Expert: Valerie Herskowitz - 12/25/2010

Question
Hello Valerie, I have 2 boys, my first is autistic. He is now 5 years and 9 months old. He is non verbal. He is starting to say Mama and Papa, baba (for bye-bye) is not consistent. I was told
by a SPL that he has apraxia during her session with him. I
always thought he couldn't speak because of his autism. Is apraxia and autism 2 separate reasons why my son can not produce speech? Do I need to get a diagnosis for apraxia?
My second boy is 17 months old, he was born 1 month premature.
He says Mamama and I know he is calling me he is looking straight at me. He points to me. He has said papa... the rest of his language is a lot of babbling, little yodeling like, little Chinese talking. When I give him choices he points at what he wants. He's not really nodding no, he just pushes away and turns his head. He is waving bye-bye. He seems to have receptive language. When I ask him to clap without showing him, he does it.
He plays peekaboo with me with a blanket,, and trys to put his hands in front of his eyes, but does not do it properly. He is interested in toys,, rolls ball around, stacks blocks. sometimes he likes to throw toys on the floor to hear the sounds.  He understands puzzle concept. He turns around when I call him. He responds to our making him laugh. My main concern is that he's not saying real words yet. He communicates a lot by crying or gestures. He is not walking yet, but stands on his own and moves around furniture. He seems to be attached to tv. though. I'm not reading to him as much as I would like. You know how it is having an autistic child... therapies... etc.
What do you think does he have language delay?  As you can imagine I am very paranoid and concerned with my second boy.
Thank you very much.

Answer
Hi Carmelina

It is very common for those with autism to be non-verbal. When they are, we say that their secondary diagnosis to autism is apraxia which means non-verbal due to a motor speech disorder. Hopefully you are implementing a lot of augmentative communication strategies with him.

Your second boy has a language delay though he doesn't sound like he has autism from your description. It is very common for siblings of those with autism to have shadow syndromes of autism but not full blown autism. The same thing happened with my children. One with autism and one with language delay. With therapy, my son who had the language delay is fine now. So get some good language therapy for him

If you want to do a private consult, just let me know. I can recommend some really good things for you to do for both boys. Just email me at info@valerieherskowitz.com

Take care and hope this helps you to sleep better!!