ASD and speech disorders

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How common are speech disorders in combination with ASD?

I´ve read the asperger criteria, and they fit my son very well, but it says no obvious speech delay.

Now I´m not sure it´s really a speech delay he has, cos he does speak and did start speaking before age two, it´s just he seems to have a very hard time expressing things at times, he gets stuck, starts over, or says things with incorrect grammar, or slightly incorrect words. Can be hard for him to answer very simple questions, but can talk on and on about his nintendo.

He also speaks oddly sometimes, gives no context before saying stuff so it´s hard to know what he is talking about. Yesterday he got annoyed with me cos I didnt understand what he meant by "the game like the one in house 33". It turned out he wanted me to buy him the nintendo game that another child has and he lives in a house with street number 33, it seems after being at his house several times he doesn't remember the kid´s name.

My son's reading and writing is as good as any average six year old. (he is 6)

Does anyone recognize this? Are speech disorders and asperger mutually exclusive?

They are kind of fuzzy about what "no speech delay" means. Usually it means no delay in expressive vocabulary, but they allow for pragmatic (social language and usage issues)

The DSM-IV used the following definition of speech delay:

I have my daughter's speech and language report in front of me. It says that her receptive language skills are above average and her expressive language skills are at the very high end of average. However, there's evidence that she has some degree of difficulty wth social communication. So basically, she can talk fine and understand others very well, better than most of her peers. But, her difficulty lies in the appropriateness of what she says, how she says it, how she responds to others, either verbally or in her actions... I could go on and on, as this is really how the communication aspect of Aspergers presents itself in her and why it's described as a social communication disorder.

My son spoke early and more clearly than his peers, understood instructions well before he could speak (I taught him to crawl by demonstrating and going over the steps verbally when he was 4-5 months old, I think.) We could never have imagined that he needed speech therapy (he has a significant pragmatic speech delay.)

In short, there are a lot of things the DSM tries to codify that aren't really something you can put numbers on. I think largely for this reason, they got rid of the diagnosis of AS completely in the new DSM and rolled it all into Autism Spectrum Disorders.

At any rate, the individual diagnosis isn't really what matters: what matters is having a frame that gets your son what he needs. Have a clinical speech therapist assess his speech (your local school system can probably do it, but if you can get a clinical diagnosis on your own, I'd do that, too.) A neuropsychologist or developmental pediatrician can assess for autism spectrum disorders and alert you to the needs he may have for accommodations and therapies that don't have to do with speech communication.

In other words, since you are really the driver of getting your child what he needs, try to go after each need (or each concern - because sometimes you can't figure out what the need actually is and that's one reason why there are specialists) individually. A diagnosis that covers everything (sometimes an Autism Spectrum diagnosis will do that) is great, but if that doesn't happen, get each issue diagnosed separately.

My problems: Volume (most of the time too silent, then again too loud -.-). No speech melody so if I dont concentrate listening to me, feels for people like reading a text without . or ,. Problems with "real talking" when its not only about responding, but really thinking into what persons say. So for me, when it comes to earnest topics i needed: Person tells me something. - I turn noises into words into meanings. - I think of meaning. - I think of my respond. But I dont think in words, my respond is a "thoughtball" where there are dozens of relations and pictures in it... like if i was writing an nespaper article with lots of background information I gathered on my desk, but now I need to gather this in an linear form. I have to create a start, a middlepart, an ending so the person in front of me can follow me. (Sounds familiar with the street 33 thing mentioned in a post above. So he sees everything included before him. The problem is to bring this in an linear form, that allows listener to follow his thoughts.) Most of the time people dont want to wait for an respond, they just want to chat to comfort them and want some answer in "normal" speech speed. -.- So instead of really thinking into it, you say something that fits according to small talk. But sometimes its really nonsense coming out.

Same happens when I try to really think into the said, while already talking. So i mix words I am starting to prepare for the following sentence with the sentence I am actually saying, or when I am preparing the sentences 3 sentences ahead I forget part 2 I already prepared, so I start with part 1, then miss part 2, joining in with part 3, that makes no sense without part 2.

And its making me exhausted somehow. I cannot tell why, but 1 hour of talking is for me far more exhausting ten 9 hours of normal working.

Schnee thank you, that was helpful, i think my son has a similar issue to what you describe.

It is normal for people with AS without speech delay to have difficulty talking things other than their special interests.