Advice needed

[faythe]

How do I advise my neice to have her 2-year old tested for autism? I am a teacher and I see areas that her son should be progressing in and he is not. I do not wish this on him, however, I feel that if she gets help early, the better off he will be. My sister (which is her mother) is an Special Ed. School teacher and I thought she would actually be the one to say something. I think they are both in denial. Here are a couple of observations I have made: he does not say any words, he hums alot, he does not respond when you call his name, he shakes his hands as though he is waving, he loves anything electronic and he screams alot. If this is typical of a 2-year old someone please tell me to stop the nonsense!

[888mom]

You have to tell your niece as soon as you are able if you really suspect there is a problem.  You could say you don't mean to worry her, but you've seen a lot of autism awareness news on TV news and the internet and that you have some concerns.  She might be mad at you, or might be glad, but either way, you should bring it up.  I am surprised that her son was not caught at the 24 month checkup at the pediatrician.  That's when my daughter was caught for not talking and then I found out there were other issues as well, like sensory issues (an evaluation by therapists will show you if there are any delays or if there are none).  We're still not sure if it's autism (you have to wait 3 to 6 months to get in to a developmental pediatrician these days) but regardless of that, under the age of 3 children qualify for their state's 0 to 3 program (if you live in the US) and you do not need a diagnosis of anything, just an evaluation of what areas they are behind in.  It's generally free or very low copay of like $3 or $6 a therapy session.  For most families it is free, based on income levels.  Regardless of whether they are in denial about autism, these state programs are also for intervention with kids who just need regular old speech therapy, so if he isn't speaking, then he can at least get help for that.  There are many reasons a child can not be speaking.  One thing my daughter might have is sensory integration disorder/dysfunction.  SHe has been going through sensory integration therapy for 1 month.  Within one month, she is now responding to her name all the time (she never did before), understanding a little more language, making eye contact (it's not perfect but it's better), and she's starting to try to talk and learning sign language at the rate of about 3 words a week.  1 month of therapy and she is a much happier individual who can communicate a little better with the world around here.  Who would have thought 1 month would make a difference, but under the age of 3, these therapies work wonders.  The longer you wait to start, the longer it might take to work.  Whatever the reason behind why your 2 year old great-niece can't talk and has some other issues, whether it's autism or some sort of thing like that or just a regular old delay in those areas, therapy can help immensely.

I wish you luck talking to your niece.  One web site I was told to check out was firstsigns.org
They have a video gallergy showing videos of regular and autistic children and showing warning signs to look for.  You have to sign up with your email address and set up a password.  And then there are lots of menus of videos to look through.  

I did not think my daughter had any problems, even though all 3 of her therapists kept telling me they thought she did, until I saw this web site.  The other important thing to tell her, is that even though a child having any delay, autism, PDD, apraxia, ADD, global developmental delay, etc., is that today is the best time to have it because there are so many therapies available to correct delays and the school system is much better than it was 10 or 20 years ago.  I think many people were not diagnosed with autism when I was growing up, and they were just lumped as retarded (as rates of autism have risen, rates of mentally retarded have gone down, though the latest craze is to believe that it's the immunizations that cause everything).  If those kids had therapy or early intervention 20 or more years ago, they may not have been categorized as retarded, and may have grown up having more productive lives and mainstreamed into regular classes instead.  I really don't know.  But, today, lots of therapies are available, for all these developmental delays, and not just autism, but other delays, that early intervention helps so much and solves heartache later on when your child gets to school and finds they get put in the lowest reading group when they could be capable of much more had they had early intervention, speech, or special preschools.

Anyways, sorry to go on so long, but do check out that web site firstsigns.org if you have any spare time, and maybe share that with your niece.

[MJIthewriter]

I say the sooner they find out, the better. That way you can know what is going on and what to expect, find resources etc.