New to this and just do not know what to do

Sobachka

Hi ladies, I am new to this board, and new to spacial needs in general. My son has a lot of the symptooms that may be characteristic of autism.

I called ECI and will have a coordinator come out and evaluate him in the next 2-3 weeks. I am freaking out.

I guess I am not the first to go through this process, but I just do not know where to run and what to do right now. Any words of advice?

 

Thanks!!

breezy0629

Welcome. I am so very glad you are here. You are doing the right thing!!! I know the wait will be brutal. How old is your child?

The most helpful thing right now (since you already took the next step and you're on pause at the moment) is to maybe spell out a few things that are concerning you and if one of the mom's here relates, maybe she has a more specific resource that was helpful to her.

 The ladies here are wonderful. I find it is a great place to come for support. Thanks for stopping by!!   

Sobachka

Thank you guys. My pedi says I am overreacting, but DS is 14 months old, and he is not pointing, not talking, and cannot really play. He just spins the wheels on cars for a long long time. He cries a lot and does not look at me much. Everything I read says that this is not typical.

I googled autism a lot and contacte ECI, but do not know where to go from here. Thanks, and sorry I am so emotional and all over the map here......

skittles_123

You are taking the right steps. I would also talk to a developmental pediatrician as well. Everything will be okay, we have all been there. Great job for taking the step on getting him evaluated so young. I wish I had done what you did at my ds age.

Sobachka

Thank you.

dar12

This is of course a super scary time in your life. Know that we really do know how you feel and are here anytime.

Also, you are a wonderful mom for getting in there now and intervening . you will see changes in your son and they will be wonderful.

Regardless of the dx you are going to treat symptoms and so as you see progress you will start to feel better and excited about his growth.

 best!

hopanka

The toughest part is the waiting...once you get the ball rolling, it feels better because you are at least "doing something".

I also recommend getting your private evals in order, if you can afford it...it really sped up the process for me with the Reg Ctr, because I had a private speech eval completed for our meeting and they approved speech therapy right then and there (otherwise it would have taken at least a couple of months for their person to evaluate, write the report etc etc), you can also make an appt with a Developmental Pediatrician, which should be helpful. But, beware....each Doc seems to have their own idea about things....we got one dx from one doc, a completely different dx (or lack thereof) from another...., but at least it gives you an idea about what's going on and a couple of different opinions are always better than just going with what one doc thinks (especially in such a young age when it's all so hard to diagnose).

If you do get an ASD dx, you may find TACA meetings helpful (not sure if they are in your area). It's a group of mostly moms who can give you lots of info specific to your area. They also have a "buddy program"....an experienced mom is paired up with a newbie and sort of takes you under her wing. You can look it up, www.talkaboutcuringautism.org. They also do alternative approaches, like special diet and such, but if you're not comfortable with that, they don't push it and help you with lots of other stuff like regional center meetings, how to get the best therapies and just a lot of other things they all went through themselves. I found the moms there very helpful and encouraging and absolutely non-judgmental about the path you want to take with your child.

Big hugs and hang in there! One day at a time...