speech progress | Autism PDD

James is now 3 1/2.  We started speech and spec ed at home at 18 months.  After 1 year of very limited progress we moved him to an ABA pre-school, 26 1/2 hrs per week.  Last year this time, he would not follow any directions or answer questions and had MAYBE 3-4 words which he only used to label.  No spontaneous language. 

1 year later he has a vocabulary of 200-250 words.  He can request things, like juice, milk, cherrios, french fries, popcorn.  He uses the phrase "I want ----- please" and can fill in appropriately what he wants.  He can also follow directions.  Ex:  put your cup in the garbage, turn off the TV, bring Mommy the blanket.  He still uses mainly one word.  For example:  "Pee-Pee, Yucky, Tissue."  Here is my question...he is now 3 years 7 months and when I hear kids a year and a half younger than him talking I think that he will never sound like them.  Even though he has come so far, I sometimes wonder if he will ever catch up and talk like a "typical" child.  Any thoughts?

Thanks you guys...my dd has been in speech therapy for only two weeks...I want sooooo much for her to progress, she will be five in about three months.  Hearing this from you actually encourages me...she is not the only one that is way behind!
Missnippy

You're kiddo is doing great.  My son's speech was way behind yours, and he sounds like your kid is now, and he is 5 1/2.  So ... I can only think that your kiddo will continue to improve.

Try very hard not to compare your child with "NT" children ... and believe me, I absolutely know how difficult that can be.  I have 2 older boys and I have to push it out of my head all the time knowing how they could talk at this age.  Hearing another child having a typical conversation with someone that is clearly the same age or younger then my child can, at times, make me just want to cry ... especially when strangers try to engage him and they look at me with this big question mark.

BUT ... he IS improving ... he will continue to improve, as will yours.

 

Hi,

Well, it sounds like your little guy has a great start.  Personally, I didn't see much of a jump in language until the receptive language improved.  My son's speech has recently started to improve at 6 years old.  It tends to be slow, but as long as it's steady, he'll be in good shape. 

Best of luck!!

nakama
My son's speech went from the 7th percentile over all to now testing at a almost 8 year old level and he's only 4.5!  So YES you most certainly can see progress to that of a typical child and beyond.  My son learned language in a VERY scripted and chunky way (phrases like you mentioned "I want ___ please") but he learned it and no one would know the difference now listening to him.
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