Speech Delay and Aspergers question

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I wish my mother remembered that time in my life.

I have very dim memories of the time before age 5. Most of my memories are of a predominantly olfactory nature. I remember, all too well, the smell of vomit. I was told that I vomited constantly. I remember knowing the letters of the aluminum footstand of my stroller. I remember running into my new apartment at 3 1/2 years of age. I remember the ever-presence of fear in my life. I remember the institutional green walls of a grocery store. I remember hearing Little Peggy March's "I will follow him" on the radio, as well as various Four Seasons tunes. I was like a non-human animal, living by instinct.

My parents couldn't take me anywhere. I'd scream if I went inside of any store, restaurant, library, etc. I'd pull everything off the shelves. I used to scream all night as well,, apparently.

I was apparently, toilet-trained at age 2 1/2 in "one go."

Apparently, I was able to count to at least 100 and read before I was able to speak.

When I was 5 1/2, I started having vivid memories, and began living via cognition as well as instinct. I remember enjoying the trampoline and orange soda. I remember fearing the water mightily, then getting over my fear of it. I started speaking then, and people understood me right away.

I remember losing my first tooth while watching "Jack LaLanne,' and picking up "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr Seuss and reading it without any problem. I used to hate ham! I knew how to go to the store and receive the correct change. I don't remember "learning" to read or to make change. I was very scared of the Gerber Baby, the moon, and the Intro to "Ben Casey" (a very good medical show of the 1960s, starring Vince Evans as a neurologist). I thought the Gerber Baby was dead. I had nightmares where the planets were the main characters.

I was not able to write, dress myself, or tie my shoes until age 6.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 16 May 2014, 9:18 am, edited 1 time in total.

I recently read that Temple Grandin had been rediagnosed as having Aspergers rather than autism. What do people think about the rediagnosing of seemingly anyone who does well? Does this seem good or bad?

I couldn't mix with other kids; I was oblivious to their presence. I'm pretty sure my parents feared me mixing with other kids; I might become violent with them. I lived by Instinct only.

After I spoke, I did much better, though I was Aspergian Awkward.

You counting trucks reminds me of what the character is a book about a 15-year old Aspergian kid, who was good at math and was able to solve a murder mystery. He would count cars, record the color and license plate numbers, discern a pattern to both the color and the license plate number, then go on to school. I can't recall the title right now. He's a British writer, and the story takes place in England. The author's name is Hatton. The title has something to do with a dog.

Temple Grandin seems like she's HFA to me. Of course, I don't know her personally. According to DSM 5, one must remember, there is no "Asperger's" any more. She seems more "classically autistic" than "Aspergian" to me (I'm repeating myself LOL).

I think this sort of rediagnosis could be seen as being insulting to classically-autistic people who are accomplished.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 16 May 2014, 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.

In answer to screen_name's question, I don't remember when I started writing. It was before I started school but judging from the infants books I've seen, my writing wasn't the best (really messy) and my drawing was atrocious unless I drew something that interested me and then there was detail you wouldn't expect a 5 year old to notice. In my kindergarten drawing book, I drew a picture of a plane that I now recognise as being like a Piper Tomahawk and I've even drawn in the ailerons, flaps, elevators and rudder. We live near Bankstown Aerodrome and light aircraft are always flying over mum's backyard. I must have noticed. I have always been fascinated with how things work.

Most of my memories are like photographs. Still shots - but when that image comes to mind, I can remember EVERY LITTLE DETAIL about the time. Even the insignificant stuff. Everything.

Before I started school, mum took me to the grocery store with a male friend she had (Gordon). I used to like the feel of certain fabrics, of which ladies stockings was one of them. This particular day, we were lined up at the checkouts and I was standing between a lady (who was wearing stockings - right at my eye level) and Gordon. Apparently, I decided to run my hand up the lady's leg to have a feel and she spun around and glared at Gordon. She was about to deck him when she noticed me. He didn't know what was going on.

I can't get away with it any more!

To this day, I'm little more than a stick-figure man when it comes to drawing. I couldn't write on a straight line for a long time, unless lines were provided for me. I don't think I actually drew anything before age 6.

I don't know if she's Aspergers or Autistic. All I know is Temple Grandin is one smart cookie. Unusual affect but clever. I love reading/viewing her books/vids.

I also had a speech delay and it almost certainly due to allergies closing up my eardrums so I could not hear properly. According to the DSM IV, this would make me a High Functioning Autistic rather than Aspergers even though I fit the AS criteria nearly perfectly. I totally agree about the life long problems: I still don't know how to talk properly and tend to mumble and speak incredibly fast, no doubt due to not being able to hear properly at a young age.

What I don't understand is my ex told me of a child not yet 2 at the time who was diagnosed with Aspergers. How the $#@$ is that possible since few kids that age speak properly?

Yes, exactly. I feel like it is insulting, in minimizing the achievements of people with autidm. And maybe even a way to put people with autism down. But I feel unsure whether that attitude is reasonable.

It might depend upon why she was rediagnosed, and who recommended that she be rediagnosed (i.e., did Temple desire this rediagnosis?

I can see a new, individual thread arising from this question.

With me, I don't know how much is from the hearing loss and how much of it is truly AS. That is why I was so a hard to diagnose. I had social problems, was hypersensitive to crowds and noise, I would look around when people would talk to me, I talked funny, I stuttered, I didn't know how to say words, my verbal skills were low and so was my communication, I sound like I have an accent and my learning is different and how I process things. I think my speech is fine now but I still talk with an accent and I tend to talk loud and fast and sounds sound the same to my ears. But my dad talks fast and loud too so it could be a coincidence I talk that way too and speech problems do run in my family. My dad also has poor social skills and don't forget I have relatives and dead ones who could have had AS too.

How much of all this was due to hearing loss or autism, I do not know but I was diagnosed with it anyway and mom and I look at it as "it's just a label, it gives you the help it needs." It doesn't make my problems fake or none legitimate. They were still real. There were things I did over come like my hypersensitivity to noise and crowds.

I would say it can be very difficult to diagnose someone with autism if they have a history of hearing loss, abuse, being neglected, forced isolation from people, brain damage and all that happened in the early years under five years of age. So the reason why it would take tons of sessions for autism to be diagnosed. The infant's and toddler's mind do develop very fast there is always a change in their development each month so hearing loss or them being locked away in a closet or something will give them developmental delays or cause them other problems in the future. That is why I get so irritated when autism gets diagnosed quickly in patients. C'mon they have to rule everything out first before they know for sure it's autism. Symptoms overlap. Even one doctor refused to say my husband had autism despite saying he showed signs of it because she said it would take her a lot more sessions for her to know for sure. Smart doctor and she wasn't one of those doctors who is so quickly to label her patients and she was just there to get information for Social Security, not counsel or diagnose him. I do think autism is too quickly diagnosed.

I totally agree that Autism, like ADHD is WAY too quickly diagnosed. This kid I mentioned (now 5) is a little shy but no more than a good chunk of children are at that age and it seems like any child who struggles with the unnatural expectations of school is branded ADHD (something like 20% of boys in some cases ). Shyness does not mean Autism!

On the flip side, I spent YEARS trying to figure out what was 'wrong' with me and why I can't make a friend and act both mature and immature for my age. Aspergers is the only thing that even comes close (and it fits perfectly) but nobody will diagnose it without going through the whole ordeal. It took me a long time to accept that I either had to have Aspergers or a mental illness and the later has been ruled out many times over. I understand what you are saying but I fail to see why I should spend $1000 to rule out conditions I already know with almost 100% certainty I don't have like Bipolar, BPD, etc.

I remember as a child they did rule almost everything out but Aspergers was not a recognized condition back then. If it was, the Doctor would be an incompetent fool not to see it. Back to the topic at hand, I find it frustrating how the DSM splits hairs in the diagnostic criteria. Who cares how my speech was delayed? I have ALL the signs and symptoms of Aspergers, therefore I should have been diagnosed with it, especially if an almost nonverbal toddler was!

I had a speech delay as a kid, too. My parents took me to see our family doctor when I was 3½, and they told him I could only talk gibberish (although I apparently seemed perfectly happy to do so ). He ordered a whole bunch of tests, including a hearing test, but the specialists concluded I had a speech and learning impediment (this was in 1987). I spent a year in a special school where the teachers there taught me to speak and learn normally. Apparently, I picked it up rather quickly, and the following year I started primary school with all the other kids. But they did notice that I deliberately avoided being around the other children (or most of them, at least).

I was diagnosed with AS as an adult last year, even after telling both the psychiatrist and psychologist assessing me about the speech impediment. The psychologist explained that a lot of diagnosticians believed the traditional speech impediment distinction between AS and HFA was arbitrary and irrelevant. Still, I don't know why they didn't just give a diagnosis of HFA. But I wasn't that keen on getting a diagnosis anyway, so I decided not to nitpick.

Doctors are supposed to rule everything else out first including autism experts when they are testing their patient for it. It would be included with the tests when someone goes in to see if they have it or not so it's not like you would be paying any extra money to have everything else ruled out first.


My shrink ruled everything out too and what was left was AS and she wasn't qualified to diagnose because she knew nothing about it so she forward it to a psychiatrist who knew a lot about it so Mom toook me to him and he said a few months later AS was the closest they could get to for a diagnoses and diagnosed me with it. Then after that she didn't keep taking me to doctors. For years she was trying to figure out what I had and none of the diagnoses I had explained everything. She always knew I had something. I could be a screwed up child and adult from my hearing loss but AS is the closest they could get to for my problem. I knew I was different from a young age but I didn't know why but I never thought nothing of it until puberty and I didn't know why I was different. I just wanted to be normal. Why did he hand out the AS label instead of PDD-NOS, I don't know. But it seems like doctors will diagnose AS in someone even though they are more autistic than AS or will diagnose PDD-NOS instead while others might diagnose AS instead so I am not so hung up on what autism label I have.

My mother made up her own language that her parents learned and then at 5 started speaking English with no problems.

You must have missed this! (click here)

My mom told me I made up my own language as well before I could speak. I came up with words for things like B'bye was my blanket I always liked. I also said duce for juice. But it was always frustrating no one else understood but my parents. I also made up my own communication. I found a way to communicate and to tell my parents what I wanted.