So, on August 9, 2011, we take my son to the doctor for his 3 year
annual visit. I already had my questions in mind for the doctor. I was
there with a diagnosis and did not actually want her to confirm it, but I
just knew. I mean he was showing all the signs and symptoms of Autism
and I was advancing more in my Teaching the Exceptional Child class – it
was all right there in front of me. The stimming, flapping, running, not hearing, not talking. He was still in diapers at the time and was in diapers /pull ups until he was 4.5 years old.
Okay, so we enter the office and you know the doctor asks how your child
has been in the last year. And there I go, “Dr. Small, my son has
autism, I mean I think, you know, this is what he does and this is what
is happening…..”
As she takes out that white note pad, she is jotting down something as I
am telling her all of the ASD signs…so then she hands me the note and
it says Autism Spectrum Disorder- pending other evaluations such as
audiologist, neurologist etc. She told me and was just nodding her head
as I was telling her that I think my son is deaf and so on…
Clarification but still at that moment my heart was broken for my son
and I went home to call my husband..and he came home from work. I cried
for a day but we searched and kept moving forward looking for answers.
Okay so he has a speech delay and the audiologist says he was not
hearing at the right decibels but he was not deaf but only hearing 20
percent..I do not exactly remember but anyway as a baby he had many ear
infections. So after that we took him to an ENT maybe about a week
later, he had water in his ears and was not hearing well and that is
part of the reason he was not speaking- part..you see as he was showing all signs of ASD.
It was going on the end of August and my son was about to start his
first year of pre kindergarten..I was worried because he could not talk.
He could not tell you his name but we kept our faith as early childhood
education is vital. Also his primary doctor said because of his
diagnosis he would be eligible for therapies provided by the Board of
Education. Okay so that is great.
We moved fast, we took him to a neurologist, and after intense
screening, this doctor said he has Autism Spectrum Disorder and is in
the middle range of the scale. At that time my son could not stack
blocks or follow the directions from the doctor…
The neurologist was saying that maybe he could be having seizures
because the way that my son would stop things and intensely focus for
about 20 to 30 seconds at a time and also because of the movements he
would make due to excitement etc. So from there we were sent to have EKG
and MRI done…all of this within a few weeks before he was about to
enter school. Exciting, school- pre K- I love it!!! And going through of all of this deepened my passion as I just knew that education is my field.
No one was going to stop us. Our son needs advocates. If he could not talk at the time, we indeed are going to be his voice.So what are we to do with all of this???
Comments and Questions are always welcome ; )
Thank you!!!
Dany,
Good for you, Danielle, advocating for your son that way. When I used to teach preschool, I saw a lot of parents who didn't want to believe the diagnosis, so they'd put off the inevitable testing, they'd ignore the signs, etc. hoping things would change. Completely understandable under the circumstances, but I think it makes it harder for your child if you don't accept and try to start working on solutions right off the bat. I'm sure all of this hasn't been easy for you, but it sounds like you're doing exactly the right thing for your son.
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