On the subject of language delay, it's not the same as speech delay. OK, I live with pedantry so maybe it's just me being pedantic, but speech is not the same as language.
Exampe - a child who lived over the road form us, had a drowning accident which left him brain-damaged. He lost his ability to speak. Before the accident the boy (aged not quite 3) had been bilingual, Spanish and English. After the accident the doctors in the Sydney hospital told the parents, "He appears to have lost any capacity for language; he is not responding to our commands."
They were only speaking in English to him because the parents had told the doctors that the boy spoke English. Spanish is not a common second language here.
But the boy's father insisted that his son know when dad was in the room.
It took months, the boy survived and came home. I think they had realised at this stage that the boy still had understanding in Spanish.
One evening the parents had a party and invited us. Later that night it was time for the little boy to go to bed. He'd been enjoying watching people at the party, being surrounded by noise and laughter. But he was tired and whining, as tired toddlers will do. I sat with him and talked to him; he was unresponsive and kept making whining sounds. So I counted his fingers. He whined. I counted in Spanish - the only Spanish I know - and he shut up, instantly, and looked at his fingers as I counted them. That to me proved that while he had lost his speech, he certainly had his language, at least at the receptive level.
Some years have passed now, they moved away to follow medical treatment and dad's work. Last time I saw him, he was learning to use a computer, was bilingual again but mostly using English because that was what he had to use at school. However, he still was showing no signs of speech.
difficult child 3, on the other hand, appeared to have no language. He WAS verbal, in that he clearly could make the range of sounds, but his speech was echolalic (he would repeat sequences of sounds, which were often strings of words he had just heard someone say; he would also repeat over and over, entire movie scripts or songs from the radio, although any background sounds such as obvious instrumentation were also uttered as if the sounds had equal importance). difficult child 3 therefore had speech, but not language.
It is important to be aware of the distinction.
Also, the various definitions of Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) do change depending on who is diagnosing, where they did their training and where they live, it seems. So keep an open mind.
The current consensus in Australia seems to be that if they meet the criteria for Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) AND had a history of language delay, they get a diagnosis of autism. If they NOW have speech and are able to cope academically (or come close to coping) under optimum conditions, then they are deemed to be high-functioning autistics. If they have the hallmarks of Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) but with no history of language delay, they are labelled as Asperger's.
Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD)-not otherwise specified is the label reserved for those who don't quite fit into these groups.
Then there is the group who don't quite meet the criteria for Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), but who come close - Asperger's traits. That's easy child 2/difficult child 2.
Interestingly, my boys have made amazing strides in improvement. They have both come a very long way and adapted really well. difficult child 1 didn't have language delay but he did have a lot of trouble with written communication, and also with making value judgements about which bit of information was important and which was not. In other words, he was a shocker when it came to writing essays and finding reference material.
But easy child 2/difficult child 2 seems to be getting worse as she gets older, or at least worse in some ways.
Also interesting - difficult child 3 is now doing so well, we've often had people (Special Education trained people, at that) say to us, "He's no longer autistic." Even his Speech pathologist insists on using the label "Asperger's" in her reports of him. But she never saw him when he had language delay, it was really quite badly delayed.
MWM, in Australia your son would be labelled as autistic, unless he doesn't quite meet the other criteria. But then - a lot of people here will define autism as the severely handicapped, and Asperger's as those who are high-functioning. History of language delay then isn't considered.
All this comes back to the history of autism and how it has been described. We should never forget, this isn't a specific disease entity that can be identified under a microscope. It is a SYNDROME, which is a collection of signs and symptoms which may or may not be connected (but appear to be so). Cause unknown. Within the syndrome are possible sub groups but the definitions are shifting and changing, like ripples of wind on the water.
Kanner identified/described autism back in the 1940s or earlier, in the US. At about the same time Hans Asperger was writing about it in Europe, but thanks to a number of things in the way (including language barriers), the work of Asperger didn't get recognised in the US until the 1980s when his papers were translated into English. Ironic.
So about that time, and as people became more aware of how Asperger's work fitted beautifully into current understanding of autism to flesh it all out into a broader definition of autism spectrum disorders, we find that diagnosis rate begins to rise fast.
My own observations are that understanding has continued to shift and change since my kids were first assessed. difficult child 1 was diagnosed as NOT autistic, when he was 6. Mind you, nobody said what it WAS, either. By the time he was 15, understanding had shifted, or difficult child 1's case had become more apparent - I don't know. But he got his diagnosis which was later confirmed independently.
Here are some links of use.
The first one is the WIkipedia link on autism - worth a read to get an overall understanding of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism
The second is the Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) questionnaire, in case we haven't already bombarded you with it. It's not officially diagnostic, but I found it really helped me get a good understanding, and also helped me show the doctor the things that worried me. I did the test on my kids, printed the results and showed the doctor, for his opinion.
You can find this on
www.childbrain.com.
I hope tis helps. If not, ask more. Stick around. We really understand this one!
Marg