Pragmatic Language

JellymanKelly

Our EI evaluations came back Monday with some surprising results. I was fairly certain (based on the questions they were asking) that they were going to say that DS has Asperger's. They said that they didn't think he had it. He had too many things that ruled out a true spectrum disorder, but the reason they kept going back to ASD is because he is lacking pragmatic language skills. I didn't even know they would diagnose that for a child that wasn't on the spectrum, but the recommended speech therapy for pragmatic and receptive language. They did say that if he didn't seem to catch up over time, then we should probably have him evaluated again for Asperger's. They also said that they think therapy should clear up some of the discipline problems he's been having. This explains a lot...like why he doesn't seem to care about rewards, why time out doesn't really work, and why he seems to give random answers to questions sometimes.

So while I am waiting on the full written report, tell me some things about therapy for pragmatic language issues. What sort of exercises do they do? What can we do at home to help him while we wait to be seen by the therapist?

Tim'sWifey

It depends on what delays he has and what they noted during their observation. ?Talk with his speech therapist and see what they're doing with him in therapy. ?You can also ask for things to help with at home. ?If he's having discipline problems they may be working on things like the importance of following the rules and role playing. ?If you're having problems with him completing his homework or doing things around the house, having him decide what he wants to work for. ?GL!