Expert: James Michael Roan - 3/16/2008

Question
My son is four years old - for the past month or so he has been adding extra "-ed"s on the end of words, walkeded, talkeded, buyeded.  He was diagnosed as having a phonologic disorder at 2 years, and will be dismissed from his speech program in May due to his great progress - he is now above average for his speech, and now this has happened.  We have seen a neurologist (although this new speech problem was never mentioned) and she has suggested, not diagnosed autism.  My son also has fine and gross motor delays, which he is seeking therapy for. Should I be very worried right now that he has lost this ability?

Answer
Hi Heather;

Generally, when regression is due to autism, it occurs right before the third birthday or so. You should be concerned about any loss of previously acquired skills. I need to know more before I can address the autism issue. The best way to do this is to look at the M-CHAT and the CAST. You can download them here. Let me know what his scores and issues are along these lines and I can help you better.

http://www.utmem.edu/pediatrics/general/clinical/m-chat.pdf


http://psychlops.psy.uconn.edu/ED/downloads/M-CHATscoring.pdf


http://www.autismresearchcentre.com/tests/cast_test.asp


Kind regards,
James