Recent diagnosis

[Justin Newton]

Hello all,

My son was recently diagnosed with asd by a developmental pediatrician and a neurologist. He is 2 and a half years old and has been doing early intervention through early steps for a few months now. We just got the official diagnosis and will be beginning aba therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy in addition to what we get through early steps. In total, we will be getting at least 30 hours of therapy a week.

Info in my son:

He was meeting all milestones until after his 1st birthday. He knew about 15 words, was walking by 9 months. Was happy, good eye contact etc. He would even follow som3 simple dorections. All of a sudden he hit a plateu. He stopped learning new words and actually lost some verbal skills. He stopped listening and starting show some sensory issues such as hands in face and running all around and jumping all day.

My wife and I have done a ton of research and know the basics but I wanted to join a forum to connect with others in similar situations.

The main question I want answerd is what types of children with add typically progress well?. The dev ped thinks that he will be higher functioning because he is extremely smart. He knows all abcs, 123s and can solve fairly advanced puzzles. He is an extremely affectionate and happy kid with great motor skills.

Can anyone state what kind of indications would one see in a 2 and a half year old with asd that would tend to have better results in school age and adult years?

Any other tips for new parents with this diagnosis?

Thanks,
Justin

 

[Fitzo]

He sounds almost exactly like my nephew who will be three at the end of April. Since working with a speech therapist his vocabulary has increased but he is still behind for his age. They are encouraging him to use eye contact etc. and are taking him to playgroup to help with social skills. The ASD clinic said there is not much more to be done at this stage. It's a bit of a waiting game to see what if any, other traits show themselves as he gets older.
Sorry can't tell you much more. You'll likely be in much the same situation as they are.

 

[SusanLR]

I've never had any experience with children except
for my own childhood. Only child and diagnosing ASD
wasn't known about much way back then.

I was also a rapid learner and highly intelligent.
But it was around age two my parents started realising
I wasn't social and became more withdrawn.

Learning and wanting to study everything continued to
excel, but the other developmental phases didn't.
I don't know how it would have turned out with therapy
since no one knew what the problem was then.
I was only diagnosed in my late 50's when I lost both
parents and had no family left.
I felt alone in a world of people and no experience in coping with it.
The arrested social development hit hard when this happened and when seeking help I found a therapist who
thought I was Aspie and told me to seek out testing and
therapist in ASD.

I can only share my experience and how it messed up
my development.
For me, I'm afraid I would have been the type that even
had I been diagnosed and therapy it probably wouldn't have gotten through.
The old saying "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." That kind of kid.

 

[Nitro]

 

[Southern Discomfort]

What you'll find on this forum is that it's particularly populated with autistics, not so much parents with autistic children. So by all means if you want an answer from someone with first hand experience this is the place otherwise you might want to jump between different sites for a bigger diet of answers.

We just got the official diagnosis and will be beginning aba therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy in addition to what we get through early steps.

ABA therapy is quite controversial. Here in the UK it is widely rejected by professionals, parents and autistics alike. It is not very popular as it does raise some ethical questions, if it's appropriate to change an autistic child's natural development. Intervention is useful, speech therapy worked really well on me; I didn't speak until 3 and I was picking up adult words by 5.

It's very tough I think to determine what a child's development process will be like even if they're autistic because there's so much diversity in the condition. But I think it's good to take it one step at a time and always be thinking about "what's next?"

He stopped listening and starting show some sensory issues such as hands in face and running all around and jumping all day.

I just want to add that it's probably not him not listening, it's him not showing that he's listening. Things like eye contact, affirmative speech and the like may not show.

 

[tree]

 

[rainfall]

The main question I want answerd is what types of children with add typically progress well?.

Can anyone state what kind of indications would one see in a 2 and a half year old with asd that would tend to have better results in school age and adult years?

Any other tips for new parents with this diagnosis?

In my experience, every person on the spectrum is completely different and progress differently. You can't really receive a definitive answer here. Besides skill sets, there is personality which varies infinitely from person to person. I know what it's like to consider your child's future when you see and know that they have difficulties that other children do not. I am a self diagnosed aspie myself that would be considered high functioning though I am not without my many struggles. I think it's always best to keep positive and believe in your child when so many others just keep slapping labels and deficits onto them.

We just got the official diagnosis and will be beginning aba therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy in addition to what we get through early steps. In total, we will be getting at least 30 hours of therapy a week.

I think that's a lot of work. I would be careful to watch him for signs of it being too much for him. My son was diagnosed a month before he turned three and then again after a second opinion a month before he turned 4. The only therapy he received immediately besides the Early Intervention program in my area was speech therapy that I had to change because she was not compatible with him. She couldn't work around his hyperactivity and inattention and got frustrated more than once. He's now been in a place for years where he has Physical and Speech therapy once a week for thirty minutes each. He also had Occupational therapy and will resume it once they retain another therapist.

He knows all abcs, 123s and can solve fairly advanced puzzles. He is an extremely affectionate and happy kid with great motor skills.

Intelligence is one thing and social and executive functioning are another. My son is also extremely smart and has always read beyond his level amazing others, that is when he could speak what he could read which has taken a long time. He didn't really put sentences together except randomly until he was five. He is very social but doesn't get the concepts of personal space and the games other kids like to play. Not all kids are mean though and some have taken a particular liking to him. Executive functioning is where he has struggled the most and partly because of his sensory issues. Again, EVERY person on the spectrum will advance at their pace and all you can really do is what you are. Continue to love him, get the help he needs and pay close attention to what is working and what isn't. I'm by no means an expert, but this is my experience and opinion.

 

[Justin Newton]

Another question I have is whether at home therapy or in clinic therapy is best?