exibit sensory problems with very high pain threshold, he is a crasher and likes to bang his head on things or crawl rubbing his forhead on the floor. His feet are VERY sensitive and he wont let anyone touch them, wont go barefoot out side and fusses if he doesn't have socks on.
Does anyone have any idea what may be going on with this child? It is driving me batty having to wait for the EI appt.! Worrying will change nothing, but I can't help it. I know Allegra had Nina evaluated and they said she will probably go on to be diagnosed with ASD (I am sorry Allegra, that REALLY stinks!) But Nina exibits the classic red flags with little eye contact, no language etc. Maybe I am in denial?
Regressive autism occurs when a child appears to develop typically but then starts to lose speec and social skills at about the age of 18 months and is later diagnosed with autism After the regression, the child follows the standard pattern of autistic neurological development. The term refers to the appearance that neurological development has reversed; it is actually only the affected developmental skills, rather than the neurology as a whole, that regresses. It is more usual for autistic neurological development to not include such aberrations, with age-appropriate autistic symptoms being clear from birth.
The temporarily acquired skills typically amount to a few words of spoken language, and may include some rudimentary social perception. Skill loss may be quite rapid, or may be slow and preceded by a lengthy period of no skill progression. In some cases a child will go through a period of learning new words at the cost of losing previously acquired words.
The apparent onset of regressive autism is surprising and distressing to parents, who often initially suspect severe hearing loss. The pattern of symptoms naturally leads many to suspect that postnatal environmental factors trigger autism.
I really hope that is all it is. Not that it would be good, but not so bad. He does understand what we tell him to do or ask for, so that might make sense too. This was the same age Daniel's lang. went also. Another boy we no know had the same thing at this age he was ahead in his skills and no lang. at all anymore at age 9. I hear this just happen with some asd kids. We believe with Daniel it was his shot's was the cause of his. He is 11 now and still had ST last school year. How about a language disorder.... that's what my son has and his main problem was speech... similiar loss around the same time as your child. He also did have sensory stuff, but that has mainly diminished with OT. That's just another possibility. Good luck. I totally understand what you are going through. Even with my son's dx I still overanalyze everything!Thank you everyone for your replies! It is very comforting to know there are others who know what I am talking about and who genuinely care
Spectrummum- both posts were very imformative, but the first one specifically about regressive Autism really stood out to me. This really sonds like what JAcob is going through. It is terrifying to think any child could have severe Autism, but at least I would know what was wrong and get on the ball with services. I am going to get him in to see a neurologist like Elle2 suggested. You ar all so wonderful!!!!
Daniels Mom- Do you mean Daniel lost the words he had at 18 mo.? Did they just dissapear or did he slowly pronounce them less and less clearly? I am just baffled because he seems to have only a few "red flags" like not answering when we call his name, sensory problems and playing or studying a toy for 5-15 min. at a time. He will play with running water in the sink for an HOUR or more if I let him and he screams when we make him stop.