Normal 2-year old speech or problem?
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Hello everyone - this is a great forum! I just wanted to ask a couple of questions about my 26 month old. We have ei coming to our house for an evaluation, but not because our doctor or anyone advised us to do so. Dh isn't even in agreement actually - this is all me (and I tend to be very paranoid about my ds because my bfs son is autistic). I am concerned about my ds for many reasons, and I think he may be on the spectum and at least has PDD-NOS. First, we work very,very hard with our son for HOURs every day trying to help him catch up. I try to explain to dh that it shouldn't be so hard to keep ds up to par, but he just won't hear of it. I fear that if we didn't put in the time to work with ds he would be soooo far behind in every way. My biggest concern is that ds does not respond to his name, ever. We have to scream or clap or snap sometimes to get him to look. He also is not very good at making eye contact. I mean he does it sometimes, but definitely not with others. Realtives have taken note of this and told us on many occaissions that ds does not respond to them at all. He is very delayed with his fine motor skills and somewhat delayed with gorss motor skills. Based on research i have done it seems he might have some motor planning problems. He still does not even feed himslef with a spoon. His language has me concenred too, but if I read some milestone charts it can be decieving. He can say over 100 words as labels and repeats a lot of what we say. He still doesn't wave bye bye or say "bye or hi ____" as a greeting. He doesn't have any spontaneous sentences that aren't prompted through play scenarios that we have worked on with him. Without our little play scenarios his pretend play would also be nonexistent. My dh thinks that he has pretend play just because he will answer the door t his playhouse when someone knocks and seems to interact during some of these scenarios that we have made up with him. He has to know what to expect in order to join in. The same is true with our realtives. f someone asks him a question like where a body part is or something, he will ignore the person as if they aren't in the room. If he is watching an interactive tv show and a character asks him a question he will be more apt to respond if he knows the answer. He does seem to respond to us and we are moving him along, byt very slowly and I think the gap is widening. Will we be able to help him as well as i if we put in the time and energy, or do the professionals have to be the ones? One more thing, ds is not interactive with other kids at all. He basically ignores them, and if someone has a toy he wants he may run after the child saying the name of the toy, but ignore the child once again once he gets the toy. what does this sound like?
hi buster -- love the name! good for you for calling in EI. He sounds like my daughter. EI will be very helpful and as the other thread subject line says, he WILL BE OKAY. Welcome and I hope to hear from you -- ask tons of questions! Sounds probably that he has an ASD and you're doing well to be seeking early intervention. He's still very young, so it could just be developmental, but the not responding to name and social aloofness are real big red flags. Have you had his hearing checked? Go with your gut, you're doing the right thing. EI will be able to steer you in the right direction. If it is an ASD, you may want to seek more help than they offer. Stick around and let us know. [QUOTE=lained_retsub]Will we be able to help him as well as i if we put in the time and energy, or do the professionals have to be the ones? [/QUOTE] Yes, yes, yes, parents can do tons. There are several approaches that teach parents how to make the most of their time and their special relationship with the child. Getting services and therapies from professionals is great, but parents can do a lot, as well. Hanen, Floortime and RDI all support and promote parent involvement. Calling EI was the right thing. It sounds like there are some red flags and I wouldn't ignore them. You may want to consider seeing a developmental psych or ped. You're right, you shouldn't have to work so hard. Typical kids get these kinds of skills naturally. That's exactly how I felt--like I was working so hard. It wasn't until later that I realized how hard I was working. Maybe if EI states there are some problems/delays it will help your DH to see why and support you looking into this. I called EI on my own when my son was around 18 months due to speech delays. He was diagnosed as PDD-NOS shortly after his 2nd birthday and then autism at age 3. The earlier the better to get the help. My son is doing so well with his programming. I wish you the best of luck. Trust your gut instinct and follow through with the testing. My husband came around after the official diagnosis and meeting with an autism specialist/psychologist. [QUOTE=fred]Have you had his hearing checked? [/QUOTE] The first thing we did with both of our boys was have their hearing checked at our local Children's Hospital. We wanted to make sure their hearing wasn't a factor. When they were evaluated by EI, a hearing check was also done, but the one at Children's Hospital was much more comprehensive (& our insurance actually covered it - SHOCKING!). Your son sounds a lot like my son at that age, but we were too ignorant to see his red flags and contact EI. When he started nursery school at age 2, he told the kids "No, go away!" if they came too close. At age 3, he started showing an interest in other children, so hopefully your son will blossom socially too. There are a lot of reasons kids can have developmental delays, and it's not always easy to say if it's autism or something else this early on, but you CAN get him help for his delays, so you don't have to do it ALL yourselves. But your devotion, creativity, and efforts will be a key to his long-term success. Good luck with everything. My (hopefully )NT 28 month old does the following ,greets neighbours with a smile and calls there name,can feed himself ,since 15 months,can say things like "where my balloon ,oh daddy got it!!,that's Michael's balloon Daddy,I want it. he can put his shirt on ,his pants ect...he needs help with his shoes,he can catch a large ball,kick a ball and push a scooter (Three wheel),and pedal his trike.he is obsessed with Vacuums,and has some mild sensory issues.(toe walking,Flapping). He responds eagerly to relatives at there homes ,but just to get there Vacuums Hope this helps ,Linda All the things you are describing are main red flags of autism spectrum disorder~which pdd falls under.. You need to get him to a dev. pediatrician asap if they have a waiting list then find one that is private so you can get him evaluated quickly. Our dd never answered to her name, inconsistent eye contact, toe walked..had many single words but like you they were not real functional..I considered her nonverbal because none of her words were for us or to get things ~No mama:( or pointing or awareness of us, she never liked to play with her toys in a norm. way..loved teletubbies and intense concentration on certain things..she would spell out words and sentences with abc blocks but wouldnt speak You are not alone and def. on the right track and soo much can be done right now. We are a very supportive board with a wealth of information for everything under the sun:) Children with ASD are so very special and you will find so much strength and indescribable love and faith for your child to succeed and be the best he can be:) Our daughter was very affected at diagnoses and the prognosis was very poor...I didnt listen and got mad and put her in a in-home ABA program (30 hr/wk) for 3 years along with 2 hours of speech/week~all of these were out of pocket but in your state it may be paid for. She lost her label of autism over a year ago and now she just finished her first year of kindergarten without no supports totally mainstreamed:) She is still on spectrum and I will always feel she is autistic but she is so high functioning that she blends in well with peers and no one would know she was as affected as she was! She is very smart too~years ahead of her peers academically..socially still trying to catch up:) Find out through EI if other moms with kids on spectrum can call you(they need written permission to give out your phone number) for advice on who to go to and what services are available..word of mouth is wonderful in this field:) He sounds like he is getting close to be referred to the schools for services at his age..they can do a full diagnoses by ped. psychologist for free as well as speech, OT/ PT ...Sarah got provisional autism by school both times so I didnt completely trust their findings...I went to a dev. pediatrician for a 3 hour eval. that told me she was autistic and "Why" and what her strengths and deficits were. The first book I read was "Let me hear your voice" by Catherine Maurice..a TRUE story of how she recovered her two kids with autism using ABA therapy and speech.. it provoked me to get Sarah in ABA program within 2 weeks! VERY inspiring and motivating:) Sorry so long! Hope you find some answers soon! Keep us posted:) Blessings,
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I never thought autism...she never rocked, spinned or flapped her arms or had any stims or head banging or other self injuries I wrongly assumed all kids with autism did and she let me hold her and love on her without resistence..she was real passive~not hyper..and she was a girl so the diagnoses blew me away..she was autistic~she got the pdd label but was told it was autism. Better they were blunt than save my feelings...it made me more urgent to get her help:)