Autism? Sensory Dysfunction?

[Tren]

I live in Hong Kong and the help I am entitled to receive is very limited, such a complicated mess and above all i am becoming desparate.
My son is just 4 and over the past two years he has been assesed
many times by many different professionals.
The maternal clinic assesors say he's immature but will be fine.
The clinic doctors say he is hyperactive.
The pediatricians say he is hyperactive and autistic.
The (private) speech therapy unit assesed him and say he has many "atypical" problems and needs urgent st and
ot.
The teaching hospital where he was born assesed him by a team of doctors, they say he is autistic and then referred me yet again to a child assesment centre.
The child assesment centre has now recently assessed him and say his hearing and eye sight is fine but that he is not autistic as he shows quite good "social smiles" but that he has "sensory Intergration disorder" only.
The bilingual kindergarten he was attending asked him to leave s he was disruptive and licking tables under stress.
Yet again i have been referred. This is now for st and ot until
he can get a place in an "Early Educ Training Centre" here they deal with children with special needs.(He has yet to start the st or oc as he has to wait)
I am going crazy with trying to work it all out.  I am not sure now what to think, is he autistic or is it only SI dys or could it be something else?  The only reason i feel the need for a term is that i could now look on the internet and start helping him myself.
I feel his biggest problem is his limited speech and understanding.

  

[ninamic]

Some good websites on autism and similar pdds can be found on www.childbrain.com/pddassess.html, www.braintalk.org, and info.med.yale.edu/chldstdy/autism. I also have address of groups.yahoo.com/group/Latetalkers regarding delayed speech communication but haven't checked it out yet. Sorry if any of the above repeats this group; I'm an American ex-pat living in Germany trying to find more info for my 19-month-old son and sometimes get confused with my research!

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Accurate diagnosis at this young age can be difficult. If he seems to have a desire to relate to people and has some social behaviors, it's not likely that he displays any severe form of autistic-spectrum disorder. But, there is a wide variety along this spectrum and often we need to observe carefully as children develop before their status really becomes clear. The diagnostic task is even more difficult with children who display some form(s) of neurointegrative disorder, like SID. On the home front, try to engage with him in a normal fashion. Keep communicating verbally with him, and try to stay away from gestural communication or any form of communication that de-emphasizes his reliance on words. When he starts his OT, the therapist may well have some exercises or games that you can use at home to help him develop. For now, though, there's no need to be worried about that. He's getting some help at a young age, and that's what's important.