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Hi, My dd who will be 3 next month, just got dx'ed with what they said was a mild form of Autism 2 months ago. She is attending the ECDD classroom at the local elementary school with special needs kids . I also have her in private Speech Therapy 2x per week. Her speech is extremely delayed, though she has a lot of it! She jabbers in jibberish all day long. Her comprehension level is very low as well. She does not understand questions and just echos the question asked. My question is this: She recently started displaying 2 traits more severely than she used to and I want to know if others have experienced anything like this. Is it normal and can it ever lessen? The traits are arm flapping when running or excited and the other is repeating phrases over and over and over. I realize this is the Autism coming out, but can it be worked with as she gets older. And by "worked with" I mean can we get her to not do these things? Thanks for any opinions or advice or experiences. Hi and Welcome!!! Well, in my opinion, kids go through stages. Even kids on the spectrum. I know you were grateful her diagnosis was mild, and you probably worry about things that seem worse. I just want to say, that just because you think she isn't comprehending doesn't mean she isn't. It's not that kids on the spectrum don't understand things, its more they don't know how and what way to respond. Your daughter is very young and will learn better ways to do things-don't worry. I found ABA therapy very helpful. Some kids learn best with this method. There are also other techniques to research like TEEACH and floortime. Research for what is best for your child is key. When dd was two she also had allot of echolalia and at about 18 mos started to shake her hands at the wrist when she was excited. To handle the echolalia, when she would repeat a question she was asked, I would tell her not to use my words but to use her words. Now that she is four the echolalia has almost disappeared. However, when you ask her a question she will pause before she answers it. I believe she is repeating the question in her head before she answers. The hand shaking still exists when she is excited. I will ask her why she is shaking her hands when she is doing it and she tells me becuase she is pretending to be a bird. ttfn Hello and welcome! Another precious girl joins our club! Your dd sounds alot like my daughter Abby. She is a little over 3 years old. When she was diagnosed with mild Autism/PDD/Nos she was just about 3years old. She had a great vocabulary with a whole lot of Jargon which is babble. She could not form sentences but would run around speaking all the time but it sounded all like babbling. She does hand-flap when excited or anxious and did alot of the echoing echolia I think it is called when they constantly repeat phrases they are used to hearing or if I say, Abby What is your name instead of answering me she would say , Abby what is your name.It does get better, with consistent therapy. The hand-flapping never bothered me I actually think it is kinda of cute. Abby receives speech At daycare for 45 minutes one on one and She goes to a more social setting for it for 45 minutes. She also gets Occupational therapy twice a week and special instructer twice a week. I think one of things that has also helped Abby is being around her NT cousins , being around role models. Good Luck. I have heard of a lot of kids having echolalia at age 3. My son would repeat a question over and over and over at this age. What I found helped was, instead of answering him, to ask it back to HIM. I discovered that when I did this, he would answer the question and then move on! It took me a LONG time before I discovered this. It was his way of trying to converse, but it obviously wasn't very effective. And it drove me batty for a while - I empathize with what you're going through. He rarely does this anymore - only when he is very stressed. He stopped doing this before he turned 4. He was able to communicate effectively in other ways and was always very verbal - but the asking the question over and over was definitely a stage he went through. The hand-flapping sounds like a stim to me. That may come and go, but most likely will be replaced with something else. My ds has never done hand-flapping, but he runs back and forth over and over while holding something in his hand (often both hands). This seems to calm him down and I allow him to do it for a period of time each day. For him, it's also exercise while soothing him as well. He is often in a much better mood after - unless I let him go too long (like longer than 20 minutes). If I let him go too long, he often gets deep into the stimming and then is angry when I try to re-direct him. Hope this helps! Jaden's arm flapping (all of her stimming) got better with diet and supplements. The only thing she doesn't seem improved on, is toe walking. She now, at 4, can understand much better. She responds very quickly to "go put this in the trash" etc. She still babbles a lot and repeats but does have about 75 words that she can pull out most of the time to get her needs met. The delayed echolalia is what we are seeing now. I forgot to add that when my ds started taking fish oil about a year and a half ago, his perseverating diminished quite a bit. It could have been a developmental phase, but we notice the difference when he hasn't taken it for a few days. His focus has improved as well. We use Neuromins for Kids by Martek as it was the kind used in a study ds was in at Mayo. But there are other good ones like Nordic Naturals (I have heard about that on this board). You have to make sure there is no mercury in it - a lot of the generic ones do have mercury in them. So, the cheap ones you get at Wal-Mart or Target might not be your best bet. Hello I have a little girl too~she is 7 now and doing very well in first grade..all of her behaviors although mild were totally extinguished using ABA therapy..she would toe walk, hum, and tap on things. She had no functional language till almost 4 years old and now she talks nonstop:) FYI: She has total recall of her life when she was nonverbal even though at the time she wouldnt respond to us or even look at us she was still absorbing it all but totally not able to let us know in a way we understood she was listening:) Model language for your daughter constantly and check out ABA for her..it taught my dd not only how to speak and communicate but a 1,000 other skills she would of never learned without the methods of ABA motivating her to learn them. Best of luck! I was told that autistic spectrum children do not progress the same way other kids do. They seem to make sudden, dramatic leaps when you least expect it. My son did that. He sort of woke up one day and could speak in full sentences, this around four. We were told that four to five is a typical age for an ASD child to leap forward in their strange developmental way. He has made similar leaps, but none as dramatic as the one between four and five. I wish I could help with the handflapping. Maybe because my son has PDD-NOS, he never did that. His stims were hard to detect, except, of course, Mom and Dad knew. He is now fifteen, and is so much better in every way. One good thing about ASD is that the children do make progress, even if it is at a slower pace. Continuing interventions were so helpful for him. Within his group of friends, he can hold his own and is well liked. I give thanks to God and to his wonderful teachers and aides. Be patient and it will get better. I think all of it is under one big umbrella. Autism , PDD, Aspergers, ADD, Adhd, etc... On Abby's actual form with her diagnosis it said , mild Autism/PDD/NOS. It gets pretty confusing. But Abby has PDD and she has hand flapping. Also, even though I know consistency plays a big part in helping children with any special need. Abby's IEP meeting was in june and she just started receiving services now. We did things on our own and at night, social skills, but she went from using practically all jargon to really talking well during the summer out of the blue. So I don't know if it matters what title you have I think each child will progress individually on their own.interventions does wonders if done properly. Thanks everyone for so many responses! Everyone talks about stimming. I read about it so much on these boards, but not quite sure what it means? Is it different for each child, like a way they de-stress? Another question I had was for Snoopywoman: about the fish oil? What brand from what store is good and how much can I give her? I have also heard a lot about the GF/CF diet. I hear that it works for some and not for others. I have been considering the idea of trying it on Libby, but am hesitant because of how difficult it seems. She already has what I call feeding issues (mealtimes are NOT fun), she is super skinny and I worry that she won't get enough nutrients on that diet I rely on dairy to get her calcium and protein. She won't touch milk and she only eats chicken in the form of chicken nuggets. But that is an entirely different discussion for another board! Oh and about ABA method....I dont know anything really about it besides that I have heard it really works. The school system I just moved Libby to offers it, but she isn't currently in it (they have her just in the ECDD classroom). I worked really hard to get her into this school system because of how great it's reputation is and now it turns out we have to move again in a few months. Ugh. But I guess a few months of ABA would help her somewhat, so I am going to try to push the school to put her in that room. Welcome to the forum. As far as stimming goes, this easy-to-read with sensory chart is a good introduction to the subject. Hand-flapping is common, but each child has his own stimming-style, based on his sensory needs. My son stims most when he's stressed and over-stimulated: http://www.tsbvi.edu/Outreach/seehear/archive/mannerism.html #Chart As far as fish-oil goes, Coromega seems to be a popular brand. You can do a search on fish oil using the button at the top of this page if you don't get the answers you're looking for here. As far as GFCF goes, your child's picky eating is definitely a factor to consider before deciding whether or not to implement the diet. Here's a link to the Norwegian government's checklist for considering and implementing the diet, which I found very sensible: http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=19595&am p;KW=Norwegian Here's my collection of resources on food issues in autism: http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18317&am p;KW=pickiness I hope someone else will answer your question about ABA. Good luck with everything! ABA is a great way kids on the spectrum learn. It's not something you do for a few months, it's like math or science. It can be adjusted to any age and level of ability. You should look into getting her into the program. If done correctly, ABA unlocks things you never imagined your child would be able to do. |
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