Jordan Said:

If a child has autism?

We Answered:

Ange Thomas was non verbal at three all the way until he was 7ish then as the speech therapist worked with him he is doing so well and can put a few words together, we were told Thomas was going to be non verbal ..how wrong they was he also uses sign language along with his speech now..so never say never !

Harvey Said:

I have a 3 year old with all the signs of autism. However, I am having trouble getting anyone to say that he ?

We Answered:

the description given by you is indicative of autism, but not sufficient. comprehensive evaluation is needed to diagnose autism and ideally, this evaluation may be done by a multidisciplinary team that includes a psychologist, a neurologist, a psychiatrist, a speech therapist, or other professionals who diagnose children with ASD. Important thing in this case is the early age of the child and intervention can bring good results at this age after comprehensive evaluation by a multidisciplinary team. So whatever the diagnosis, it's important to go for multidisciplinary intervention.

Cecil Said:

Is it possible she's autistic? (re-posting from mental health for more answers)?

We Answered:

Did you know back in the 70's and 80's she would have been diagnosed as a normal little 4 yr old girl?

Ray Said:

Is it possible she's autistic? (reposting hoping for more answers)?

We Answered:

It's not only possible, its likely that she is PDD.NOS. The childbrain assessment for PDD is very very sensitive, and a 72 is the exact score of my 4 yr old PDD.NOS son who was officially diagnosed by a neurologist with PDD.NOS (atypical autism, autistic features) at only 9 months old. My profile is open, you can see the hx I have of answering autism q and that I do infact have a 4 yr old with a score of 72 on the childbrain assessment. When my son was dx PDD.NOS his childbrain score was 49. The scoring is 0-50= no PDD, 50-100 mild PDD.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;…
Ok since I've got like 7000 answers I found one myself, going back two months, it sites the childbrain assessment, my non autism son's score of 29 and the trajectory of my 4 yr old's score of 49, 88, 82, and 78 and recently its 72

And I've got another son dx with dyphagia, apraxia, ADHD he scores a 29 on it and has a lot of delays, speech/language too.

Bring a copy of the childbrain assessment to the psych appt.

All of thse different dx overlap with PDD being a bigger picture.

You cannot properly get her into the right avenues of services without a proper diagnosis. Diagnoses change over time, but how therapy is approached is different for each disorder. In order to get her to the highest functioning level she can be the diagnoses is important. So many parents are so afraid of the A word, well guess what my oldest son, also is PDD.NOS and is 9. And because we got him early services he is in a reg ed setting at school and his teacher this year described him as just like any other student (though I wouldn't give him quite that much credit). The point is he is where he is because we jumped into services rather than avoiding them for fear of a label. A label does not change the ability of a person, but the therapies that accompany that label can make all the difference. Literally my son (9yr old) may not ever have talked (he was 4) before he began had we not gotten him going.

Suggest see a neuro too
Suggest joining your areas autism chapter
on mine, there is every type of services available listed
intensive camps with ABA, social skills training
hippatherapy
watertherapy
music therapy
art therapy
bike camp
swim lessons
soccer clubs
baseball clubs
holiday parties
social skills training
cooking classes
education, conferences, and seminars for parents

Todd Said:

Autism and Verbal Dyspraxia in children?

We Answered:

I think it is very possible that not only does your son have autism with some sensory issues ( oral defensiveness) but that he could have the DVA too. I have 2 boys...my older son had oral aversions, did not speak until 22 months ( but then caught up in no time), and has an odd way of pulling his lower lip over his upper lip to clean food off it. He has PDD-NOS ( autism spectrum). My little guy had a very limited vocabulary until he was 27 months old, craved things like lemons, and is totally neurotypical--except that he has a dx of severe verbal apraxia. As my little guy was being dx, I realized that my older son probably has it too, but at 13 years old he does not need speech therapy. What is even funnier about my older son is that he seems to have gone from having a hypersensitive mouth as a toddler/preschooler to having a hyposensitive mouth as a teen. Now he craves pepperjack cheese and banana peppers.

One thing you can do is a little oral motor exercise that my SLP used with my son... Ask him to make face for you. Can he try to lick his upper lip? his chin? the corners of his mouth? How far out can he stick his tongue? Can he pucker ( like he is going to kiss you)? If he has trouble doing any of those things, DVA could be the issue.

I will tell you that my son started therapy at 27 months old with a 12 word vocabulary, and one one 2 word phrase. At 30 months old he had a 50 word, 50 sign vocabulary. At 31 months he began speaking in sentences ( ie Daddy no drink my juice). By 36 months I felt silly having him tested for special needs preschool, but I did it. He just barely made the cut. He will be 4 next week, and honestly, not many people can tell that he has DVA. I actually get compliments on how well he speaks!

ETA: I have an excellent article I found on the internet around the time my son was dx. If you e-mail me your real e-mail adress, I will send it to you as an attachment. The Yahoo answers anonymous e-mail system does not support attachements.