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Diagnosis day tomorrow


mom of 2 boys
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Hi there, I've been posting a little bit about my autistic 5 year old and some of his various issues recently. I've been so caught up in his transitioning from special needs preschool/therapy to homeschooling that I all but forgot that my 22 month old is being evaluated for autism this week too. It was in the back of my mind, but it came up FAST. This morning, an OT, PT, teacher and speech therapist came to the house and did the first half of the eval. We haven't gotten any results yet, but they did note that he is speech delayed, socially delayed, delayed with his feeding, has a ton of sensory issues, and that he was having trouble regulating himself. They recommended picture communication, so they obviously also saw that there are general communication delays present. 

 

I don't know, I guess I kind of filed this eval away in the "waste of time" folder in my mind because when we started this process with my older son who was more severe, we were told that he was too young the first time around. The way that they are talking though, I'm starting to think that he might actually get a diagnosis. That would certainly make things a lot less complicated this time around! I'm not happy about it, but we have a family history, so I'm beyond prepared mentally. 

 

Anyway, we're going to their facility tomorrow to meet with a psychologist, and so that they can observe him in a different setting. While we're there he'll be given the ADOS test as well. 

 

He's already in therapy, but the sooner we can get the actual diagnosis the better. At the very least, I'll be able to apply for state funding for respite and various programs. It's nice to have, even when I'm not quite sure what to do with it. 

 

I will let you know how it goes! 

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*UPDATE*

 

Yep - they did diagnose him. The ADOS made it pretty clear. The psychologist prompted him to engage with her over and over again in many different ways, and each time he generally just turned away and played with something else. She shot little nerf type darts across the room, and even though he seemed to like that, instead of making any kind of indication that he would like her to do it again, he just picked them up and threw them himself. When she interrupted his play in a way that was intentionally annoying, he turned around and immediately played with something different. He wouldn't request more bubbles, even though he clearly enjoyed them. He used the "pretend play" fork to dig into the carpet, and kept returning to this fork to do that over and over again throughout the eval. He didn't seem to know what to do when she was prompting him to bathe a baby. He kept blowing on the pretend shampoo and conditioner for some reason. We weren't sure why. He wouldn't play peek a book with the psychologist or with me. It was....interesting. I'm glad that he made it so obvious though. It was easy to feel good about the diagnosis, and now this part is behind us. 

 

The team that evaluated him thinks that we're already doing all the right things, and they didn't really have any further recommendations. I know that having the official diagnosis will just make our lives easier in the future though. 

 

I have been walking around ever since we got home thinking "I have TWO children with autism. No wonder I'm so tired all the time!" lol  :crying:

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:grouphug:  a neighbor who had her twins diagnosed at 18months gets respite care "allowance" which she use to pay for babysitters experienced with toddlers with autism. Here the Early Intervention services are considered good so people do go for an earlier diagnosis.

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I just wanted to say that you are doing wonderful things for your kids by getting them help so early. Best wishes!

Thank you! I really believe in early intervention. We saw the biggest improvements with my older boy between the ages of about 21 months and 3 1/2, so he was pretty young. We started therapy with my younger son at 10 months 😀 Thankfully I was able to get the same service coordinator this time around, so she was able to really advocate for services on his behalf due to family history. She knew as well as I did that he would end up with an autism diagnosis. She's been awesome.

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