New autism mom here, need advice please.

[emerald22]

My son just turned two 2 weeks ago. He is currently in an early intervention program (since June) and has been in speech therapy since July. The speech therapist and two others from the eip all say they see the autism traits/signs but that he is doing so well in speech therapy that they wouldn't worry about getting a diagnosis if they were me. I want a diagnosis to see where he is at and for his future in school but they insist that it isn't necessary. He has two half brothers on the autism spectrum so I have a legitimate autism concern and just "know". Would you seek a diagnosis?

[pattimomma]

I say trust your mommy instinct and get the evaluation. I had the school system (in GA) tell me that nothing was wrong with my DS for years (I kept requesting testing and saying that I thought something was wrong) and when we finally got him evaluated I just couldn't believe how much time we had lost because his disabilities were not identified.
 

[emerald22]

Exactly. My stepsons just went to school for the first time (ages 6 and 4), their mom didn't have them evaluated prior and they had problems starting. My youngest stepson was sent home several times and kicked out for 5 days and they just started school a few weeks ago! I will not be putting my little one in a mainstream classroom if I can help it. What is the best way to go about getting an evaluation? Through the intervention program or should I take him to his ped and let him refer him somewhere else or what?

[pattimomma]

I would recommend a private evaluation with an independent PhD clinical psychologist but maybe a developmental pediatrician is better at yor child's age. Is the EIP state funded? I might stay away from their evaluations just because the current therapists working with your child thinks it's not necessary. I don't know the procedures for getting a private evaluation paid for by the state at your child's age. I suggest you check with Carol Sadler special education consultant / advocate and parent to parent of ga for the specifics and recommendations

http://www.iepadvocate4you.com/index.html

http://www.p2pga.org/

Look through all of Carol's website she has a lot of good info.
 

[fizgig]

HI Emerald, I totally understand your desire for a diagnosis but 2 is usually too young to really give a definitive dx anyway.  There are many things that can look like autism and so, unless it is fairly severe, no one can really give you certainty.  Which sucks and is really hard I know.

That said, if you are worried I would highly, highly recommend that you go see a developmental pediatrician if you decide to follow up.  No one else is qualified to help you figure out what is really going on - child psychologists can only really look for a small set of issues while a good dev ped can look for those same issues while also making sure nothing medical is happening.  Good dev peds often have long waiting lists so, if you want to go forward with that, you would probably want to get on the list asap. 

[emerald22]

Thanks so much pattimomma! His eip is Babies Can't Wait.

Fizgig, he has an appt on the 26th. It's just his 2yr old check up, but I figured we could start with questions and such there. He hasn't had insurance in a year, so this information will all be new to his ped since he hasn't seen him in so long. My son developed normal until age 15 months. He lost all his words, never waved, clapped, gestured etc until recently at age 22m and he waved for the first time on his 2nd birthday. He does pretty much everything on the list of autism signs and has two brothers with ASD.

[sageowl]

I would go with your instinct--to get him evaluated.  The two-year-old check up is a good time to do that since it's pretty thorough, and they do a standard developmental screen then (which you can use to get the referral process to a developmental pediatrician for a more formal evaluation).  I know by the usual line of thought that two is kinda early for a solid diagnosis, but you have legitimate concerns.

It sounds like you are already taking advantage of EI (good!), but having a formal (medical) diagnosis will be beneficial when you age out of EI at 3 and need to interact with the school system during the years ahead.  From what I've noticed, school districts aren't usually too keen to diagnose a kid with ASD, or provide services unless they "have to", so you gotta push.  It's easier when you have something from a doctor.  This is especially true if you aren't looking at a disability in the usual terms huge discrepancy in academic skills (LDs) or cognitive abilities (MR).  I know services for kids with ASD are getting better (in general), but it's still no picnic out there.

[emerald22]

That is what I am hoping for...that the peditrician will see what I see and refer him to someone that can better help him. He scored in the significant delay range on his BDI-2, with the worst area being in communication, then adaptive and cognitive. My two older children were advanced, so having a child with delays is definitely something different for me, but I am very thankful for having my stepsons because I probably would not have caught it this early. My son teaches me something new every day :)

[pattimomma]

Let us know how it goes!
 

[emerald22]

Well we finally had the big appointment... the ped didn't refer us to anyone else. He diagnosed him himself. I told him what the babies can't wait program said about not worrying about a diagnosis and he said that no, he would get one, and that in fact, he would diagnose him right then. We live in an area where there isn't much help offered, so he said to continue speech therapy and that he will 100% be able to get him into a 3 year old classroom at an elementary school here next year. He is trying to get us an appointment to have our whole family tested (genetic), or at least the four children that my husband has. So far 3 of 4 of his children have ASD and its just a waiting game to see if our 6mo has it too.

ETA-- He was diagnosed with regressive autism

[Kuba'sMama]

My 2 year old dd has regressive autism too. We have just started our journey over a month ago. Sincewe live in Ontario, the services are probably all different, I just wanted to say "hi" and I know how it ism