Mom of 4 Year Old Joining Today

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I jumped the gun and posted a question before introducing... catching up with a "hello" post.

I found this forum after frantically searching for parent support groups that resemble a forum/message board (as opposed to mailing list or yahoo group).

You can say that I'm still in the "what world am I stepping into" phase. Mostly because we don't have a diagnosis... yet.

My 1st post on WP asks about the cost of evaluation because this is where we are on in our journey. At this point, I can no longer accept evaluation after evaluation of comments like "child does not cooperate" or "test aborted due to difficulty in assessing..." Almost all of my child's assessments thus far have been based on PARENTAL interviews and bubble sheets we've filled out.

Our 4 year old son has been in early intervention program (we are in California, USA) since age 2 through the regional center. He had severe separation anxiety and being in early intervention has helped him build resilience with new environments/new people so that he will no longer scream and cry inconsolably. He received 1 on 1 OT, PT, ST and attended 3 days a week for a year.

When he turned 3 he was transitioned into the public school program. They took away 1 on 1 OT and PT (but kept saying how these were "embedded" in the program). They gave him 2 thirty minute "group speech". His speech was not progressing. He does not understand questions: he will echo our questions when we ask. He does not understand "how old are you?" questions. I'm starting to open my eyes and see that 90% of his utterances is echolalia: a clip of a video he had seen, a phrase he had heard but doesn't understand (we know he doesn't understand because he utters these in situations that don't apply).

Well, I was all broken up over my child being speech delayed for the past 3 years. Now I feel like my world has changed to one I no longer recognize, as I enter the possibility that my child may be autistic. I'm still going through the grieving process and I'm past the denial (but it still haunts me once in a while) and I'm experiencing a lot of fear for my child.

In fact, the reason all of "this" realization precipitated was because my child was injured twice at school, on the bus that takes him to school, by another classmate (also a special ed child). If it hadn't been the bus driver who heard my son cry and stopped the bus and saw that the child sitting next to him (and looking guilty as hell) had scratched him severely... we would not find out what had happened when our child is out of our sight at school. The reality that my child is unable to tell me who injured his arm and face hits me like a ton of bricks. That's when I realize that I can't be in denial anymore, and I need to do something to help my child get the best shot in life he can get.

Thanks for being here, I'm sad and glad and relieved to have found WrongPlanet.

Welcome to WP. It may seem difficult parenting a child with an ASD, but it's not the end of the world and you seem like a wonderful person.

Hey, I have autism too. When I was young I did not understand much of what anyone told me until I got into middle school and was taught sign language and after a year, the light bulb went on and I began to understand people better. Dr. Kenneth Ruder who was a neurolinguistic researcher told my mom that autism is the mother of all language-based leaning diseabilities.

Just so you know there are a few people on here that did not speak at all as a child and are now engineers.
I was the kid that banged my head on the floor when I had a meltdown up until I was in 3rd grade. I spent most of my grade school years acting like an animal, like a dog or something because it was too hard for me to relate with my peers as a human, but that all changed after I got into middle school and learned sign language.
I went to college, studied art and psychology...although I have no degree yet it was not because I couldn't do it, but because I was needed at home.
One day I will finish.

So what I am saying there is hope....always hope.

Jojo

thank you Makayla and Jojobean for your warm welcome! I appreciate it very much.

I'm looking at sign language too; my son is very "tactile" and I think this can help. My son enjoys watching "Signing Time", but I'm noticing that instead of learning the signs, he is mimicking the explanation around the signs.

He learned a few signs "more" "thank you" "water" when he was in early intervention center-based program. How can I help him learn sign language and not just mimic? Should I hire someone? Learn it myself and teach him (I'm thinking about my own learning curve and delaying time for my child)?

Right now he is receiving 1 on 1 speech therapy 2x a week for an hour that we're paying out of pocket (insurance company denies our request saying speech delay is not a medical necessity). We're looking at our finances really carefully so we can "go the mileage" to provide our child with what he needs.

Thanks so much you really do give me a lot of hope. My husband and I (we're both "typical" kids and early talkers) are analytical people and my husband is an engineer. I was thinking about how great it would be if my kid grows up to be an engineer, as opposed to what I used to do (research science/healthcare).

To WrongPlanet!! !

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

thank you Richie and Anonymousanonymous!

Welkome to WP!

Mick

Thank you CockneyRebel!

I have a friend who is also autistic that communicates through sign language, and I can easily say that it makes a huge difference because he cannot easily pronounce his words vocally (when he says "no", it sounds more like "mo").