My daughter will be 3 in December. She was diagnosed with autism. She has a really hard time understanding some things that I tell her. She just looks blank at me. She is understanding a lot more than she use to, but some things like anything she has to wait for she goes mad.

My son is the same way. He just looks at me like I'm stupid (lol) or acts as if I'm speaking a different lang. My son will be three in Oct. So I have no advice to give you. Is your daughter aggresive? Because my son is and I have him on Risperdal (I think that is how you spell it) and he seems to do great on that. It slows him down just enough to listen. Although he still does not sometimes. I am not a med. pusher but I do beleive in this med.Hope this helps.

Did Your Son That Turned 4 This Month Start Talking By Saying Like One Word. My Daughter Will Say Like One Word Only To Tell Me And She Only Has A Very Few Words.

hello, my daughter diagnosed autistic at 2.5yrs is now 4, she understands alot more than people think, she can follow simple instructions, and she seems more "workable" and tolerant at the moment, ie she doesn't resist adult direction as much as she used to, she also started off saying 1 word, which we moulded into a simple sentence, she now uses 2-3 words together, and can reel off countless nursery rhymes, although her conversational speech is non-existent, we've dropped our expectations of her, as most parents with NT children want them to develop first, like its a race, and i suppose the abnormality of living with autism has become our norm (if people could see what goes off in our house they would think we were bonkers!) my daughter sounds just like your daughter a year ago, and i tell you shes a different girl a year on, its just her pace of living has to be slower than other children her age, and not to sound stupid but what does lol mean? i'm from england and i'm racking my brain as to what it means, i see it posted all over the message boards and it's driving me potty not knowing what it means!

lol is the abbreviation for "laugh out loud".

I too, know how aggravating it is to have a non talker. As I have just written in another thread, I really thought that Kyle was deaf for a long time. His words were really odd. If he wanted juice he would hiss ssssssssss. Like all he was hearing was that part of the word. Daddy was naw-nee, and other than that it was mainly pointing and grunting. THe most aggravating part though was that the ped. kept telling me that "He;s fine" he doesn't NEED to talk he has Devin to talk for him. Well, even though he is not fine, Devin did translate quite a bit. Everyone kept telling me that I was comparing him to Devin , who spoke too early. Why could no one see that 3 was quite late? I know that all kids develop at their own unique pace, but these so called professionals really scared me with their charts, and guidelines. But when I would voice my concerns, they would blow it off. My non talker is now a chatter box, it took him some extra time, but it was like magic over night. In fact my neighbor just made a comment yesterday. Kyle was rambeling on about the rock that he found, and my neighbor looked at me and said " and you thought that kid would NEVER talk!!" He's right. Kyle is 6 1/2 now, and trust me, speech is not his weak point! Hang in there mom, it will come , and probably so fast that you'll be just amazed.

I agree my 9 yr old girl was put in speech class for children with severe speech disorders at age 4. With in a few months she took up talking. She loves to talk about anything and everything now.She still gets speech 3 x a week thru school .Another thing the schools get a mint of money for each Special Education student so dont let them deny your child of any service you want for them.

Communication can so frustrating at times. We use simple rhymes with hand clapping to help my daughter learn new things. When school started this week, we made up this one "No Crying, No yelling, Smile, Smile, Smile." We make rhymes up for as many things as possible, it helps her, she likes to repeat things to herself.

We also hold my daughters chin up and say look at my mouth when I talk to you. That way she isn't being forced to make eye contact, but is looking at my face in general and usually will hear what I say. This has really helped with her recognition that you are talking to her. Before she wouldn't even turn towards us, now she comes very close to eye contact. Its taken over a year for this to happen.

Good luck and be patient, though its hard somedays!

Did It Take Some Of Your Kids A While To Know Like Their Colors Or Even Things Around Them. She Is Starting To Label Some Things Like Tub Or Tv But I Just Wonder When She'll Know Things Like Door And Flower Or Her Colors. Did Ya'll Have To Really Work On Repeating Over And Over These Simple Things That Are All Around Her? She Labels Maybe 10 Things At The Most.

garnold:
AT 2-3 my son (now 14) behaved the same way. He had a 25 word vocabulary when he turned 6! He was seen by a specialist in Chicago in Child Psychiatry. In fact, they don't really know how to interpret what you are asking. Autistic children tend to have a facination with color and art. A good way to get your daughter to respond to you is to print out pictures of the basics...food, snacks, tv, water, sleep, mad, angry...anythig descriptive. (We had these pictures up all over the house for him)
We installed in him that everytime we asked him if he was hungry, we would point at the picture and ask him to nod or shake his head yes or no. Everytime we would recieve a response, we provided him a small piece of fruit or fruit snack. He caught on quickly and within a few weeks, he would come get us and point at what he wanted. We kept these in the bathroom, by the fridge, by the pantry, by the door outside, by the medicine cabinet...etc.
Sure it seems that you may be stiffling them, but they have to learn how to word the commands and say them as they point to them "Oh, you would like an apple. I will get you an apple" and offer an extra snack if she tries to say it with you. At least you are communicating.
I also read another post about Risperdal. My son was put on Paxil at 6 years old, and until this year, he has been on it every day of his life! He took Paxil for one month and was speaking in fragmented sentences. He now takes the generic Paxil, and we have added Risperdal. He is an 8th grader and he is on a 6th grade level. The meds allow him to filter out some of the background noise and focus on ability to respond and learn. It has helped him tremendously. Risperdal is an antipsychotic med...so of course I was freaking out when the Psych. wanted to prescribe it (since it works for Schizophrenics) but the function is much the same...it filters things around the child much like it filters the internal voices for the Schizo. Not saying this would be right for you....but he would not be in his condition now, without his medication plan. nOT PUSHING FOR THIS AS THERE ARE SO MANY DRUGS OUT THERE THAN CAN HELP AND ANY DRUG COMIBATION DOES NOT PRODUCE THE EXACT SAME RESPONSES...BUT A CHILD PSYCHAITRIST IS THE BEST NEXT STEP FOR YOU.

Keep us updated on your progress.

i repeated, repeated, repeated with my daughter, she likes her books and we'd always even now talk about the pictures, to start off with we never read the story, we commented on things in the picture ie, look dog, look lady, pink dress etc, and after doing the same thing with her about a hundred times she'd be saying the words herself, to encourage our daughter, we'd say the first word and pause for her to say the second word, and as soon as she started saying the words we'd then push her to learn more, i'd be constantly saying to her what i saw, if i was walking her to the park i'd say look clouds, look tree etc and we clap and cheer whenever she makes the tiniest of steps, shes gone from a child who couldn't have cared less about praise to a child who thrives on praise, good luck to you and with her already saying words she'll only go on to learn more.

Does anyone have a child that speaks out of order? The sentence structure is off? Or can't use pronouns or refers to themself in 3rd person. These are the problems we are trying to overcome with my daughter Jade(4 1/2). My son is also autistic but is basically nonverbal. He is doing great communication though. We use these videos (signing times) that have taught him american sign language. He now knows lots of words and even tries to say them when signing. My daughter signs too but mostly for her brother. I highly recommend these videos and also a book called "How do I teach this kid" " It gives great methods to teach visual thinkers like autistic children. It is helping me teach my daughter to read and hopefully she can attend a regular kindergarten class next year :)