Language Acquisition | Autism PDD

My son is a type of an asd child who has language delays. He has however
acquired so much and now can learn from his enviroment. He generalizes
and uses all the language that he had learned. The problem is that nt/
children have such a language explosion from the ages of 2-6 that even if
my asd son progresses at the same rate, he is behind. For our kids they
have to learn at a greater rate than nt/kids. Basically you have to work them
harder and longer just to keep up. I am hopeful that by 2nd grade he will be
caught up. My son however already knows how to read and write and pretty
comfortable on the computer.   We also need to work on the the social
aspects as well. It never ends does it?

We did VB/ABA for years and our dd was just like your son and I too worried if her language was going to be all taught phrases, prompt and rote sounding but she is learning from environment now and I can no longer discern what are taught phrases or scripted from TV ..ect.. she blossomed around 6 years old actually when we quit ABA and speech and the stress of doing demands ended..

I suddenly found myself not having to prompt or model every single phrase out of her..now she is 7 she talks nonstop and I dont feel I am pulling teeth to get words out of her~she still is behind her peers like Kathy stated  her peers use language completely different from her..more spontaneous and freely where Sarah states facts and simple statements..we just keep working on it..

I think your son is doing fantastic!!

Keep exposing him to environments with peers and fun things that engages him:) I also have the teachers to always keep in mind her lack of wanting to express herself and to help her while she is at school. Playgroups are great..we just got her in gymnastics and she loves it..

Best of luck:)

I agree that your child is doing great.  We too have to teach almost every word to my son.  It's hard to explain abstract words so those take longer.  His sp works alot with that in school.  I find when he is with any positive peers or even with his cousins, siblings etc, he will learn a lot from them.  He will try to copy anything they are doing or saying.  So school is so important and not just the therapies they get, but just being in the class and playing and modeling the other kids.  I do feel bad when those kids are talking up a storm and my ds can't keep up with the conversation and doesn't know what's happening.  He will then get frustrated and act out.  So now I am trying to work on his frustration outlet so he doesn't clobber any innocent children.  Anyway, it sounds like our children are learning language the same way.  It's hard work but we should be thankful to hear them talking more and more typical.  Keep up the good work.At age 3 my ds did not have much functional language. He had single
words but he did not really seem to understand the purpose of language.
Unfortunatly I had my head in the sand and did not realise that it was
autism. But I clearly remember that until he was 4 he did not seem to
understand the purpose of a question. Completly unknowingly I adjusted
my language to his needs and for the longest time put questions only into
yes/no form and than gave him a prompt for a yes/no answer.
He is 7 now and his language is assessed as age appropriate. He does
overuse some phrases and his expressions can be somewhat unusual but
I do not think his language stands out much. His language is spontaneous
and appropriate.
I think that the times that he does sound a little unusual are more about
the fact that his perception of the environment is unusual and that gets
reflected in his language - it is not a language defecit.
At the moment I work with him on finding the right tone - he will say
something in an ironic or bossy voice and be completly unaware that he
sounds rude. All those fine points are still hard for him or like he said
today "sometimes grown-up language is a mystery to me".
To answer your question : my ds was clearly delayed in expressive and
receptive language but he has caught up (even without the benefit of
speech therapy ). The way your son is doing sounds great!My son is more delayed but I have a similar question.  He is four now (just turned) but up until 6 months ago he wouldn't even mock/imitate words.  He may have named 4-5 items at the point.  Now he imitates everything.  He also names items and people and uses a few multiple word phrases.  He has a long way to go but has made such exciting progress in the last 6 months.  His original diagnosis was mod/severe autism.  I just wonder how far he can go and how exactly to get him there.  He has preschool and ST but I feel like he has made such progress that I just want to do something to keep it moving at this pace.  Even though he has not had the typical language explosion compared to where he was at 6 months ago I am thrilled.  He also just started understanding language (receptively). 

My son is making good progress in terms of communication. He is getting this through ABA/VB and us verbally modelng everything. Hes using language functionally, and starting to ask questions ("where is ____?" when he cant find something and "what is this?" when he wants us to identify an object). Ive noticed that every few weeks he seems to add about 10 new phrases into his repetoire and he generalizes these wherever he can, albeit its sometimes inappropriate. For example, he learned the term "no thank you" and now he'll say "no thank you" whenever he doesnt want to do something (ie- "Ryan, its time to go to sleep".."no thank you")- cute example, but you get the picture. He still confuses pronouns and we have to verbally model the correct way and eventually he gets it.

Its seems that Ryan is gaining language in a completely different way than a typical kid where a foundation is there and they just acquire new vocabulary and add it into their repetoire. Its not merely a delay. For Ryan, every single phrase for every situation needs to be taught to him. Its exhausting to think about doing this for the rest of his life, but hes making progress so it keeps us motivated.

For those of you whose kids are very verbal now but werent so much when they were between 3 and 4, did you find that they eventually caught up to their peers? Do any of you find that their language is indistinguishable from their NT peers?  Any insights or advice other than what Im already doing or did you find that as they get older, they just naturally pick more things up from their environment?

thanks in advance!

Hi, Branden is saying more words without therapy(yet) but i think it is more of repeating me(echolia). Every once in a while he will say something but not that clear and not in complete sentences. I am hoping he will start to ask questions and say more words without repeating me. The funny thing is that if he misses me he won't talk to anybody until i come and then i can ask him the same question and he will answer it. People get mad, and i get upset sometimes because i don't know what he is going to do in school..but that time hasn't come yet so maybe he will change.
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