Ds started speech therapy (2 30 minutes sessions a week)at 33 months with basically no vocab and no interests in signs. He was very frustrated. Some days he would have great progress, but his language was very inconsistant. At 44 months his language just took off. Before I longed for him to be able to communicate with me, now I just wish he would stop talking for 3 seconds!!!
Ds still has alot of articulation problems, as he has facial muscle weakness. He also drops alot of sounds. He still repeats alot of what you say back - but now he can use that to try and calculate a response.
We are going to start listening therapy as we believe ds has an auditory processing/discrimination problem too. He has a really hard time with recall, but we are learning how to work together to talk around the word until we can figure it out. He still gets frustrated and hits himself, but atleast he knows that we are here for him and we will work it out.
He also developed a very good expressive vocab, memorizing stucture that he heard, but no grasp of the meaning. We have spent the last year focusing on very simple concepts and he is making progress.
I took alot of heat that he just needed time to develop and that boys were slower then girls in language development, but ds wanted help.
Ds big turn around came right after a wiggles concert. He had been abused by his dad at a visit that weekend and was very angry. He alternated between not speaking and raging. I almost cancelled our trip. We got to meet the wiggles backstage and he was very taken by the experience. He watched the concert in awe, with very little of his usual anxiety. After the concert he started talking and he hasn't stopped yet (we go for follow up therapy every tour, lol).
I have heard of many similar stories with autistic kids, especially at disney world.
I'm glad Jackson is doing well.
Wendy