Thank you.. Re: What do you think - Very long

[Guest guest]

Becky,

has always been social, he's just not good at it; doesn't fit

in. Hard to describe the " why's " but I'd pick him out of a room in a

minute if I didn't know him and listened/watched. Just different.

The " give and receive " at conversation just doesn't work for him or

rather what he says just is something...others might roll their eyes

at? Geez, you have to be there. It's not 100% of the time, but it's

there.

When he was young, he'd be the first to socialize, get up in front of

the room to sing some song, always wanting to join in with others at

play.

So it's not the lack of wanting to be around others (although some

autistic spectrum kids are fine alone and that's how they like it,

not interested), it's the skills and the naturalness and perhaps the

actual words said....argh, still hard to describe!

Also, he had articulation problems but wasn't speech delayed. His

speech was off in that he took things literally a lot, needed

specific directions/steps. All my kids had speech articulation

problems, as did I when young.

Semantics and Pragmatics of language difficulties is part of autism;

a definition I quickly found:

" Semantics " refers to the ability to use and understand words,

phrases and sentences, including abstract concepts and

idioms. " Pragmatics " refers to the practical ability to use language

in a social setting, such as knowing what is appropriate to say,

where and when to say it, the give and take nature of a conversation,

and the ability to know what the other person does or does not

already know.

Thus, semantic-pragmatic communication disorder kids have the root

problem in:

Difficulty understanding the literal meaning of words and sentences.

(semantics)

Difficulty with abstract words, words about emotions, idioms, and

words about status such as " expert. " (semantics)

Difficulty extracting the central idea. (pragmatics)

Trouble with the appropriate rules of conversation (monologues,

talking " at " you). (pragmatics) "

******

With , the autism evaluators felt he was delayed in speech -

whether due to the articulation or that I said he was more literal

from a young age and it was hard for him to understand simple

directions, I don't know which they looked at - and said had

High-Functioning Autism because of the speech delay; without the

delay it would be Aspergers.

I argued the delay aspect, so on the final report they wrote the

diagnosis of " HFA/Aspergers. " The age for the speech problem showing

was the only difference. Tony Attwood (sp?) of autism fame says the

only difference between the 2 is the spelling!

The rocking and rubbing and flapping are all behaviors in autism

(probably other things too, I'm just speaking of autism). However,

doesn't do them. It's a broad spectrum, just depends on

where you fit, which traits you have at all (very mild to very

severe) and if you fall under the main categories somewhere for the

diagnosis. http://www.autism-biomed.org/dsm-iv.htm

Don't mean to overwhelm you in any way!

A lot of kids get a PDD, NOS diagnosis as they don't " quite fit " into

any particular autism category but things point that way.

Well, sorry to go on so long! And, as said before, I haven't read

all on Tourettes or even ADD, and obviously have read on OCD and

autism!

Let us know how things go!

[Guest guest]

>

>

>

> Thanks to everyones input.  My son will be 10 on Saturday - yikes, I

> can't believe it!!  I believe the Psych doesn't quite agree with the

> Aspergers because DS loves to play and be around other children.

Kids with Asperger's often like other children and desire social

interaction. The problem is that they lack insight about how to

accomplish this.

> We also did not have any speech delay's. 

Again, kids with Asperger's may not have traditional speech/language

delays, but will almost always struggle with *pragmatics* (social

language).

> The psych and his therapist throw in anxiety a lot.

IMO, the symptoms you describe certianly fit a child witn an autistic

spectrum disorder (like Asperger's). One thing that is very important

is that appropriate interventions can be very helpful when started

young. IOWs if your child does indeed have symptoms of AS, someone

needs to be working with him on social skills and pragmatics ASAP. As

he gets older, he will become more and more frustrated with his

inability to fit in and make friends.

Jeanne

jwestpha@...

NBCT - Exceptional Needs (2000)

[Guest guest]

>

>

>

> Thanks to everyones input.  My son will be 10 on Saturday - yikes, I

> can't believe it!!  I believe the Psych doesn't quite agree with the

> Aspergers because DS loves to play and be around other children.

Kids with Asperger's often like other children and desire social

interaction. The problem is that they lack insight about how to

accomplish this.

> We also did not have any speech delay's. 

Again, kids with Asperger's may not have traditional speech/language

delays, but will almost always struggle with *pragmatics* (social

language).

> The psych and his therapist throw in anxiety a lot.

IMO, the symptoms you describe certianly fit a child witn an autistic

spectrum disorder (like Asperger's). One thing that is very important

is that appropriate interventions can be very helpful when started

young. IOWs if your child does indeed have symptoms of AS, someone

needs to be working with him on social skills and pragmatics ASAP. As

he gets older, he will become more and more frustrated with his

inability to fit in and make friends.

Jeanne

jwestpha@...

NBCT - Exceptional Needs (2000)

[Guest guest]

>

>

>

> Thanks to everyones input.  My son will be 10 on Saturday - yikes, I

> can't believe it!!  I believe the Psych doesn't quite agree with the

> Aspergers because DS loves to play and be around other children.

Kids with Asperger's often like other children and desire social

interaction. The problem is that they lack insight about how to

accomplish this.

> We also did not have any speech delay's. 

Again, kids with Asperger's may not have traditional speech/language

delays, but will almost always struggle with *pragmatics* (social

language).

> The psych and his therapist throw in anxiety a lot.

IMO, the symptoms you describe certianly fit a child witn an autistic

spectrum disorder (like Asperger's). One thing that is very important

is that appropriate interventions can be very helpful when started

young. IOWs if your child does indeed have symptoms of AS, someone

needs to be working with him on social skills and pragmatics ASAP. As

he gets older, he will become more and more frustrated with his

inability to fit in and make friends.

Jeanne

jwestpha@...

NBCT - Exceptional Needs (2000)