All About Autism

[mashy]

And yes, she even stated that he’s in the spectrum - high functioning.

[lavendery]

I also received the psychologist’s report through mail.


The Leapfrog only assessed my girl’s language level, that’s all. No much on assessing if she is ASD or not. But the Leapfrog assessor got told me that I must be mentally prepared that she might be ASD cos she can read words at very young age but without understanding the meaning of the words and not able to explain what the story book is trying to say.

My girl has been with Leapfrog for around 7mths, I could see improvements. Not the ‘wow’ kind of improvements cos my girl isn’t really that high functioning, she got speech delay. But at least with speech therapy, there’s no more echoing, and now can say and replied simple questions in sentences. But still her speech is pretty much scripted.

Leapfrog speech therapist said they will assess the kid every 6mths on their language to see which level the kid is at compared to a typical kid of the same age. My girl got her language test somewhere around in Aug or Sept.

[mashy]

Am I the only to receive it from the kkh PD? At first we were supposed to meet the PD the day after the assessment, but coz gotta wait for report, they postponed it for a month. So we received it about a month after the assessment.


Wonder if its thru the PD so the psychologist did a better job? Since the PD would be reading it too?

[Double E]

Thanks Mashy and Lavendery for the information.


I have agreed to let my son take the test. Actually, he took a vocab test before and he managed to pass. So am not sure if the test that Leapfrog conducts is similar or will it be different.

Lavendery
Same here, my boy’s speech is also very scripted. If I ask him questions in a certain way, he can answer cos is scripted but when I ask him in another way, he can’t answer even though both questions lead to the same answer. And from the things that he tell us, his sentence structure is somewhat similar, not much of variety.

[nugget]

Lavendery,


Sorry she email me a list of pte speech therapist only. The materials she passed it to me that day in hardcopies. Mostly is telling us what is ASD and under what circumstances they are under spectrum.

She did tell me my son is super weak in language development and need a long term speech therapy.

My psychologist is good in the sense that she did understand our worries and concern and she lend an listening ear to me cos that time I was still in the stage of denial. But like wise like all of you, I feel the report is pretty useless. Cos all the info written inside are what we hv known and told her.

I like the speech therapist at rehab though. My hb went for one session with my son yesterday and he was impressed as well.

[nugget]

My son also read at the age of 2. I think able to read early is really an red flag.


My NT 2.5 years old doesnt know how to read yet. But can chit chat with me. Really such a big difference.

[Double E]

I think that’s why my PD at KKH did not recommend my boy to go for assessment now because I am already doing all the necessary therapy for him, hence a diagnosis report is not much of a use to my boy unless I need it as a ‘proof’ to send him to special school or get 2nd language exemption when he enter Pri school.

[nugget]

Double E, you mean IQ assessment?


My boy was 3 years 8 month when he saw the psychologist. She also never tested his IQ. They say will do it when is he at 5.5 years old.

[Blokus]

Double E:

Looks like having the ability to read at a very young age is not exactly a good sign after all. Many kids here can read from very young age and diagnosed with ASD. But well, being able to read is better than not able to. I think the challenge is getting them to understand what they are reading and generalize the knowledge for daily use.



BTW, any of your kids taken a language test by their ST before? My boy's teacher at leapfrog said that she's concern about his language proficiency and comprehension so she is suggesting that we allow him to let her conduct a language test on him.

I don't agree. I know lots of NT kids who can read by 2 yo. I don't think being able to read early is a huge red flag for autism. It's not listed on the sign & symptoms we read online is it? I think the red flag comes when the child can recognize and read words but don't understand what they are reading.

My son took the langauge test @ NUH cdu. There's a flip chart and the therapist will ask him a series of questions & he has to answer by pointing to the correct picture. There are 4 pictures in a page, and she will ask like which picture shows a baby eating a Banana? He has to point. At times, he had to follow her instruction like repeat after her or say opposite words etc. It mainly test his ability to understand the questions. That he passed above his age requirement. But it does not test his receptive language which was what I'm more concern about.

[Blokus]

I also think not all asd read without understanding. My son understands what he reads. I was worried about this and tested him many times over and passed the language test very well. I know some NT kids who can read but also lack of understanding of what they read. So I guess it’s one of those things.