I need some help please. Baby shows some signs of autism.

lily76

My baby is a 21 months old boy. I did not realise it is a problem that he never points to things or shows his interest in anything by pointing it to me ever since two weeks ago after visiting the physiotherapist for his walking problem. He could not walk on his own, but now he can use a little truck as an aid which is a huge step forward. The physiotherapist would not worry his walking as everything seems fine and he just needs more practice and coverage. However she did show concern that my baby not talking yet and booked me an appointment with a language therapist. He sometimes could call mama or dada, but nothing more. I did not take it seriously until then because I was always given kindly comfort from friends and family that he will talk anyway.

If he is just not talking but can communicate in any other way than crying I won't be so worried. I did not know how the word come into my mind but it just did. I did a google job and find many major signs do exist on my baby. No pointing, won't look at me and then look at the thing he is interested, and he just feeds me the blueberry every time cus he does not like it and one day he was trying to put my mobile into my mouth so I realised he may use my mouth as a container instead of giving me something. We do have eye contacts and share laughs but he seldom responses to me calling his name. He can have eye contact with strangers even sometime smiles. I am teaching him pointing now, any idea?

I went to the GP and showed my concern and was told that the one who should be more worried is not my baby but me and I need to control my depression. GP said it can be autism and it can be not and would refer us to a community paediatrician. I know both appointments with paediatrician or language therapist could take ages. What I want to know is before they finally come to my door what I can do as something like an early intervention?

I have booked a preview with a nursery and I am going to see the HV today. The physiotherapist would not suggest me to book a paediatrician at this stage but I'd rather do it now than later.

It does not matter at last he turns out to be a common developmental delay while I do a lot of EI thing. All I need to know is how can I get started? Any idea would be much appreciated.

Nicki

Hi Lily

This book is excellent for teaching how to help a potentially autistic child to communicate.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/More-Than-Words-Communication-Children/dp/0921145144/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338332567&sr=8-1

Hope you can get some answers soon and your referral to the SLT and paediatrician doesn't take as long as you think.

lily76

Nicki wrote: »

Hi Lily

This book is excellent for teaching how to help a potentially autistic child to communicate.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/More-Than-Words-Communication-Children/dp/0921145144/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338332567&sr=8-1

Hope you can get some answers soon and your referral to the SLT and paediatrician doesn't take as long as you think.

Thanks Nicki.
This is exactly what I want. Our appointment with the physiotherapist took about 3 months and ten days to come. I did a lot of google job and did an online test from an American website. I can not say anything for sure, but I need preparation. Fingers crossed it is just a delay and my baby finally catches up.

DVardysShadow

I don't think there is any early intervention for autism. And I did not think that it developed until about the age of 2 and I thought it needed a few months to develop.

So you have to balance your desire to get something sorted in case it is autism against the possible damage of inappropriate interventions in the case that it is not.

Nicki

No need to worry about inappropriate interventions based on the book I recommended DVardy. The Hanen techniques are used for all kinds of language delay, not just autism, and just consist of techniques to encourage a child to communicate, based on the level they are already at.

Having a child with autism though, I am struggling to think of any techniques which were used with her (or still are) which would cause any harm to a non autistic child. The usual things suggested are visual supports, routines, timetables, practise in turn taking, etc all of which work well with NT children too.

Assuming of course, the OP isn't talking about some mad dangerous US medical treatment such as chelation therapy but there is nothing in her OP to suggest she is asking for anything more than some Speech Therapy tips while she waits for an assessment.

lily76

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I don't think there is any early intervention for autism. And I did not think that it developed until about the age of 2 and I thought it needed a few months to develop.

So you have to balance your desire to get something sorted in case it is autism against the possible damage of inappropriate interventions in the case that it is not.

There is early intervention and no one knows the reason for autism. All I want to do is to communicate more with my baby. If he is not autistic it would not change him into one. Even he is a NT baby to communicate more won't do him any bad. I need to know how as my baby has some communicational delay. I am currently teaching him how to point by showing it my self. His problem lies in pointing and language.

Candy53

Hi lily76,

We went through the same thing with our son who is autistic, but slow development also could be the cause, but it looks like you already have people involved which is good. It wasn't like that in my day.

One thing I would suggest, is get your Health Visitor involved too. Ours was great, and went through everything with me. It was her who got the ball rolling for me. She got our doctor to set up appointments for assessments etc. She came to see me regularly so I could talk about my son, as I remember, even at that stage feeling lonely with all the worry.

Best Wishes,
Candy

quintwins

hi lilly76

i have twin boys, there now 5 1/2 and altho they both have speech therapy, and ocupational therapy, and one of them has physio, no-one would ever say why other than a developmental delay.

Now i went for a review appointment last week and was told yes we think he may have autism (the one that also has physio, the other is thought to have learned behaviour and development delay is common in twins and he is nearly caught up now) they won't asess him until he's 6 as they say alot of the social skills come threw more at that age, so i wouldn't hold out for a def yes or no.

Saying that they have had several blocks of therapys which have helped them no end, so just make sure he gets all the help he can get, i'm supired you got speech therapy so young tho, mine we're over 3 before i could get any because they would say a few word (altho very unclear that only i could make out) so could get there point across.

My brother has aspergers sydrome which my own son shows signs of so this wasn't a huge shock to me (well it was as i had seen improvement however not as much as it might be for other people).


Please bare in mind you never see a normal adult who can't talk or walk, so it will come in the end, even autistic kids get there in there own time.

lily76

Candy53 wrote: »

Hi lily76,

We went through the same thing with our son who is autistic, but slow development also could be the cause, but it looks like you already have people involved which is good. It wasn't like that in my day.

One thing I would suggest, is get your Health Visitor involved too. Ours was great, and went through everything with me. It was her who got the ball rolling for me. She got our doctor to set up appointments for assessments etc. She came to see me regularly so I could talk about my son, as I remember, even at that stage feeling lonely with all the worry.

Best Wishes,
Candy

Thanks Candy. I hope your little darling is doing well now.

I had a talk with the physiotherapist and expressed my concern but she would not recommend an assessment at this stage instead she booked an appointment for me with a language therapist. I was too worrying so I asked my GP to refer us to a paediatrician and yesterday I went to the pop in clinic in children centre to see the health visitor who would send a nursery nurse to our home. I don't know how this is going to be assessed but I was going trough huge depression last week. I even couldn't control my tears in front of my GP and the health visitor. However, I am much better now.

We all will finally go through it and our children will be fine. God bless us all.

lily76

quintwins wrote: »

hi lilly76

i have twin boys, there now 5 1/2 and altho they both have speech therapy, and ocupational therapy, and one of them has physio, no-one would ever say why other than a developmental delay.

Now i went for a review appointment last week and was told yes we think he may have autism (the one that also has physio, the other is thought to have learned behaviour and development delay is common in twins and he is nearly caught up now) they won't asess him until he's 6 as they say alot of the social skills come threw more at that age, so i wouldn't hold out for a def yes or no.

Saying that they have had several blocks of therapys which have helped them no end, so just make sure he gets all the help he can get, i'm supired you got speech therapy so young tho, mine we're over 3 before i could get any because they would say a few word (altho very unclear that only i could make out) so could get there point across.

My brother has aspergers sydrome which my own son shows signs of so this wasn't a huge shock to me (well it was as i had seen improvement however not as much as it might be for other people).


Please bare in mind you never see a normal adult who can't talk or walk, so it will come in the end, even autistic kids get there in there own time.

Thank you Quintwins. How is your brother now?

You need to be really pushy to get the medical help you want given the nature of the NHS system. I am not blaming it cus there are a lot of people in need of help but only we know our little darlings. My little one is walking but not in a very steady way and always need an aid, a little truck or his own pushchair. He is a massive boy so I also wonder he might need more calcium. We are going to see the physiotherapist in a month. The physio could not find anything wrong with his movement.

I think you really need to be a little bit pushy on your GP or medical service, why it should be waited until he is 6? I will try every way to get all the possible help and keep my son get all the treatment he needs.

I was always told by other people that when it comes to school age they all walk and talk. I do hope this is true.

Best wishes for your little ones.

lily76

Nicki wrote: »

No need to worry about inappropriate interventions based on the book I recommended DVardy. The Hanen techniques are used for all kinds of language delay, not just autism, and just consist of techniques to encourage a child to communicate, based on the level they are already at.

Having a child with autism though, I am struggling to think of any techniques which were used with her (or still are) which would cause any harm to a non autistic child. The usual things suggested are visual supports, routines, timetables, practise in turn taking, etc all of which work well with NT children too.

Assuming of course, the OP isn't talking about some mad dangerous US medical treatment such as chelation therapy but there is nothing in her OP to suggest she is asking for anything more than some Speech Therapy tips while she waits for an assessment.

I found US people pay more attention to this topic cus all the on line M-CHART test I found are all web pages in the USA.

Your child must be doing much better now as she has such a great mum.

I don't want any medical treatment yet. I did wonder whether go on with the vaccinations though.