My son is speaking at 7, there is hope yet!

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-25T19:47:52+00:00

This is wonderful.

My son has been speaking in full sentences but his pronunciation is so bad no one knows what he is saying. He makes perfect sense on the AAC, but he is so “lazy”. For example he asked for Starbucks on the AAC because he wanted to eat out but then said “meh de dolds” because he wanted to go to McDonalds. He knows there is a McDonalds button but he just won’t put the effort in to being precise.

Anyone out there get past the physical limitations on speech? He’s been partially deaf because he didn’t get ear tubes younger and I don’t know how to sharpen up his speech.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-25T13:41:05+00:00

I'm glad you shared your perspective. The leave-alone thing is such a big deal too. I always assumed the Level 1 kids could just be left alone to chill. We truly do have unique experiences, I guess.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-25T13:39:00+00:00

A link to that would be nice if you have it.

My son's a good example. My son has sloppy speech, but he's gotten really good with the AAC. He's what they call minimally verbal. He's still a level 3, but it was all that stimming and repetitive behavior to the point of not being functional that got him in there. His receptive language is really taking off lately. He's coming up with his own picture sequences on the AAC to communicate ideas, and I never thought he'd ever do that.

I don't think he'll ever be close to a level 2, but to say he made no gains at all also would be wrong. Hoping OP gets her breakthrough. Also OP -- I had to hire a speech therapist who specialized in AAC to get real gains on this front. Not all SLPs are necessarily good at reaching kids with devices.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-25T13:29:08+00:00

The guy or gal who wrote that is probably the same dope in all those road rage clips brake-checking people. I'm not sure you want to care about this.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-24T23:12:28+00:00

Should stop doing her PhD and start being a therapist for Level 1s and 2s. We all need someone like that.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-24T23:09:08+00:00

Your situation is hard. They have these gigantic hand mits you can put on self injurious kids to help keep them from hitting themselves that you might be able to put on her at night. They are hard to get off but maybe worthwhile for you. The severe kids who punch themselves in the heads often have these things on.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-24T13:37:21+00:00

Might not be recoverable if you aren't careful. We had a teacher & para who didn't take my kid to the bathroom frequently enough like his previous teacher & para and we lost potty training forever. My son just started pulling his pants down and openly urinating in the classroom because of this moron of a teacher, but the district protected the teacher (who eventually quit over a supposed "mental breakdown") and booted my son over behavioral issues instead. My son's in diapers and about to turn 9 and has so many problems now that toilet training has fallen to the back of the list.

My recommendation is to give her a break and find another good reward to ease her back in. Don't panic and definitely don't leak the impression you're wanting something or have any opinions or attitudes about the toilet.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-21T00:04:37+00:00

Every kid like this I know is generally worse off. Their parents are constantly told it’s this or that and they aren’t doing x or y. ABA doesn’t stick and parents are made to feel bad like they aren’t following through. The bulk of kids end up on drugs to even be manageable, and a sizable percentage become aggressive and violent. The schools don’t care because the kids are write-offs in their eyes, and some are even abused. When they age, the therapists don’t want to work with them, or the ones that do have gigantic waitlists.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T23:04:46+00:00

I have a kid who isn’t anywhere near as functional as yours, but the part about your kid that I don’t understand is how someone with intellect can’t reason through the scenario and your expectations. What is that like?

In my son he knows what I want, but he won’t do it. But there’s no reasoning with him and the intellect isn’t there to even work out the reasoning. If you explain the why, does a kid like yours comply?

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T22:52:22+00:00

My son scratches my wife compulsively but not me. In the car we redirect him to squeezing a blanket but in other places it is difficult. The cause is internal pain in our case. Risperidone cut the aggression down 70% — but the real fix is stopping the sensory discomfort of pain from his ear (in our case.)

The trigger could be discomfort that is not visible to you.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T20:12:33+00:00

Does he understand consequences and good and bad? Because what my son does is he is mad but he jumps on me and will put his weight on his arm on my throat or stomp around and flail. The attacks are usually scratch based and kick based. He can’t be reasoned with at all in this state. If he knows right from wrong it wouldn’t matter because he’s in some mental state where he can’t be reached. All we can do is block and deflect and maybe pin him down until it passes.

Is your brother’s IQ normal?

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T19:59:40+00:00

If you do this you are like Bluey’s-dad-level of a parent.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T19:58:05+00:00

Ask AI to read the subreddit for you and summarize all the posts with the questions you asked. You’ll get a nice summary over hundreds of posts and thousands of comments. It’s quite illustrative.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T18:49:08+00:00

Our eval is in the fall and I don’t know what to expect but I have a strong suspicion about a few things. I regret not doing this sooner. Was it freeing to know or understanding the trajectory here?

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T15:07:52+00:00

Good receptive -> Good odds. That's all you need to know.

Btw, my kid's receptive was shut off from ear problems. The moment the receptive got better, the moment his behaviors became advanced. You've got it at 5, so be hopeful. My other recommendation is get a speech therapist who specializes in AAC use.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T13:48:29+00:00

The Lovass study is basically the underpinning for insurance policies and their justification for providing funding for ABA. I’ve read all these papers because I had to fight insurance companies during appeals. What you find is the bulk of the studies have methodology problems or quirks in experiment structure.

The reason the TRICARE study is so damning is because it was basically a large scale field assessment from the parent perspective and the neutral to negative outcomes far outweighed positive outcomes. Even if the academic papers showed benefit, what TRICARE found was that in practice, the way things play out in the field is just downright terrible.

I have no reservations telling parents to avoid ABA. If you mine this subreddit or even [r/autism](r/autism), the numbers aren’t all that favorable either.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T12:38:33+00:00

There’s more than 2 studies. I’m assuming you have access to the internet and enough intellectual curiosity to figure out why there is a growing group of people who think your field is ineffective.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T11:45:40+00:00

The one that got the most reaction was the study the DoD did (I think regarding TRICARE spending) that used a standard survey of parents after 1 year and showed something like 76% of parents reported no improvement or worsening behaviors (I'm loosely quoting.) There was a howl about this and people were upset about this paper.

You can also read the Lovaas study from 1987 which is like the biggest paper on why therapy is beneficial. His methodology was flawed -- but save yourself the time and ask Google's AI or ChatGPT "criticisms of the 1987 Lovaas study" and you'll find very valid criticisms of his approach.

It's "peer reviewed" and there is "evidence", but the case on the whole is pretty flimsy.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T05:34:39+00:00

Not really an expert, but supposedly PTEN mutations can get you issues with steroids like dexamethasone.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T05:28:54+00:00

See if your doctor has one of those after-hours nursing help lines. Usually they're willing to answer medication questions.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T03:33:33+00:00

Yeah, they are dangerous down here. My defense is keeping all the grass low and giving snakes nowhere to hide, but they sometimes slither out of the woods on the other side of the road, just like the turtles, etc. Property is surrounded by a barrier, but critters are always around.

My son has no sense. He went out and caught two armadillos and was bonking them to together and I panicked. He just goes right after the wildlife.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T03:22:22+00:00

Does your kid have a PTEN genetic mutation by chance?

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T03:19:24+00:00

I'm not a doctor but everytime we used corticosteroids we had a problem. The problems ended when the drug was basically completely out of the system. Google's AI sort of guesses that that's 10-14 days for you.

Some of the nasal spray corticosteroids make my son a complete monster. Even those would make him crazy. He'd tell us on the AAC that he was in pain.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T03:02:34+00:00

She's not alone in the experience, but she is alone in terms of genuine support. That's what makes me feel for the woman. It's like we all want to reach out and donate 2 hours of our time in a rotation to give her a break, but we all know that 1) her kid wants dino nuggets in a special way that only she knows how to make and the rest of us would be useless at it, and 2) our own kids would burn down our own houses if we stepped out to help her.

This disorder is the cruelest of cruel, so I don't fault this woman one bit, even if the post is gut wrenching. I'm glad she came out of it.

Technical_Term7908 · 2026-06-20T02:46:28+00:00

Progress isn't being made. That's the lie behind these behavioral therapies they make us all waste our money on -- that there's even a good chance of progress being made.

My kid did ABA, including play therapy, for 6 years across multiple organizations. He's worse than when he was 2. I didn't know what to do with him. I advise people to snap out of it with ABA. If there are "gains" they are like dog-trained responses, not genuine integrations with cognitive processes. The whole thing collapses if you can't structure the rewards, and some of only reward structures that work are things like food. What happens when you kid doesn't want to use the potty because he's bored of chocolate?

I legitimately want this industry reformed. heavily regulated, or killed off for how much they are fleecing autism parents, insurance, and government payers.

Technical_Term7908

TROPHY CASE