Just a sad rambling

greyt00

I hope this doesn't sound too know-it-all-ish, but I hate reading threads in other forums and thinking, "Your child probably has autism... but I cannot say that so all I can do is suggest calling EI and your pediatrician."    It just takes me back to when we started having problems, and I had that sinking feeling in my gut but didn't want to admit anything.  And of course I don't really know, there could be a lot of different things going on.  But the flags.... I'm sure you guys know what I mean and this happens to many of us. 

greyt00

It was mentioned that some of the behaviors are flags and she should get new evaluations. EI said she was on track a few months ago so I suggested revisiting that and also private OT. I felt it was not my place yet to mention autism, but since a few of us mentioned flags, I hope she will get some help.

greyt00

For me it started to sink in that he must have autism a few months after he turned 2 because he became obsessed with opening/closing doors and switching lights off/on.  Before that I thought it was an isolated issue with eating.  All the while I was desperately looking for reasons to write it off, that he was OK.

funchicken

bubba2b said:

-auntie- said:

Yeah, and EI and the pedi will say something along the lines of "let's wait and see..." And suggest a child is social delayed because they're an only, the oldest, have a SAHM, live in a neighborhood without LOs or are smarter than other kids and can't relate to them.

The pedi thing drives me nuts. Even more so if the person just gets a school eval.. Go on pedi, recommend a dev pedi for a parent going through the school system. (maybe my own pet peeve as the school deemed dd not to have attentional issues in kindie- and I wonder how many other parents could have worked with their kids before a transitional age).

Yep. Me too. DD1's tactile issues were so bad that she would dry heave if she held her hands under running water, and we got the old "wait and see." 

Micelle78

I was just think this the other night. I know I should encourage her to call for an evaluation. A child with zero words over 18 months old is not typical. It brings back memories of me asking anyone online or real if they thought my D'S needed one or not. I knew from day 1 he had stuff going on.

veggieroll

My cousin's son has autism. His wife use to notice things in ds that were red flags when he was as young as 9 months or so. She would just say ds was doing something just like her son use to do and occasionally suggest getting something he was doing checked out. Aside from his pedi and therapists, she was the only one that actually suggested evals and screenings. And it seriously was the push I needed.

I use to be super sensitive to saying things to other people about flags. When people in my groups talk about delays now, I always encourage asking a pedi about getting an eval by saying that it can't hurt, they can always turn it down, it's an outside professional opinion, and if the kid doesn't qualify that maybe they can get some tips on improving speech, etc. And hopefully if there is more to just being a delay, the therapist, pedi, or EI will catch on.

veggieroll

@auntie I think we're going to have a similar library situation. I bring DS to a baby & toddler group there. The woman that runs it has been keeping up with our situation through EI and therapy and I think she's wanted to ask if there's something more to the delays, but hasn't. She has added things like signing into some of the activities that she does and she has a container of cookies for when DS starts to get agitated.