Official Autism Diagnosis and have questions

[momof3poohlovers]

Great to hear of the progress, early intervention and maximum supports are yielding amazing results. If you have time I would suggest you look into a program called "floor time". Many therapist use it, but more importantly contains techniques which are easily learned and practiced by parents.

Here is a link if you are interested

http://www.icdl.com/dirFloortime/overview/index.shtml

Thank you for the link! I am interested in trying anything that will help my son. I am so encouraged by his progress but also realize he still has a way to go. I skimmed through it this morning (just saw your post) but when my son goes down for his nap will really read through it and let you know what I think. Thank you again!

 

[autgirl]

Glad to hear that the therapies are having good results!

We took our son to early intervention at 3...they diagnosied him only with speech issues, specifically echolalia and processing disorder. He started speech at 3.5 years and improved dramatically, but we knew there was still something else going on. We moved to another state and did another early intervention, and again, only speech. When he started K, I warned the teacher there would be issues, and a school eval was requested. The diagnosis was Asperger's.

He's now in 3rd grade, and has been in mainstream classes. At school he received OT and ST plus has a one on one aide. He also attends a social skills class one night a week at a local autism school, and he has a home therapist 8 hours a week and a behavior specialist 10 hours a month which is shared between home and school. We also started him in a group therapy session once a week, to help improve self esteem, anxiety issues, and anger management. It's a lot...he has something every night after school, but it has helped him so much that it is worth it. We also have him in Sunday school in a regular classroom. It isn't always easy...but the improvement since 3 is wonderful.

One thing that we haven't done but may start is play therapy...I've heard good things about it and we are on a waiting list. He also has a social skills class at school now, that teaches all sorts of great things that just don't come naturally to him. They also do yoga for relaxation.

My advice is to do all you can, and to listen to your heart. If a teacher or doctor disagrees with your concerns, or feels that a behavior, etc isn't caused by the autism, remember that you are the expert on your child and that only you can advocate for him. I've had people with sped backgrounds tell me that my son's behaviors weren't caused by his autism, when they most definitely were. It's hard, but you are strong--it's your child and you want what's best! Good luck with everything, and remember you're never alone in this

 

[mamapajama]

Our daughter was diagnosed in February at 3 & a half with a 37 on the CARS scale which is the beginning on "severe." It was difficult to hear because to us she is nowhere near severe. She is a an 5 day/week half day program. She gets ABA 4 hours a week at home and gets speech x3 and OT x2. Last year this time she was for all intents and purposes nonverbal. This is not the case now. She has a big vocabulary now! She knows her name and can spell it, knows all her letters, numbers up to 20, the town she lives in and how old she is. She knows all our names, says hi and bye and I love you. NONE of which I imagined she'd be doing this time last year. If your child is truly on the spectrum he or she won't grow out of it but ASD is a fluid diagnosis and can and often does change as a child learns. We are lucky that Zoey is able to learn through her I tendering behaviors and we are cautiously optimistic that she will continue to thrive. However I cannot stress enough the importance of taking every service you are offered and fighting for the most you can get because these early years are VERY important for kids on the spectrum. If your ST is not a good fit get another one ASAP that is. We are lucky that our school district is great with services and she is in a great developmental preschool. Feel free to PM me with any questions. I will help however I can.

 

[lucigo]

Great to hear of the progress, early intervention and maximum supports are yielding amazing results. If you have time I would suggest you look into a program called "floor time". Many therapist use it, but more importantly contains techniques which are easily learned and practiced by parents.

Here is a link if you are interested

http://www.icdl.com/dirFloortime/overview/index.shtml

I love this board. I thought I was the only mom out there who recommended floortime to new parents. We never qualified for ABA. When our son was diagnosed at 18 months I had 3 older children, ages 8, 12 and 15, and my husband had two kids ages 9 and 14. So we asked each kid to spend 20 min a day 1:1 with him, doing whatever they wanted, jumping on the trampoline, playing patty cake, cars, whatever THEY wanted to do with him. They really enjoyed having their "me" time with him. For my husband, "floortime" was pool time. They would sing wiggles songs and play splash games. For me, I admit it was more about flash cards and trying to get words out of him. The point was we each had our own way of doing things, and between all of them, it worked.

Today he is 9. He of coarse still has autism, but he is verbal. We still have floortime to extent that we make time for him everyday. Pool time with dad these days consists of playing their version of plants versus zombies. We are down to 2 older kids at home. He drives them insane with his "typical boy" behavior. They will jokingly ask me, why did we work so hard to get him to talk?? Life is good.

 

[lucigo]

http://www.amazon.com/Floortime-Training-Series-Basics-Communicating/dp/B0009XZITG/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_img_c

These were the DVDs I got. After I was done with them I resold them on the internet so although they were expensive I felt like I got the education I needed from them.

 

[dzorn]

My DS just turned 2 yesterday and a couple of weeks ago a Developmental Psychologist diagnosed him as High Risk for Autism. Because of his young age, they won't officially diagnose him until he is around 3 years old. He had already been "diagnosed" by a ped at the High Risk Infant Clinic and by a neurologist earlier in the year but the Early Intervention center for our county requires a child to be evaluated by their own psychologist for extra services so that is what this evaluation was for. A few of the tests they used were the ADOS Module I, Bayley III Scales of Infant Development, M-CHAT, clinical observations, and a CDI (Child development Inventory) filled out by me. According to the ADOS, his total was 16 (Autism cutoff is 12 and autism spectrum is 7) so he scored within the classic Autism range.

Here is my question to other parents out there. With a score of 16 on the ADOS, which sounds kind of high to me, what are the odds that this is something that he will "grow out of". I was told that they don't officially diagnose kids as young as my son because many times, they do outgrow many of the behaviors and end up being completely normal. He has a developmental teacher who comes out twice a week and was getting speech therapy (he is non-verbal) but we had to stop the speech due to a horrible therapist. Anyway, I guess I am just wondering if I should really push any therapy I can get for Autism for my son or should I see how the next year plays out and see if he does "outgrow" this. Am I just in denial that his diagnosis is accurate or is it a realistic hope that he will outgrow this? Any opinions?

You don't outgrow autism it is a life long condition. You can deal with the disability to maximize his potential to function in the "neurotypical world"

Denise in MI