{"id":21834,"date":"2023-03-20T13:31:18","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T17:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=21834"},"modified":"2023-03-21T05:38:20","modified_gmt":"2023-03-21T09:38:20","slug":"dont-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2023\/03\/dont-wait\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Don’t Wait:’ A Brick Mom Shares Her Story of Learning About Her Son’s Autism"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When my eldest son was an infant, he rarely slept, and if then for short periods of time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We had such a difficult time with breastfeeding.<\/p>\n

While there were periods where he smiled and laughed and gazed into our eyes, there were many more times when he was cranky and fussy and we felt we couldn\u2019t reach him.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At six months he started spinning everything in sight.<\/p>\n

I took all these concerns to his pediatrician in 2004, but was told he was hitting his milestones, and not to worry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When he wasn\u2019t babbling as much as I thought he should, I was told he was probably following his father\u2019s trajectory, a boy who didn\u2019t speak for years and then communicated in full sentences when he was three.<\/p>\n

My gut said he was different. The doctor said he wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Until the day we went into his office for a scrip for reflux when my boy was seventeen months old, and walked out with a bunch of articles with the word \u201cautism\u201d in the title and a referral to a developmental pediatrician, as we were basically shoved out the door.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 2023, almost twenty years later. My advice is this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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If you have any concerns about your son\u2019s or daughter\u2019s development, insist on seeing a developmental pediatrician or neurologist. It will probably take at least six months to get an appointment. Make that call.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, contact your state\u2019s Early Intervention and get the ball rolling on that. If your child is approaching three, contact your school district and start the process. Both take months.<\/p>\n

My point is, don\u2019t wait. Waiting won\u2019t change a diagnosis. But not waiting can change the outcome.<\/p>\n

My boy got his autism diagnosis at eighteen months, which was extremely early in 2004. Within a month I got trained and delivered thirty-five hours a week of ABA, hired two therapists to deliver another five hours, and made do with Virginia\u2019s scant services of a few hours of OT and speech a month. I was a teacher, and although I had little experience with autism I was able to pick up the concepts quickly.<\/p>\n

I do believe that early diagnosis and early treatment made a difference. If nothing else, it taught my son how to learn. Eight months after we moved to New Jersey he started pre-school at a little over three years old, and he did well. I believe all the ABA prepared him for it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He learned to love school. He\u2019s only been in three, and according to his teachers has enjoyed them all. He can communicate using his iPad to get his needs and wants. He can read on a first grade level. He can type in searches to a computer.<\/p>\n

He smiles more.<\/p>\n

I truly believe early diagnosis made a huge difference in his life.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re concerned about your son or daughter, make the calls. If your child\u2019s pediatrician demurs, insist.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s your grandchild\/neighbor\u2019s son\/grandniece, say something. You don\u2019t have to say the word \u201cautism\u201d, just let the child\u2019s parent know you\u2019re concerned.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Don\u2019t wait.<\/p>\n

Waiting will never change a diagnosis.<\/p>\n

But it can change a life.<\/p>\n

For more on my family visit my blog at autismmommytherapist.wordpress.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow me on Facebook at Autism Mommy-Therapist<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When my eldest son was an infant, he rarely slept, and if then for short periods of time. We had such a difficult time with breastfeeding. While there were periods where he smiled and laughed and gazed into our eyes, there were many more times when he was cranky and fussy and we felt we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":21835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[293,295,4910],"class_list":["post-21834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-brick","category-ocean-county","tag-autism","tag-autism-acceptance","tag-autism-awarenesss"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Zach-in-a-Bath-014.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-5Ga","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}