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Conference Discussion [Autism2006]
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M. Williams
Reg'd: 20th Sep 06
Posts: 7

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Worry about second child (21st Sep 06 17:20:45 GMT)

My son was diagnosed at 20 months as high functioning ASD. He is almost three and they feel that he has actually lost his diagnosis, although we still see signs of Autism and know we are not done yet.

My concern is for my one year old daughter. She is developing so differently than my son. She waves hi and bye, points, claps, has met all her physical milestones and has great fine motor skills. My son didn't do any of those things. She knows about twelve sign language words and says "mo mo" for more and "hiiiiii" for her hi. I'm not sure if she is doing mama and dada. Somedays I think she has dada but I'm not sure. She will give us fairly good eye contact when she is across the floor from us but when she is in our arms her eye contact is poor. I would define her eye contact as inconsistent and not great but not as bad as my sons. She doesn't call to us from her crib, although she will cry when we leave her and does have stranger anxiety sometimes. She looks at us when we call her name. She will point at things and look at us as if to say "hey I want that please." She will hand us things when we ask her for them but she doesn't always bring us toys to show us yet. She is already pretending with a play phone and will imitate us. She was delayed with her babbling and didn't really get vocal until nine months.

I'm just a little wigged out by the lack of eye contact and what seemed oringinally like a language delay. Our Early Intervetion specialist told me not to go down the road of ASD and worry needlessly. She commented that she has seen a lot of siblings of other ASD siblings who have shadow symptoms, particularily in the area of sensory issues which could explain the eye contact.

Anyone with experience with this and thoughts or feedback? We're planning on taking her to a DAN Doctor just to have him monitor her and get her on a protocol if necessary. Thanks for any input and advice.

Marla

  Subject     Poster     Posts     Last Post  
response
  cindy   0   
Our first Child
  Trish Bennett   0   
My only worry now is: Can they stop talking so I can get some peace and quiet? :)
  Haylee Linde   0   
my 2 sons
  wendy skinner   1  18-Oct-06 13:48:05 GMT 
our two boys
  Renee Poirier   0   
Worry about 2nd child
  Caroline Dillon   0   
EARLY DIAGNOSIS
  DEBRA SQUIRES   1  09-Nov-06 03:58:12 GMT 
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I HAVE A SON WHO IS 13 AND HAS ASPERGERS MY NEW BABY IS 12 MONTHS OLD AND SHOWING SIGNS OF AUTISM I AM TOLD HE WILL NOT BE TESTED UNTIL E IS THREE IS THIS NORMAL SURLY IF HE WAS DIAGNOSISED EARLIER WE COULD GET THE HELP HE NEEDS
Here, they test as early as possible. (..they say)
  J B   0   
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I totally agree with you. Early diagnosis would be best. Supposedly that's what is supposed to happen here as well. Hopefully it really has changed in the past few years but it sure wasn't what I'd experienced. I kept stating something was different about this baby we rec'd when he was 4 months. But he'd had some trauma & they said I was just being worried. I kept trying..they kept saying
..nope, he's fine. He had super gross & fine motor control, knew where his body was in space and so on. "They" weren't even too concerned when he lost his speech.

At 7, basically to shut me up I think :) the private school agreed to let the diagnostic pediatrician who contracted with them check him out. ... she ended up sending him for more tests & interviews with other diagnostic doctors ....final diagnosis was Aspergers with a bunch of other things.

But we didn't wait for any diagnosis - didn't have a clue that there was even such a thing as Aspergers or HFA - all I knew was that I had to keep that lil guy from going permanently into whatever place he went. 'Had to somehow ease that pain he seemed to feel at the strangest times. So we worked with him by guess and by golly - a lot. He's almost 13 now like your son and doing pretty well considering a lot of things he's had to go through. (not the ASD)

What I suppose I'm saying is to continue what you probably already are doing. If you sense there is a similarity of "autism signs" , then use every technique you can til he's 3 - have that appointment made/waiting for the day after his 3rd birthday. Use touch, massage his legs, his arms...stimulate him some (but not too much), continue eye contact, play peek a boo, everything you would for a regular babe but more consistently & probably a bit more. Like I said, you're probably already doing that so that's great.

And keep asking for someone qualified in "early intervention" to give him a checkup at the least; keep reminding them that autism tends to be genetic & that his older brother is on the spectrum - reminders sometimes help.
Perhaps check out sites on how to advocate - they explain that one should have facts in order, be calm, consistent....and not give up on asking. Follow up on calls made, get more facts & restate the old as well.

Maybe they'll get tired of you calling to ask for an 'early intervention' diagnosis if not the therapy which also goes with it. And if they really get tired of you calling to ask, of you finding out whom to write letters to in order to get this service, then maybe they'll just book you that appointment!!
Good luck..

 

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