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insegnante
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| Posted: Oct 22 2008 at 12:25pm | IP Logged
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It's been obvious for a while that something was unusual about our 4-year-old's development. Now that he has been through some assessment -- a general one by a developmental pediatrician, a screening by a public school special ed teacher and a speech/language evaluation by a private therapist -- we have a little more clarity on what the core issues might be. I am not seeing repetitive/restricted behaviors or rigid insistence on sameness or whatever, and no professionals have been able to pinpoint any, and I don't really see much amiss in his pretend play, either, for the level of verbal skill and understanding he seems to have. Still, the communication issues and some other delays as well as the particular strengths he has seem otherwise consistent with autistic spectrum disorders.
Sorry if I repeat myself a bunch, I'm not sleeping well at night (baby, not anxiety!) and am just processing aloud in case anyone can relate...
I'm going through this phase where for some reason I feel bad about starting to analyze his behaviors through this filter for autism. I don't want to lose sight of him as an individual and be constantly saying, "Hmm, that DOES fit with autism... But wait, how does this fit with autism?" and spending a lot of time trying to understand if it's not full-blown "autism," what could it be? And can he be "on the spectrum" if one core symptom set (maybe even two? still confused here about the criteria) is pretty much nonexistent? And will his other communication difficulties seem to disappear as he acquires more language or will they just look much clearly abnormal if he's using language technically "properly" but still communicates differently with it?
It seems to me like if he had the language, he might very well be able to function well enough in the world without any special accommodations. And he's well on the way to picking up the language. He's way "behind" but a big part of how behind he now seems is in conversational skill, not the ability to say, "[Noun-subject] [verb] [adjective] [noun-object]." Which I guess is what's pointing toward ASD. He's also beginning private speech and language therapy next week while arrangements for further evaluations are in the works. I just don't know what else he might need to help him, and what the limits on helping him with this might be. I guess I never thought having a "special needs" child would be filled with this much uncertainty rather than just knowing a list of things we had to accept that would be difficult for our child and/or ourselves. I figured if we ever had a child with special needs, we'd have a diagnosis at birth, or something would be the result of an injury, or if it were autism it'd be that classic "retreated inside himself by the time he was 2, diagnosis immediately apparent" image I'd had of it.
His language delay is still the most striking "abnormality." Just before he turned 4 years 2 months, a speech and language therapist used a test to evaluate his auditory comprehension at 2 years 7 months and his expressive language at 3 years 1 month. So I'm not sure how much the other communication issues have to do with his language delay. But I certainly am not holding on to the assumption that there is nothing more to his communication issues than his ability to string sentences together. He's doing more and more of that. And he does "engage" with people known and previously unknown, regularly and comfortably, and for no apparent reason other than that he wants to communicate with people. It seems like he still has some difficulties in how he does that, though. Again, not sure the language delay doesn't account for all of it, but doubting it.
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Theresa
mommy to three boys, 3/02, 8/04, and 9/10, and a girl, 8/08
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Philothea
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| Posted: Oct 22 2008 at 7:27pm | IP Logged
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Wow, Theresa. No words of advice, but I will certainly say a prayer for you both.
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insegnante
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| Posted: Oct 25 2008 at 3:44pm | IP Logged
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Thanks, Philothea. It's a little bit overwhelming, but not devastating, just like, wow, we have a lot to think about and decide on -- hence my title "adjusting."
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Theresa
mommy to three boys, 3/02, 8/04, and 9/10, and a girl, 8/08
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teachingmom
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| Posted: Nov 02 2008 at 10:03pm | IP Logged
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Hi Theresa,
I'm just catching up a bit from the last month or so and seeing your concerns for the first time. I just wanted to say that I'm sorry you are going through this difficult time of testing, therapy, and adjusting. I will pray for you all!
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~Irene (Mom to 6 girls, ages 7-19)
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insegnante
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| Posted: Nov 03 2008 at 12:33am | IP Logged
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Thanks, Irene! It's not really so bad all things considered. It was hard at first adjusting to a new way of looking at and thinking about things. I actually feel a little more hopeful about some aspects of his future than if his delays didn't fit the pattern of autistic disorders (even if he lacks some of the criteria.) But so much remains to be seen.
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Theresa
mommy to three boys, 3/02, 8/04, and 9/10, and a girl, 8/08
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4Real Forums : Special Blessings
Topic: adjusting/uncertainty/ASD possibilities
