Expert: James Michael Roan - 7/15/2009

Question
Dr. Roan -

You were kind enough to reply to me a couple of weeks ago regarding my twenty month old who has lost the four or five words he was saying and routinely does not respond to his name.  He's got excellent eye contact, seems very social and has no repetitive behaviors at this point. He has not been diagnosed with anything but we have him in 5-6 hours a week of ABA and speech therapy.

My question is he babbles with a lot of inflection quite a lot while he's looking directly at us for extended periods of time ---- uses his index finger many times pointing and shaking it at us.  It's very much like he's trying to talk to us but the words just don't come out.  Do you see this routinely with children diagnosed on the spectrum ---- ie (is this a positive sign?)

Answer
Hi Clark;

Please keep in mind that at no time am I diagnosing anything, just providing guidance and direction.

Clark, these are all very promising signs of early speech development. Autism, fundamentally, is a social delay that results in a verbal and nonverbal communicative delay. Keep the ABA and seek out speech and language therapy.

Kind regards,
James


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Bio

James Roan is a certified school psychologist who has been consulting in the areas of autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, and learning difficulties in the United States and in Ireland for over ten years (http://www.jamesroan.com). James earned his M.Ed. in School Psychology and M. Ed. in Adult Education and receives ongoing post graduate training in autism at the University of Washington’s Autism Center. James Roan has traveled to Galway, Limerick, Mayo, Clare, Dublin, Cork, Waterford, and other cities and counties across Ireland assessing children and adults, and consulting with solicitors (lawyers) in defense of children with disabilities. James Roan was the consulting assessment professional responsible for many of the autism and AD/HD screening tools and other content for Access Special Needs.Com. James Roan consulted with the graduate department of the Waterford Institute of Technology in Waterford Ireland in the development of their graduate program for the certification of private autism tutors. James has conducted formal assessments of students in the Autism Unit in the Claddagh National School in County Galway Ireland.