Reply to 33 months old academically advanced but severe speech disorder

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[quote=Anonymous]Hi OP,

This sounds a lot like my kid. By age 2 she knew the alphabet and at 42 months she read her first book independently. I enrolled her in school at age 5 this year and I knew it was unusual that she was reading at an early first grade level, I was blown away to learn that it was unusual that she could count to 40, how to write upper and lower case letters, knew way more than the basic shapes. She knows what an octagon and a parallelogram are. She also knows tertiary colors, how to spell her first and last name just from hearing me talk on the phone. She is basically really good at memorizing mass amounts of information but applying it is well below the normal range. She has fantastic receptive speech but very delayed expressive speech. She has a great deal of trouble with articulation because of a tongue thrust but not apraxia.

The crazy twist is that she has Down syndrome and I hear from professionals that they meet a kid with Ds like this about every 7-10 years. That has left me wondering where to best find her help and where is she going to fit in.

So, I told you all of that to tell you that it is a frustrating experience to know you have a child very advanced in some areas and very delayed in others.

I found our public school systems therapies dismal (not DMV) and not worth driving me kid to even if they were free. I found a place to take her that will charge on a sliding scale and they are great. I’m super happy with the OT who recognizes my kid’s natural drive to learn and she adds in cognitive challenges that will help move my kid think beyond memorization. Autism has been ruled out for her definitively. She does not show any indication of that.

So, I think you have to assess whether or not your kid has autism and they probably won’t be able to rule it out until age 5. You can monitor and report now any red flags you see.

Assess if your kid is on target for problem-solving and other cognitive abilities that require more than a powerful memory. Can you ask him something about the book and will he correctly point to the answer or indicate a correct answer non-verbally?

Does he have low-tone. Low muscle tone is often an indicator that a phenotypical child might have a genetic issue. It also needs to be addressed with PT.

As for actually getting your kid to talk, you need a an ST of course. But things to do on your own to help are practicing vowel sounds and then add a consonant onto it. Alternatingconsonants. You really need a ST book to explain this.

Tools I like are the MAPS cards which teach the letters and letter combos phonetically. I also like the app Endless Reader by Originator. It covers vocabulary basics at three different levels and when the kid interacts with the letter it pronounces it over and over in a funny and helpful way. Lastly, I’ve had some good progress with her using the Speech Buddies tools now that she’s older and can say many words but needs help with articulation. A kid needs to be old enough to understand why you are sticking the tool in his mouth though.

Good luck to you. Don’t give up speech is one of the most complicated functions humans can do so it often has challenges. Please ignore the people who misinterpreted what you say. Those people don’t understand how confounding it is to have a kid excel in some areas and delayed in others.

Sometimes, people, when your kid does unusual things, it surprising to find out because you thought it was totally normal they can do that so please know that.

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