I am new to this board and thought I'd ask for help from you. My son is 39 months old and for the last year I have had concerns about his development (I'm a speech therapist). We took him for an evaluation-where ped behavior specialist said he was exhibiting 4 characteristics (one of which I did not agree with-eye contact)and would probably be classified PDD.
Well, I have been working with him extensively at home as well he has been getting additional outside speech therapy. I am also trying GFCF diet. I don't know that the diet is truly doing anything for him. His progress seems to be slow and in waves. He has always been very affectionate, has great eye contact and attempts to engage in conversation. Asks a lot of questions many that he has already asked a number of times (but I always respond and try to expand on it.) I have been trying some of Dr. Greenspans floortime therapy techniques as well as some Rleationship development interventions (RDI).
As I speech therapist I guess I should know that progress could be slow but as a parent I want to see this rapid improvement.
As a new parent dealing with this I'm concerned for him-his prognosis. As I speech therapist reality is a little scary.
Thanks for listening
jcan
my son is three and was getting speech and ot till his 3rd birthday. i seen alot of improvemnt with him while he was getting services, now that he is in school not sure how they will follow through . insurances is fighting me on st saying he can services if it is a restorative service, he had words but lost them so to me he should qualify. what is the greenspan method and an ot recommended rdi but did not have any information on it. just keep working with your child everyday and give them lots of love. you will see improvement but it may take time!!!!!!!!!!!!!! good luck. sherry mother of dakotaHello and welcome. If you disagree with the assesment, find another Dr and have him reevaluated. I wanted so badly to disagree with the team that assesed my son (when he was 34 months) and while there are still a few areas that I disagree with, they were for the most part correct in the assesment and diagonsis. (my son has autism).
Our progression and regression is very unpredictible.
Again, WELCOME!
Keep in mind too that the eye contact one can be tricky. My ds normally makes great eye contact w/ myself, dh, and some other family/friends that are around him often. But to other people and especially children his own age he will often treat them as objects. He often won't look at them or interact w/ them. I hardly paid attention to this until recently because I just assumed he wasn't interested in interacting because he was doing something else or his attention was just elsewhere. I made excuses not knowing anything about asd really. So the dr may also be seeing him as an outsider.
What I did was video tape ds. I have hrs of video showing good times and off times. You can see his odd behaviors and stimming, and also good behaviors and such. I then cut it down to 1/2 hr (very hard lol) and handed it in, w/ the paperwork and copies of online tests I took, to the center that will be evaluating ds next mth. I feel that way they can see him as we do and see things they may not get to witness during an eval at some other place. Have you tried any online autism or pdd tests? That helped me a lot.
Amber
Even though you are ST, this is your child, not someone elses (kind of like saying a doctor makes the worst patient). Most of us were in denial when our children we diagnosised. I worked in the medical field and knew all about Autism before I had my son. When he had the classic signs...loss of speech, loss of social contact, severe head banging, I knew what it was. When he was evaluated and diagnosed Autistic, I broke down, I knew already, but they words killed me.
I do have to commend you for getting outside ST even though you are one. That has to be hard. My son was non verbal for 2 1/2 years after his speech loss, but came back this past January. He is 4 1/2 and speaking at a 2 1/2 -3 y/o level. Talking too much sometimes, lol.