[mandi05]

Right now he is only getting speech therapy at school, which is 40 minutes a month per his IEP. Plus group activities. We cannot find a therapist who is close enough (closest is about 45 minutes away), that will be allow us to schedule for every Friday, and accept our insurance. Right now we are on a waiting list, but have been told it could be months before there's an opening and we get a call.

We're also taking a biomedical approach to his treatment, and today was Day 1 of a GFCF diet.

[elis123]

Lynda ...

My son just turned two and really only says a word or two, and only Hi, Bye bye and "CLUE" (for Blue's Clues -thanks Grandma hehe) when he sees a paw print, consistently. He says Choo-choo in the back of his throat - no lip movement - when he sees a train and is prompted with phrases like "is that a train?" or "see the choo-choo" ... he rarely will say it unprompted. He also sometimes says a sound for fish only it is only a throat clearing sound similar to "sh" but not a clear SHHH sound. He uses sounds a lot, and babbles using his lips a bit, but it seems clear to me that he is barely using his tongue and lips when trying to form sounds.

He has been evaluated for speech therapy and does qualify, and a hearing test has been recommended (scheduled two weeks from today). My question relates to this: they brought up autism testing - something I am opposed to. My son's doctor does not think he is autistic, and I do not believe he is either. He makes eye contact for more than a minute at a time, gives hugs and kisses, will give his teddy bear a hug and kiss and "put teddy to bed" at night. He knows how to carry out simple tasks like putting his dirty clothes away, or pulling a chair into the bathroom and putting toothgel on his brush when asked to brush his teeth. Basically, my son is no more autistic than any speaking two year old - no doubt there is an issue, but autism is not it.

So my question is, how do I address this with the evaluators and speech therapist to make sure my son is properly diagnosed and helped? I have no prolem admitting my child isn't perfect and that there is SOMETHING going on, but I refuse to allow them to label an otherwise normally developing child as autistic - especially not at only 24 months old before any attempt at therapy has been made.

At this point I have only told them that I want to have a hearing test done and have his doctor examine his adnoids (sp?) and tonsils - as well as begin speech therapy - before jumping to an autism screening. She seemed ok with that, but I still felt like I wasn't being heard - and that they were deciding my child was autistic after a 1 hour evaluation in my living room (which was less than indicative of his actual behaviors and skills, as he didn't recognize a lot of the objects they used and those he did recognize, like cars and balls, he wanted to play with).

I feel like I didn't even know what was going on during the evaluation, and then my words were twisted into some kind of weird diagnosis (a diagnosis, I might add, that neither of them were qualified to make) ... so I guess my second question is, as a speech therapist, would you want a parent to let you know if they felt that way about their child's evaluation? I don't think they did anything "wrong" persay, just I felt like it wasn't very effective in actually evaluating my child - except of course if they meant to skew the tests to ensure every child evaluated qualifies for services ...

[LyndaSLP]

Ok... trying to see this from both sides -- parent and SLP.

When you say "evaluators" -- who else evaluated him?

I would tell the SLP (as you have done) that you will have his hearing evaluated AND have the pediatrician check his adnoids/tonsils.

Then I would tell the following: At this point, you wish to start and do speech therapy for 6 months before jumping into any other evaluations. That you do not feel the 60 minutes of interaction they have had with your son truly showed "who your son is". It did show his lack of language skills, but did not show his true social skills, behavior or play skills. If, after 6 months, there is little progress AND the SLP still feels strongly that an autism evaluation is warranted; you'd be more than willing to comply.

Now... hear me out before you tell me "Hey... didn't you read, I am OPPOSED to autism testing??" The reason I suggest NOT completely ruling out EVER having autism testing is b/c I always feel (as a parent) we should keep an open mind regarding our children and their development (or lack of). I feel when someone who has a lot of experience working with children (with delays) makes a recommendation, well, that it should be considered. If your mailman was making this suggestion, I'd say, "Well, what does he know about child development and autism?" It's not the mailman tho. It's a professional who spends all day working with children with delays... and after awhile you know when to make recommendations for additional testing that's not your area of diagnosing. Do you follow that?

I am NOT saying you are in denial. I just don't want you to close the door to what they have to say/recommend. I think it is fair on both sides to start therapy and see how things are in 6 months. By then, your son should be showing his true colors to the SLP which will either change her mind about recommending such an evaluation or strengthen her support to help you see why such an evaluation is needed. If language is truly his ONLY (or main) delay, then 6 months is plenty of time to show progress with language skills AND show the SLP that any autism traits she might have seen during the evaluation were just there b/c your son was shy or uncomfortable with strangers (which is norm for the age).

And, to answer your 2nd question, as a SLP I always want to hear what my parents are thinking/feeling about any and all parts of the service (including the eval) that I am providing to their child.

Did I help? Or frustrate you more? Hang in there! I know you are truly trying to help your son.