Loss of previously acquired speech

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I never had speech loss. According to my dad, I didn't speak for the first time until I was 3 or 4. The story my dad gave for that was that he was talking on the phone with his friend Stan. Then I walked up to him and said "Bye bye. Feed fish." Also, according to one of the school officials who worked at the elementary school that I attended, I didn't officially start talking (talking = forming complete sentences) until I was about 7 years old.

As I get older that is one of things that has been slowly getting worse. If I've talked about a subject before, I can do alright, but if someone asks me about something I'm not "prepared for," most of my vocabulary disappears, along with half of my grammar. I know what I want to say, and can even know there's words for it, but cannot come up with the words (in real-time, at least).

Once, when I was severely sleep deprived my vocabulary completely disappeared and I was unable to pull up any words, even "I need a minute" or "sorry." What was even more disconcerting than that was how people responded to it (threatened to call the cops -- WTF?). There was also one other time, now that I recall, also due to being sleep deprived.

It seems like speech problems are "officially" considered to either exist (autistic disorder) or not exist (AS), when the truth may be that there is a continuum there (like with everything else).

Agreeing with this. And for me too, it's been getting worse. Just like general energy levels to deal with things or how long I can stay awake and get away with it, speech is slowly getting harder and harder to pull out of my pocket.

I was never diagnosed although I was told I was a very strange child (spinning things, collecting "weird" objects, collecting science books, refusing to play with other kids). My mother told me that I had typical speech development as a young child up until the second grade when I just stopped speaking anywhere but at home. AT the age of 13 I was lonely. I didnt want to be the "odd" one out anymore and just began speaking to anyone and everyone again. I still have oral, auditory sensory issues. Truth be told I still "toe walk" and suck air through my teeth at the touch and sound of cotton. I still eat only a handful of foods and gag over the texture of meat. But only at home out of sight of people who would be overly concerned with my behaviour LOL. I graduated from college with a Bachelor degree , I have worked, I have a family. We dont all have to be carbon copies to be "normal".

I have 3 children, a six year old son and a set of 3 year old boy/girl twins. Both of my sons are diagnosed Autism. My daughter is NT. My oldest son never lost his speech but he would not talk to most people before 2 years of therapy. He has mainly sensory and social issues. He has a habit of being "too truthful" Lol I suspect he is aspergers. I find him very refreshing

My youngest son talked early (around 9 months). Aound 15 months I noticed he was becoming withdrawn. The doctor suspected it was because he was chronically ill with constant ear infections and told me he would come around after placement of his PE tubes. Instead, after his tubes he began to gradually lose his speech with words dropping off one at a time until he spoke only one word "yeah". We had his hearing tested and he was found to have normal hearing. He is now diagnosed autism as well and enrolled in PPCD with speech, Ot, music therapy and half day life skills. He still does not speak but makes his needs known be leading me around and touching my hand to what he wants.

My sister also had speech problems but was never diagnosed. She had 7 years of speech therapy but is now a pediatric nurse with a family of her own. Her son is also diagnosed autism and also "lost" words from about 2 years until 4 years of age but never completely. He is now in mainstream classes with OT only. My niece, like my daughter, is NT.