What Made You Seek an Autism Evaluation for Your Child?
My son Anthony was our first baby, and was a nut from the beginning. When he was born, one of the nurses said, "well, you're just mad at everyone, aren't you?" because he was screaming so. He continued to scream for a long time, which we figured was colic. He required a LOT of noise and movement to relax. He didn't say any words by the time he was 1, and just a few more by the time he was 1.5. He wouldn't really have joint attention with us about anything - he never said "plane" when one was flying overhead. I did reading and thought he had sensory issues, but never thought he was autistic, but we called anyway.
How Did the Diagnostic Process Work?
We had our early intervention come and do an evaluation. There were long waits in between the first and second evals, by the time we had the second, my son was acting more and more 'autistic'. He had started to walk on his toes, to flap his hands, etc. Up until then, his only sign was that he didn't talk and he couldn't follow commands - he couldn't process them, it seemed. A speech therapist and a developmental therapist came and did the second evaluation and told us that we should see about our son getting to a developmental pediatrician. They never said he was autistic, but looking back, I can see that's what they meant. My son got one hour each of occupational, speech and developmental therapy. When he turned three, he went into the public school system to continue therapy. It was at his first case conference that he was officially diagnosed. We also took him to see a developmental pediatrician to get a second opinion. Shortly after he was four, we started him in an ABA program four days a week, with developmental preschool one morning a week at his public school, where he also gets Occupational and Speech therapies.
Advice
- Start early! I wish that I had called Early Intervention when I first suspected something was not quite right, more like when he was 15-18 months old. A lot can be gained by early intervention, and the earlier the better.
- Don't get hung up on labels! I don't care if my son has autism, and in fact once we got his diagnosis, we got more coverage, insurance wise.
- I think it's important to go through stages of grief when you get a diagnosis, but be aware that you may have already gone through some of them, everyone's experience is different. I am sad that my son has this struggle, but he is still my son.
What Our Diagnostician Recommended
Therapy, therapy therapy! I like Stanley Greenspan's books about Floortime. I have lately been reading some Temple Grandin. Try and meet people who are in the same boat, join an internet group, whatever. My son has made a lot of progress in the last 2 years, we are bullish for the future.
How We Found the Resources We Needed
I found a lot of info at the library, but for therapy, etc., I used the internet. I find a lot of groups are hung up on things I am not - I don't care so much about vaccines or chelation or whatever, but I try to focus on what we all have in common, we all have kids who we love who have autism.
What We Would Do Differently
I would start intervention so much earlier. I wouldn't get hung up on worry that my son wasn't autistic, I would just try to work with the resources available to us. I would have pushed more with my ped to give us a recommendation for early intervention.
