More Signs

I wrote about Daniel's "signs of autism" in my previous blog. As we know, there are different symptoms (signs) kiddos show as their autism becomes develops. There are many symptoms that are shared by kiddos on the spectrum.  As parents of children with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) start meeting other parents, they will generally begin asking questions like: When did you realize your little one had autism? When was (s)he diagnosed? What type of "symptoms" or "signs" did you see?

Anthony on the other hand had anything but a common presentation. Daniel had a relatively full regression "overnight", however, we watched Anthony regress over the course of about a year a so. He ended up with some of the same losses as Daniel, except for speech, but his speech stop progressing as far as communication went.

Anthony had begun verbal imitation (repeating what was said to him) as early as 15 months. From then on he seemed to learn fairly quickly. He learned some basic shapes, colors, the sounds animals make, how to count from 1 - 10, putting shapes into a sorter. He was going up and down the stairs by himself (holding onto the wall or rail). He could identify different items in a book. He had even learned how to blow bubbles himself.

From what we had learned so far, we watched Anthony very carefully. We knew the signs, or so we thought... we didn't know about partial regression or that he might have signs that Daniel didn't...  after all they were (are) identical twins.

What we didn't learn until later was that he had been showing signs early on too. When he about 1 he would lay on the floor and bang his head, sometimes pretty hard. It didn't matter what we did, he would try to bang his head. If he was near the wall, he would use that. If you were holding him, he would "head bang" you, and it didn't matter who was holding him. It took several times before he learned how hard he could hit without actually hurting himself.Clue # 1.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_head-banging-why-it-happens-and-what-to-do-about-it_63575.bc?page=1

When Anthony was able to stand on his own and he either couldn't fall asleep or woke up in the middle of the night, he started falling onto his mattress. Not just falling, but allowing himself to fall - stiff bodied, face first onto the mattress. When he started walking at 14½ months it wasn't long before he started running. Then, he started running and diving head first onto the couch and into the armrest. We thought it was from some kind of aggression - it wasn't. Clue # 2.

There was a lot of data we'd read that said most regressions occurred around 2 years old. We thought when he was around 3 that we were "out of the woods'. We had noticed that he wasn't "chaining" words by then, so we had him assessed for speech issues. The school actually did a complete assessment and it showed that he had a "global" delay also. Clue # 3.

http://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/ian-research-findings-regression

His speech and global delay made him eligible for a preschool SDC (special day class). He was enrolled and started right after that winter vacation. During the course of the next year we watched him systematically lose the things he had learned earlier. He would no longer identify pictures or shapes, no more counting. No more bubble blowing or animal sounds. Not one color was being identified. Since this happened slowly over time, no one we spoke to thought he had "enough symptoms" to be diagnosed with ASD. Clue # 4.

Anthony started to open and close any and all doors he could, even the cupboard doors weren't safe. He would open and close drawers several times when he could. Another clue for us was that Anthony had started to use the potty - without being asked if he had to go. Out of the blue he was letting us know that he was ready to use the bathroom. Within the course of a couple of weeks he was asking every time. Then it happened... one morning soon after, it was like that was gone too.

Then the flapping, jumping, spinning and loss of eye contact crept in (or maybe we hadn't noticed since we were seeing some new symptoms). We knew when he was 3 that he was starting to regress, but because it was slow, we were having trouble being able to get him into services. Finally with all of these "signs" we knew he would be diagnosed properly. It took two diagnosis' to finally get us the services he needed.

Now that he's in the 1st grade and an intensive autism program and has ABA services for a while after school, we are already seeing big differences. Don't get me wrong, he has a long way to go. Lots of frustration, long days and hard work ahead of him. But... we'll be with him wherever we're led to go. Advocating, learning, educating and encouraging him (and Daniel) to the best of our ability.

Please, watch your kiddos closely. Don't let denial get in the way if you have any concerns about autism. Don't keep your child from being assessed because they might be "labeled". The bottom line is helping your child as quickly as possible, because the earlier the services can begin, the better chance you'll have at being able to "reach" them.

From a mother's heart - we must be vigilant in watching out for our kiddos. Not only against harm from the "outside", but from the inside too. We cannot allow ourselves, or especially our children, to be in denial over something so serious... 1 in 50.