DS did the same type of thing as polarbear's DS, where when he did finally talk in sentences they were basically gramatically correct. He didn't do any "babytalk" or go through predictable speech phases.
blackcat, I'm wandering off the OT for a minute, but in reading through your reply here (very similar to my ds, definitely didn't go through the predictable speech phases) - my ds also didn't go through any of the predictable early writing phases either and he didn't seem to go through any of the typical early reading stages. I wonder how much of that is all wrapped up in DCD?
polarbear, how is an expressive language disorder diagnosed? I did take DS in for a private speech eval abou 1.5 years ago and she gave him a language assessment, and he scored above average.
My ds was diagnosed by an SLP but not until he was 10 years old - it took that long for any of us to put the pieces together and realize he was struggling with expressive language. The most obvious challenge was his difficulties with writing, particularly open-ended assignments, but as he got older he started telling me that there were times when he couldn't get the words together to know what to say (verbal). Somewhere along the way I read a brief one-sentence type blurb in a book (I think it was one of the Eides' books) that mentioned that writing difficulties in gifted children could be due to expressive language challenges and that SLP therapy could help. I had a friend who was a school SLP, so I asked her and she said absolutely. When he was assessed (privately, he didn't qualify for school SLP)... his scores were either average or off the charts on the CELF, but there was a huge discrepancy and nothing in between. On the two subtests where his scores were "only" average, the SLP who evaluated also noted that it took him a *very* long time to come up with his answers, much more so than on the other parts of the test, which he scores up in the 99th percentile on. The discrepancy in scores, combined with parent interview were what were used to diagnose his expressive language disorder.
But yet, I do worry about some aspects of his expressive speech. Sometimes I can't figure out what he's talking about. DD was so advanced for speech that it's hard for me to even know what is "normal". But yet he seems to struggle sometimes with open ended questions, even things like "who did you play with at recess." More often that not I'll just get a shrug or an "I don't know."
I get a *lot* of the "I don't know" answers to things ds should know - especially when I asked about specific things during his school day when he was younger (still get quite a bit of it going on). It took me a long time to realize that in spite of his incredible memory (which is amazing)... he doesn't know how to tell me about some of those very simple things. Open-ended questions are really tough for him. He also has a tough time with summarizing information (verbally or in writing), knowing what details to retell etc and how to organize what he writes.
polarbear
