Are skills truly lost ?

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When my son was about 23 months old, he would fill in words to nursery rhymes, could count from 1 to 10, and could identify all letters of the alphabets (caps and small). He was also spelling things like eggs, rice, cheese etc, to request for them when he was hungry. AND, he could also sing the first line of a popular hit of the time.

Of course, he was technically still non-verbal. Around 30 months of age, he finally stopped all the above. When I expressed my concerns to his speech therapist of the time, she reassured me by saying that he had stopped scripting so that he could develop functional language. She said that he should be saying "Egg" etc, if he wanted to eat egg, not spelling it, and I dumbly agreed !

A year later, I am still waiting for him to replace his lost scripting with functional communication ! He has begun to babble a lot, but no words emerge. His father & I both sing nursery rhymes to him but he won't bother to fill in, like he used to.

His ABA therapists say that he may have lost his scripting and inter-verbal abilities FOR GOOD. Is this likely ? I would give ANYTHING, SIMPLY ANYTHING, to get his scripting back again !

Any ideas or advise on how we can help him gain these back ? I just really want to hear his voice, again, and I haven't heard it in a year

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

That sounds like regressive autism to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regressive_autism

Approximately 25–30% of children with autism spectrum disorders stop speaking after beginning to say words, often before the age of two.[4] According to Ami Klin, "Most examples of autistic regression...are based upon a child's loss of a handful of words...it's possible that these children were only echoing sounds they heard from their parents"[5] Some children lose social development instead of language; some lose both.[3] 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.

I am sure people who are more familiar than I will post, but based on the above passage, and what others have posted, I would say he can reacquire language, but that it has to build up again.

My son had echolalia (scripting) and he did not regress, but his language increases sort of slowed for awhile while he started acquiring more "original speech." So he may in fact be starting over. I think the fact that he was spelling before might be a good sign, but I don't know for sure.

I don't know if my situation was really the same as yours, but I'll describe what happened anyway, in case it might help.My son wasn't really talking much at the usual age, but I'm not sure exactly of the sequence of events. To be honest, my memory's a little hazy - my mother died, and a few other things happened, and I lost track of when things happened!

So far as I can remember, he was starting to repeat a few sounds, and making a reasonable effort, but then it seemed to die off a bit. At about 18 months, he went for a developmental checkup and they asked how much he was talking, and I said not at all. He made one noise only, and if it didn't work to get him what he wanted, then he made it longer.

They sent me him to a speech therapist. She told me to repeat things a lot, and not to let him have stuff (food, whatever) unless he vocalized something. Of course the only vocal noise he made was the same one he always made! When after a few visits she realized he was not repeating anything, she sent us to the Early Intervention Team in our county.

They said to stop trying to make him vocalize. They said he had practically given up on communication altogether. They told us to take a step back, and try to get him to communicate non-verbally, and to concentrate on that. If he found it worth his while, then he would either continue doing it, or maybe eventually move back to verbal communication.

They spent a little while trying to find something he liked doing - tried kicking balls, blowing balloons, saying nursery rhymes, etc. The reckoned the thing he liked best was nursery rhymes. So they made out a double page spread of 12 nursery rhyme images, 6 on each page. Each rhyme had a square on the page, with a picture that was appropriate (e.g. a bus for 'The Wheels on the Bus'). There was a piece of velcro stuck onto this square. There were also 12 copies of these picture squares (about 2 inch square), with velcro on the back, and each was stuck on the correct square on the double page spread. The back of one of the pages had a smiling open mouth with velcro beside it. So you take one of the individual squares off its place on the 2 pages, and you place it beside the mouth, and then you sing it. Then you do another, then maybe repeat one of them. Don't sing him all 12 at once. Do his favourites, and repeat them, so it's obvious that each time you place that square beside the mouth, a particular rhyme is sung. If this doesn't describe it adequately, let me know and I'll try again, or post a picture, or something!

What happened with my son is that it clicked with him soon enough that he could get us to do something very specific, and that this system worked more precisely than just making the same noise over and over. He could actually get us to sing a very specific rhyme, and we seemed very biddable too! He took the pages from us, and started putting squares of his favourite ones beside the mouth picture, and thus made us sing.

The point of this was that he saw a very practical reason for trying to communicate with us, and started to do it on a regular basis. They were trying to get him to see that communication was actually useful, and could get him something he really liked. They chose well when they picked rhymes, but another kid might go for something else entirely.

When he had this for a while, they gave me a second double sheet. This had a variety of actions like tickles, chase, bubbles, swing, etc. on it. I think they gave me the other one first, as it was simpler, and he could make a better connection between what he was doing and the fact that we were responding. He liked this too, and used it a lot.

He still wasn't talking. I was looking into teaching him my country's simplified sign language (I think most Sign Languages have their own simplified version for people with communication problems) and he had picked up one or two of them easily enough. Just as I was trying to find a training course in this, he finally spoke. This is what the Team had told me might happen. Messing around with stickers, or using your hands to communicate can be more long-winded for a baby (I know adult signers are very fast!) and not very precise, and it was quite possible that if he thought communication was worth while, he would try vocal communication again. And he did. He might not have, and we had to be prepared for that, but thank goodness he finally did it. He's still not a good speaker, but getting there. He's 3 and a half, and spoke two months before his 3rd birthday. He did have a very good child worker at this stage who is good at getting words out of kids.

Sorry this was so long, but I got the feeling you wanted practical stuff. If you've already tried something like this, just ignore the post! It may help someone else, if not you. Good luck with it.

So far, none of the skills that either of my kids have temporarily lost were permanently lost. They all re-emerge at some point, though of course I can only speak for my kids. Have you tried Verbal Behavior Analysis with him? It is an offshoot of ABA and was incredibly helpful in getting my daughter to understand that speaking served a purpose. For her, I think a big block was the fact that she thought (and to some degree still thinks) that I am aware of her thoughts. But like the pp, once she learned that using words could get her what she wanted--presumably better than thinking about it--she was much more motivated to speak. She had a lot of articulation difficulties and her speech was difficult to understand for quite some time, but she made the effort.

But I certainly would not jump to the assumption that he will never do it again. Keep the faith.

I have a few videos of my son using language, and pointing and imitating, from when he was around 2.5 but I have not heard him say a word (or imitate or anything) in over 3 years.
Its frustrating. Over a year ago out of the blue while I was not at home he said "Cake".
One word in 3yrs..that must be the ultimate example of "Doesn't say much".

I just don't know sorry.

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this INCREDIBLE posting, Nascairreaht. This is very helpful advise and I pray that these techniques will work for my baby.

Thank you, thank you for taking the time & energy to give me such detailed feedback. I am greatly obliged to you.

You're very welcome! I just hope it helps. I think the key was finding something he cared deeply about. He seems quite musical, and the rhymes worked for him. I have a (non-professional!) theory on why it worked so well. What I reckon is that asking someone to sing a nursery rhyme is a very general kind of request - they might sing anything. And it was clear to him quite quickly that the double sheet of rhymes meant he could ask for a very specific song - that there were subtle nuances in communication that hadn't occurred to him. I think maybe he thought we were very dim! He used to just say 'Dah' in various different ways until we copped on to what he needed. Now he saw that he could ask for things that were very subtly different, and it was too cool to pass up the opportunity! This was the start, and it finally led to some very unclear speech, but it's improving all the time.

The sheets and the little squares were laminated to be sturdy enough, of course.

The thing is, you need to be prepared that he won't try speech. In this case, as I said, they had recommended simplified sign language for us, only we didn't continue with it when he spoke. But what I didn't mention is that they didn't see that possibility as defeat, if that's what happens. They explained to me that it was just another system of communicating, like the sheets of pictures. It would be more flexible than pictures, and would get him more of what he wanted. So it would be a step up, towards more complex communication. And it wouldn't stop him from using speech, if he was ever going to use speech. If speech was something he was ever going to contemplate, it's actually a handier system than sign language - more people understand speech, and you can give more detail quickly, so if he was capable of it, he'd move to it, when he was ready.

If you do try it, just be sure you use the right one for your country. Why this is important, is that if he doesn't move towards speech, he may reach a stage where his sign language needs to move beyond the 500 or so simplified signs. If the sign language you teach him is based on the major sign language of your country, then he just moves to that, and the transition is easy. Whereas if you have taught him some sort of baby or simplified sign language from another system, then the full sign language may be completely different, and it'd be like learning a new language. In my case, 'Lámh' is a simplified system based on Irish Sign Language (ISL - very similar to French sign language), and each 'Lámh' sign would have been derived from or identical to a normal ISL sign. I'm spelling this out a bit, but it's an important point, and I wasn't sure I got that across in my last post.

Hi Nascairrecht,

Unfortunately, I am fully prepared to never hear his little voice again. It makes me cry, but life isn't fair. I am now at that stage where I just WANT him to communicate. Speak, if you can, but I will accept signs and icons, too. Anything, anything to just get him to communicate. I have finally made my peace with lowering my expectations for him because it is just way less pressure on him that way,

I am actually in a bit of a bind because my son seems to be losing his signs, too, since starting preschool. His signs are either not reinforced in that setting, OR, they are doing something that is making him prompt dependent, there. However, I keep plodding on, though, and pray every day for peace and positivity to keep going, despite the regression.

How long after you started using icons did your child start to sign ? I know kids are all different, but an estimate would help me with hope ! Thanks !

He started with the speech therapist in June, I think. It was Oct when the early intervention team came along and gave us the sheets. He was also in a playschool two days from Oct. he used the icons pretty quickly. Late Dec early Jan we introduced some signs, which he picked up after a few days. And in the 3rd week Jan, he said 'upstairs' - first clear word since he was very small. Not that they were ever very clear at any stage, not even now.

I don't know if any of this helps - they could be very different kids, and it mightn't work the same way. But you can't give up on the possibility, because he's still young, and within the age when Autistic kids can change hugely. You may just not have found the right key yet, the one issue that really matters to him and that he would find it worth communicating about. My heart goes out to you, I wish I could help more.

Do what you can to see if they are making him prompt dependent at school and then try to find a way to make them stop. There was a time when both of my kids were prompt dependent on me for social things and I think it held them WAY back. I do think it was easier for them to wait for me to prompt them. I don't mean that because they were lazy or unmotivated, but rather because it is "safer" to wait for me because then they can be assured they are responding properly. It also becomes a part of the "script" for responding and it is incredibly hard to break. Unfortunately, my almost 7 year old highly functioning kid still waits for a prompt before responding when someone greets her or gives her a compliment. I think it is just ingrained as part of the pattern of expectations (i.e. 1) someone says hello, 2) Mommy says "say hello", 3) I say "hello".

The school should be striving to make him less dependent. The problem is, sometimes it is quicker for staff to anticipate his needs and just give him things rather than making him mand. The problem with this (at least it was for my daughter...I don't know how your son's mind works), is that when a kid does not understand the separateness of other people's minds and they anticipate his needs, it reinforces his idea that others know what he needs, and communication becomes pointless. I don't know if I am making sense. But he has to understand that communication accomplishes something, or he won't do it. He is not naturally wired to do it like NTs are, so if there is no reason, he won't. Or at least this is how it worked for my daughter and understanding that helped me understand what to do.

Look into Skinner's work on Verbal Behavior. It might help you figure out how to increase his communication. If you can, try to find a practitioner who has had success in implementing VB. It was the key that opened the door for communication for my daughter.

Good luck.

When my son had words my wife imagined them to be like fine sand that she was trying to hold in the palm of her hand and they were slipping between her fingers.

Skills seem to be hard to gain, but easily lost, this weekend I noticed that my sons use of PECS was dropping off and communication in the way that we would like from him was lessening. E.g. when he wanted something he would lead me to it, rather than bring me the picture. Also he was starting to get aggresive and frustrated.

I observed him and worked out that he gets most of the PECS off the wall where we have them stored in bulk but the table he would stand on had been moved. Once I sorted that out it was back to normal.

On a positive note, the therapist taught my son his first sign "more" a few weeks ago, and he has been using it more frequently of his own volition. Signing is more convenient than PECS for sure.