Early Intervention

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Hi,
So many people (laymen and professionals) have told my husband and I that our son's early dx and therefore, early intervention will pretty much make all the difference.

My question is...how can everyone be so sure? Surely, each child is different and we could just be getting our hopes up. Also, does early intervention mean that social skills will come more naturally to him or will he still be working that much harder than NT in social senarios (at school etc) and physically affection, if we hug him and touch him regularly, will this make him more comfortable with physical contact or is it just the way he's wired?

I am sorry if this is a silly question but we are pretty new to all of this, any advise would be really appreciated.

TIA
Michelle

You are right there are no guarantees, but the research is clear, the earlier the intervention the more effective it will be. Sorry I cant answer the other questions as I don't have relevant experience.

[quote="Shellfish"] Also, does early intervention mean that social skills will come more naturally to him or will he still be working that much harder than NT in social senarios (at school etc) and physically affection, if we hug him and touch him regularly, will this make him more comfortable with physical contact or is it just the way he's wired?

I am sorry if this is a silly question but we are pretty new to all of this, any advise would be really appreciated.

TIA
Michelle[/quote
Hello Shellfish,
according to my experience social skills are dramatically increased. My son started early intervention at 3 and he was not interested in other peers. When he was introduced to the nursery school, he preferred to practice his special interests alone.
In the last month (an year later) he tries to play football with his peers. Of course he doesn't socialize like an NT and I think he never will so we can't stop working on socialization.
Regarding sensory issues I have no experience...

I am definitely in favor of earlier intervention. I started home-based intervention with both of my boys even before they were diagnosed. (I had child development books and always had a lot of interest in meeting milestones and working with the kids.)

My older son with classic autism who is seven is in a regular second grade class with help at school and home. He can talk and read pretty well, is doing well at math, and is pretty well behaved, thanks to intensive work with him by me on speech, reading, academics, and mild to moderate behavior issues, and treatment of serious co-existing anxiety issues with meds (Prozac and Clonidine) and ABA therapy.

Without early intervention, he would be non-verbal and not doing well at all, I think.

Also, everything with my older son takes a lot more time and money than anyone would like. With a child with classic autism, you cannot wait until the last minute and get your goals met on time.

With my younger son with AS/OCD, things are going pretty quickly, but it still takes time and some problems are more difficult than I thought they would be.

Children generally improve with early intervention, but how much and how fast depends on the child.

Also, the amount and quality of the early intervention is extremely important.

You can check out my free YouTube Channels (below) and my free website, www.freevideosforautistickids.com, for a lot of helpful information, free educational videos, and links to resources.

The main reason why early intervention is so strongly recommended is that the neural pathways in young children's brains are still being formed. The earlier you can start supporting the areas where they have difficulties, the better chance there is that those difficulties can be mitigated, that new and different neural pathways will be laid down than would be if no intervention occurred. Every child is different so the degree to which he will develop "NT-like" social skills is impossible to predict. He may always have to rely on cognition in social situations to a greater or lesser degree. On the physical affection question, I don't know how much this can be mitigated by "desensitization" and I can't speak from experience on that because our DS is a sensory seeker - he loves to hug and cuddle but it must be on his terms. My inclination from what I have read here and other places is that you probably won't change that a whole lot and forcing physical touch on him when he doesn't want it is probably more detrimental than helpful but I would strongly suggest you seek advice on that from an OT.

Thanks everyone, this is very reassuring! We are still in the middle of T's functional assessment to get an idea of where we are. He had been in speech therapy as he was stuttering and having communication issues (we now know why). It was recommended that he join a social skills group however when he was assessed, we were told that he is still not ready and needs one on one therapy. I think the intense one on one therapy will probably start at the beginning of next year (the Australian school year runs January to December). I guess I am just getting anxious now and want to get this "show on the road", as they say.

iIt is all about odds because, as you said, every child is different. But the odds are going way up as early intervention increases so while it isn't a guarantee, we know it does something positive.

Good luck!

Like nostromo says, there is no guarantees but early intervention has proven to be very beneficial to many children. I can say without a doubt that my daughter made huge improvements due to early intervention. After only a week of therapy she was saying a few words and we had in home TEACCH/ABA therapy three days a week for two hours a day, plus speech and OT through childrens hospital twice a week, and swimming lessons which I started even before she was diagnosed. I thought it was important to expose her to other kids her age and I do think it helped a bit with her social skills. When she turned 3 she was in a specialized autism program at school and still having in home therapy three days a week. I know it sounds like a lot but my daughter thrived on this and LOVED her therapy. We moved to France a bit over a year ago and it took many months to get her services started and she was very upset. I tried working with her but it was not the same and she kept saying she wanted the English house which would break my heart. She still says this sometimes, especially after talking to her older sister. I think it is her way of saying she misses her sister who lived with us for two years before we left. She is doing very well right now, she has a full time aide and is at the top of her 1st grade class even though she speaks very little French and even her English conversational level is around 2 or 3 years old...if you are going to compare her to a typical child (which you really cant but just for intensive purposes). I do think that my daughter would still be mainly non verbal if it were not for the intensive early intervention. They have the capacity to learn so much at this young age.

That's a great goal. You did a very good job

IMO, and I'm no neuroscientist, one of the goals of some of the theraputic techniques is to help your child learn each skill separately, in isolation, so they have the tools to use them simultaneously when they start to interact with the world. I'm not sure that I really believe that there is a "critical point" you might miss as much as there are fewer expectations on your child when he or she is young: all kids focus on social skills at this age, rather than reading and writing and math and sports and sitting still at school and following directions and learning the school schedule and knowing what your teacher expects of you, etc., etc., etc.

Most importantly, I think if it's reasonable for you to do it - at the least, I think you will do no harm. Make sure you are comfortable with all the therapies and what they're asking you to do (keeping in mind that most kids on the spectrum are very rigid and would prefer the world bend to them rather than the other way around, so pushback from your child should be expected.)

It's also important to find a way to do this without draining your finances and putting additional stress on your family because of money trouble or just generally being overwhelmed. Check with your health insurance and find out what's covered and what isn't. Ask for help from your local school system, municipality, county, state, or national government. If that doesn't work, ask your local faith community for help. If that doesn't work, search the internet for charitable organizations that support services for you.

Australia has set out an early intervention programme, and each child dx with ASD is allocated $12,000 to be spent on therapy and learning aides up to the age of 7 - this will obviously be a huge help for us but whether or not it will be enough, I am not sure. The decision we need to make is how to spent the funds, I will get some advice obviously but the final decision will be ours which is also quite stressful. Thanks for listening and all the advice and I will keep you updated on how we are getting on...