Nephew got hit with SPD

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It seems that the autism runs strong in my family.

A psychiatrist gave him such (he's 5), which comes under PDD-NOS, and it is to Autistic Disorder as NLD is to Asperger's Disorder. The verbal problems of Autistic Disorder, but with relatively spared social ability/empathy, plus less severe repetitive behaviours.

He was found due to bullying others at school because of the frustration with his inability to form sentences and communicate to his peers adequately, which has actually depressed him (those with Autistic Disorder and Asperger's don't care about others around this age, or they appear that they don't).

Semantic Pragmatic Disorder?

I have NLD and SPD, back then though it was strictly neurologist diagnosed, and PDD-NOS did not exist (PDD-NOS is most commonly used for SPD). Yes, both can be co-morribund and its common for the two to be present together. I would say very odd things frequently. I find SPD to falls somewhat inbetween AS and HFA, but be a little bit more socially driven than either, I will say socially I am not sure if it is better or worse, just more social, because those odd things I say and the inability to quickly verbally react is a big barrier. At the same time its not great because my short term pragamatic memory from verbal language is questionable at best. Back when I was diagnosed they didn't know the relationship between SPD and autism, but back then autism was just low-functioning autism. I also seemed to be spaced out alot, which I guess is more a HFA thing more than an aspie thing.

Its going to be really hard for him until the odd language patterns subside a bit more, which doesn't happen until HS.

I will have to warn you, the problems with empathy are still there, and like anybody on the spectrum I am rigid, just not to the same point as AS folks.

I will have to warn you, because SPD was a huge barrier for me, more so than NLD. He will say the wrong things quite a bit when he is young. Never get offended by what he says or the way he talks. Quite literally it is sometimes hard to process things, especially instructions.

With everything being said, the speech therapy helps, he won't have to go through much of it. It won't solve his issues, but he will verbalize his thoughts more.

Personally when I was younger I wanted to be alone more, as I went to HS I wanted to be social. By then I was actually capable of doing so though, at least to some capacity.

Also get ready for a huge astronomy obsession!

Oh the repetitive behaviors come out more verbally. Its not uncommon to repeat the same point or question or phrase. It is a very weird habit.

With everything being said...it's not that bad.

Yes. It seems to be fairly pronounced i my family also. My nephew is dx'ed HFA. there are undoubtedly others who are undx'ed and who do not want to look into the issue.
I call mine, euphemistically, an "eccentric family."

I used to get tired and spaced out a lot when I was younger and when demands were made on me by others. I still do when I get overwhelmed, and when I have had to be at attention around people for more than a few hours. I have momentarily lost the ability to verbally respond when people throw me off balance. Sometimes I think they do this on purpose. Does the spacing out really indicate stronger HFA tendencies than AS? I have read that HFA and AS diagnoses may be merged.

I know a little guy just a little older and who's MR and speech delayed.

Big frustration for him to be stuck with other kids all day whom he can't really converse with because they all speak in full sentences when he's still saying 2 word sentences and the occasional 5+ word sentences with adults though these are grammatically all wrong.

He doesn't bully others, but yet other perceive him so sometimes because of his physical approach to games and contact.

I'm always amazed by him though. He's totally into social stuff and wants to play with others while I was ignoring everyone at that age besides family.

O, it's cool with me; I don't mind it in the least how much someone talks or not (or what they say), and besides, it'd be quite hypocritical of me to be bothered by such. I'm not much better at talking than he is. He's my little friend.

Yeah, there are deficits in social ability and perspective taking, as well as needing a routine to be at his most comfortable, and I've noted such with him. The social deficits don't appear as bad as those with AS I've seen at his age, and the repetitive/restricted behaviors aren't as marked as someone with AD (he does have a strong interest, but it's not as...all-encompassing as seen in AS), so he doesn't really fit either of those two, but he fits SPD fine.

He has echolalia, which would be a part of his language difficulties.

Speech therapy is the treatment.