Advice on my little guy? | Autism PDD
Welcome to the board. Your boys are adorable. I highly recommend you push you pediatrician for a neuropsychologist referral. There is a self examination you can do at www.childbrain.com . Do not take no for answer. You are better off getting EI now than trying to get help later on. I have an adorable little 3 1/2 year old son who just lights up a room. He
is so loving and sympathetic that it actually seemed to be a little too
much. (Not that I don't love the hugs and kisses!!) He is also
COMPLETELY obsessed with Blue's Clues. For his 2nd birthday, I made
some homemade handy dandy notebooks and sent them out as
invitations. Drew absolutely adored them that I made him a few of his
own... Since then, I have probably made 15 or 20 at least! I even made a
potty one!
He always seems to be in his own little world and he is always
pretending... but he is always pretending episodes. Of either Blue's
Clues, Backyardigans or the Upside Down Show.
He seems to have a lot of 'tendencies' but doesn't seem to have all the
signs of autism. I had one evaluator that actually said Drew was rude and
something else I don't remember. I was shocked! I was with him the
whole time. He was NEVER rude, he got scared when she wouldn't get out
of his face while trying to force him to draw things on demand. See, he
can draw all of his shapes, letters, and numbers. He taught himself. He
also writes out a lot of words too. He draws adorable pictures but they
are all, just about, from Blue's clues and were a clue at some point or
another.
I guess I don't want my child to be labeled 'autistic' if it is going to make
his life more problematic. But at the same time, I want to get him the
help he may need.
Any advice as to where to start? I have had one professional say she
thinks it is more sensory, he hates loud noises, but another labeled him
PDD in his file.
Thanks for all your help.
Rebecca
Have you had him evaluated through the school system for placement in a special education pre-school?
He sounds a lot like my little girls. They're four, and have lots of interests similar to your son's, except not Blues Clues - they're current obsession is Monster House and Dumbo.
Folks who diagnose autism call this perserveration, and consider it a symptom of the disorder. The acting out of the episodes is called 'scripting' - also considerd a sign, though I think "normal" kids commonly engage in this sort of play, too, so it's hard to tell.
How are his language skills and social skills?
In any case, special services through the school system could only help. They will not hurt, and I can't think of any reason not to have your son coded as PDD with the school system. OTOH, if he is autistic, the longer you delay therapies, the less effective they will be. The earlier you start, the better.
As someone told me, always assume autism in these types of decisions.
Such coding will not, for example, result in your child being stuck in a restrictive classroom for all of his school days!
Good luck! He sounds adorable.
delayed. When I mentioned it to the Pediatrician, he said, of course, to
let's give it time. I got a new pediatrician! He loves kids and is great with
sharing. BUT, while he will wrestle with his cousin, he tends to want to
hug and chase more than sit down and play.
He is currently in the school system for pre-school. I didn't think he was
ready for the classroom so we have a teacher come once a week. She has
helped him TREMENDOUSLY! She wants to start taking him to the
classroom once spring comes along to see how he does. He loves other
kids and the person he loves most in the world is his Grandma (my mom.)
He doesn't respond well to being fussed at, but not like a normal child. It
seems to really upset him beyond what I would call normal. He also puts
his hands over his ears every time his brothers cry. He will say, "Oh no.
Baby brothers are crying!" So he does speak sentences. I would say he is
below what his peers are probably at, but he can still communicate. I
have started to let him stay the night with my sister to kind of get him to
fend for himself. (She is so gentle with him and has two grown children.)
Saliber -- RUN, don't walk, to the phone to call your school district for a full evaluation for special education services. Your son has a speech delay. That is more than enough to qualify him for services. Your pediatrician is seriously WRONG. Language is an area of development that NEEDS to be addressed as soon as possible. The window of opportunity for learning language begins to close at 4. That's not to say that children don't learn to talk later, but most children who are not talking by age 5 never learn to talk 100% fluently. Of course, never say never, but my point is that the chances that your child will have a lifelong language problem goes up starting at age 4. I hope this panics you. It should. I don't want to add to your worries, but you NEED to be worried about a 3.5 yo who has language problems. Language is the basis of all academic work and all social interaction and it is the developmental area that starts to close the soonest. Please, please, please call your school district and ask for an evaluation. Then send the request IN WRITING. From the day that they receive that written request to the day that your son will receive services will be 60 days. Depending on his delays, he might receive preschool, he might just get speech. DOn't worry about labeling. First of all, your son's school records are TOTALLY PRIVATE. By law. Only the people who work with him or who are in charge of his IEP will ever see those records. The drawback to NOT having him get intervention is that you risk denying him the chance to develop more normally. Definitely do the childbrain assessment. The accuracy of the score depends entirely on your responses, so force yourself to be as honest and accurate as can be. No one will see this score but you. If you want to get your son evaluated for autism, you can do it privately and never have to share his dx with anyone. But an expert in autism can give you plenty of good advice. Just make SURE you go to a doctor in your area who is an EXPERT (your pediatrician is not). Call your local chapter of the Autism Society of America to see if they can give you some recommendations for docs. Or post your location here in a thread asking about your area and there may be members here who can help.
Whatever you do PLEASE get your son evaluated ASAP. YOu will NEVER regret it.
Hi and welcome
I just wanted to say that Sharlet is also OBSESSED with Blue's.
She will watch the Blue's Clue's musical move 2-4 times a day and at the moment we have trouble trying to get hr to want it less. I actually think she is addicted
I love your idea about handy dandy notebooks for situations, I think this could really work for Sharlet!
Good luck with your beautiful son/s
They are all correct. RUN the earlier the better.
Oh yea WELCOMEI thought I would update my post... nearly a year later.
Drew finished up the school year (spring of 07) great! He had matured a
lot. Then slowly but surly over the summer he potty trained himself and
started acting more like a little boy.
We had a Developmental Pediatric appointment that said Drew was not
autistic which was a huge relief. She said he did have a speech delay and
she could see where I had my concerns. She thought that he was too
quick and impulsive and that maybe with 'slowing down' he would do
better. Well, he started preschool this year in the classroom. He will have
speech therapy once a week and hopefully that will help him. He talks so
much now and copies a lot less.
So, thank you for all the advice. Glad to hear that things are working out for you. BTW your boys are just so cute.
hi
you will only get a label if he needs a label
it is down to you who you tell about a diagnosis and it is not mandatory to tell anyone including the school
but the labal can open a lot more doors for services than without one
But for people and other children to be able to distinguish between naughty behaviours and autistic behaviours you are going to need one ,not for your sake but for is.
if people know what they are dealig with they can make exceptions and try that little bit harder.
I gave a talk to parents at our school and did a slide show it went well
my point is the more awareness you spread the more consideration and understanding will be there
.love shell
ANY label a school district puts on a child is PRIVATE information. PERIOD. They are bound by FERPA, which is the privacy law. Every school I've ever come across bends over backwards to maintain a child's privacy. There is a FAR greater chance of harming a child by NOT getting him classified when he needs to be than by getting him classified. I'm not saying your son NEEDS special education, but if he does, the LAST thing you need to worry about is his "label" getting out. The schools are just as bound to privacy as your doctor is. The doc is bound by HIPPA, the school is bound by FERPA. Just thought you might want to know this info. For more details, go to www.wrightslaw.com and search FERPA.
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