My PDD-NOS son is 13 now, and we have seen this sort of thing
all along. Sometimes it’s not so much that he is regressing, just that the
expectations are changing and he can’t keep up. What we have found with our son
is that, as the social rules change, he has to make a new alternative “coping” rulebook,
and sometimes things just change too fast for him. In my opinion, if your son
is PDD and has independent language before he turns four, he is doing very
well. My son developed language skills by memorizing lines from his favorite
movies (echolalia). He used the phases, sometimes inappropriately, to try to
communicate. I used to remark to my husband
that if I had not seen the movie, I would have had no clue what my son wanted. Perhaps
you are dealing with something similar? Also, my son, even now, will sometimes
so “oh never mind” rather than repeat a question. I think it is just so much
work for him to try to verbalize what he is confused about, he would rather
just not bother with it. When this happens, we try to think of what he might be
confused about, and ask him “did you want to know....”, “where you trying to
figure out....”. He will eventually loose patience with this too if we don’t
get it right on the first few tries – it really depends on how much he wanted
to know the answer to his question.
My son is now non verbal but he regressed when he was about 2 and a half, prior to dx. He had been starting to string two words together and he was much more aware and socially responsive, but then overnight he regressed and suddenly lost all his speech and withdrew into himself. He did slowly learm a few odd words but then lose them again, and he never got back to how he was before then, either verbally or socially. I think it's quite common for autistic children to have regressions and blips in development, from what I've read. It's terribly upsetting when it happens though.Jair is almost 4 is that right? I wonder if the questions about living arrangements were really questions about "staying". In other words, "I want to stay here " instead he is saying "I want to live here". And "Is this where Lia has to stay?" Maybe he is referring to the nursery at church. Instead he is saying "Is this where Lia lives now?" My son does this sort of thing alot. He just gets his words confused. He knows what he wants to say, it just comes out wrong. Like he will say, "watch the floor hit me on the ground". Meaning "Watch me jump!" It can be confusing sometimes trying to decipher. About the regression though, I don't know what to say. This is typical type behavior in my five year old. We do go through honeymoon periods though, where it seems that things are somewhat normal and suddenly things get really bizarre again and its like here we go again. This happens more with my ten year old daughter though than with my five year old son. He seems to be more steady.It seems like Jair has gotten stranger lately, almost like a regression, and
I'm wondering if any of you have seen this happen with your kids. I don't
know if it's related, but a few days ago, he fell on some stairs and
knocked a gash just below his eyebrow. Since then, his eyes have gotten
increasingly pink, but this might be related to a head cold he's developed,
and not the fall. I'm just groping for reasons.
Last night he came to me, with his exaggerated sad face, and I asked him
what was wrong. He said he didn't like blue anymore. He likes red now.
Okay. Then this morning as we left for church, he got upset and said that
he wants to live here. When we arrived at church, he asked if this was
where Lia lived now. ?? Then he kept holding up two fingers and telling
people to look at his fingernails. Just a lot of things like this, that give
me a sinking feeling. I wish I would have been writing them down,
instead of pushing them out of my mind asap. Oh - asking me questions
like "Where is it?" And I say, "Where is what?" and he looks confused, like
I'm asking him where something is, and he has no clue. Or he'll say
something and I'll ask him to repeat himself, but he says "I already said
it," like he can't say it again.
I've seen periods of sudden improvement, but not setbacks like this. It's
alarming, because he was doing so well, and I was thinking he was
growing out of the pdd-nos, but now it's like it's caught up again?? Can
anyone relate?? We are so going to start that darn diet now. Ugh!
My son does this often. Hel be doing pretty good then there will be a few days where it really worries me. I was actually going to post a thread asking about this as well!
He constantly asks why we do this? out of the blue and ALWAYS asks what something is saying? ex. i give him a recess candy and hel get upset theres no ice on it since he likes eating things cold and hel ask me where the ice is? I have to give him an answer or hel throw a fit then hel ask What the ice say? Then I have to make up an answer what did the ice say? Its really frustrating and telling him that a candy cant talk is unacceptable, or hel say something and ill ask him what? And hel throw a fit and scream I tell you already and start closing his eyes trying to "go into his mind" thats how I can describe it anyway. These days his stims are pretty urgent and viciuos in the way he does them anyway. Hes also very emotional and seems to zone out alot on the couch and it is pretty much impossible to get him out of his fantasy land so much so that i think hes seriously hallucinating? Also his sensory problems seems to flare up majorly as well and aggression, frustration. This will usually last for a few days or so then hel seem more like himself for awhile. Also recently hes been spilling juice EVERYWHERE where hes usually so good ever since he was younger at not spilling so in that aspect it was alarming to me.
This is why during his eval with his dev. ped. I told them the questions I had to answer were so hard because somedays hel be a totally different person and then some days hel seem pretty nt. But then again reading books on autism it says lots of times asd kids will have really off days and turn more into themselves then others so that is what i thought, also his doctor said he knows they can be unpredictable but to answer the best I can.
Sorry dont know if this is really what your referring to as regression but to me it seems to be like that with my son.
Yes - both of you described what I'm talking about, thanks. I wonder how
long this will last, if he'll return to his former normal-ness soon? At least he
still seems to be doing fine in his regular childcare/learning class, and also
in his Sunday School class. He is very obedient, big on rules and doing
things exactly right. His teachers love this. @@ This all just reminds me
that someday he might suddenly have problems in a regular classroom, or
with his peers. =o( I wonder if there's anything I can do (like the diet, or
more help/therapy from me?) to prevent that day from coming.My son usually dosnt stay in these stages that long, the longest was like a week or so and these stages are to the extreme end of things when they happen. Before dx I thought he was getting depressed or had some physcological problem. I dont know, I didnt realize they have a chance of never comming out of them! Now your making me worry! Any of his docs I talked to never told me this and just said its normal (for him anyway!) Thats scary! Sorry no advice here No - sorry to worry you - I expect him to get better. I just mean that even
as he does get better, he's still behind his peers. I hope that he can stay
close to 'typical' and not let that peer gap widen. I've been thinking the gap
was closing, but this sudden new weird phase threw him back.
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