Vocal Stimming in Speech Delayed Child

What ever you have to do, you should get your own evaluation of your son by a Developmental Pediatrican and own it. EI therapists are not qualified to rule out a medical diagnosis, and neither are private speech therapists. While these are terrific members of intervention teams, they are not first line diagnosticians, and without a full evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment plan, you are stabbing in the dark.

Call the closest childrens hospital and make an appointment with a Developmental pediatricain, use any and all insurance benefits you have, or find a way to pay for more speech and OTO over the summer, and get a master plan from a medical doctor who will tell you everything your son needs and is qualified to make the call on what he does and does not have. Then, use state and school services all you can, but you provide everything else he needs to meet the master plan from the Developmental Pediatrician. The state has no interest in maximizing your son's potential, they are NOT required to do so, they are only legally required to make your son "functional" which is a very low bar to jump. You want so much more than that for him.

Any EI therapist who suggested to you that your son did not have a specific diagnosis actually obligated the state to do the testing for that very thing. The school district should pick up from here in the fall, but don't count on them to tell you what you son needs. You should hold his diagnosis and you should never know less about your son than they do.

After you make the appointment with a Developmental Pediatrician, go to www.wrightslaw.com and start learning about advocacy. You will need to know how to navigate the school system so that you can get as much for him from public services as possible and preserve more of your private coverage for the rest of his treatment. You will always need to supplement his service if you want him to reach his maximum potential.

M.

I wish I saw this post earlier.. sounds a little like my son.. he has apraxia.. check that out because it's very close to autism. I too am not convinced that my son isn't autistic but they keep telling me he's not. Your EI people should have been on the ball with the school dept too with pushing to get him services until school starts.. It's a bit late for that now though.. but you can still call and see what they can do to get him services quicker thru school since it does take some time for them to evaluate his needs. good luck, I know how frustrating it can be.. we actually started him seeing an outside therapist who does more than the school dept does, so you can check into that too.

My son became obsessed with trucks and buses at about that age...and he made that sound constantly for about a year..a few months after it started I realized what it was because we were on a bus and he was making it..and he "down shifted" with the bus engine LOL..he was just "driving" the bus...and he drove and drove us almost completely batty while he was making it..but then later on when he was five he was still doing it and I was a little concerned..but some of it was he just made that sound to imitate lots of things and when we told him the "right sound" for that motor, or whatever he would do that instead. I think you are right it probably is boredom. Unless there are other "tics" involved I don't think you have to worry about that one. We thought it was some sort of "symptom" for awhile too but when we realized what he was up to...we had to laugh..he's still really good at imitating machine sounds..and he's 10 now :)

Martha is right that you need your own evaluation done. Just because he was seen a couple of times by a development ped while in EI does not mean a full evaluation was done. It is very important because you may be missing out on services he may need or qualify for, not to mention some school districts require an evaulation done to receive services from the school.
As for the monotonous noise, he might be doing it to calm himself down. I have seen other children do this to calm themselves when there is too much going on-ie sensory overload and they make a noise like the ohm in yoga to calm down, or tune the rest out.

Martha really knows what she is talking about! I was a SpEd teacher for a number of years, and now have a son on the spectrum. I have been on "both sides of the table" and could not have given you better advice than she did.
If I heard him doing either the singing or UMMMMMMMM, I would provide him with an "incompatable behavior", which in this case, would be talking to you. Ask him a question or point something out that he will want to respond to.

I agree with everything Martha said. My son has high functioning Autism and this is a lot like him. Stimming is often a symptom of yeast overgrowth. Something to look into.
We considered ASD and ruled it out before getting our son evaluated. We went in to get him evaluated for ADHD and came out with a HFASD and ADHD diagnosis.

This is just my opinion, but I think that too many kids are diagnosed with autism, and parents are freaked out by this little known condition. Ever get a song stuck in your head? Kids just vocalize it. My daughter did all the things that your son is (and I remember doing them as well), and she is head of her class and totally fine socially as well. She is just a goofy kid. When did that become wrong? I fear we are stifling kids with "diagnosis" and medication in the effort to make them "normal" We all have our quirks. Be happy that your child is not autistic, instead of worrying yourself. Get him help with his speech and watch how he is socially, and let him be an annoying kid...they all are at some point. And yep, kids do a ton of things at inappropriate times.

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I would recommend "interrupting" his behavior. Redirect him to something else. Someone mentioned getting him to talk to you as an example. You could also join in the song and get him to interact at that time. Or help him vocalize what he might be feeling/thinking (like when he makes a sounds ovver and over again..."Oh, you sound sad" or something like that, to get him to verbalize what is going on in his head)
I have 5 year old twins that were dx PDD-NOS 2 years ago by a multidisciplinary team at large univeristy hospital.
I highly recommend the Hanen Program for speech and its wonderful texts/workbooks (you can view them on Amazon.com), such as "More Than Words" "It takes 2 to talk" and "Talkability". We took this class and it made a difference.

annoying but I would leave it be. I know he is testing your patients but he is developing his toungue and vocal cords which is why he is in speech. I would think this would help him do a shorter duration in speech and just try to tune it out. make him go to his room to do it or whatever. but I would not stop this behavior in my opinion. I have had 2 kids in speech and would just learn to tune it out. and this may be something they taught him in speech also.