Autism Awareness Month

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Mon April 4th, 2011, 6:53 pm

Thought there was one of these from last year, but I couldn't find it. Perhaps because I wasn't looking hard enough.

Anyhow, please be aware of Autism.

Amanda · Post by **Amanda** » Tue April 5th, 2011, 6:50 am

Timely post.....I am beginning the process of getting my 3 year old son assessed tomorrow.

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Tue April 5th, 2011, 2:58 pm

[quote=""Amanda""]Timely post.....I am beginning the process of getting my 3 year old son assessed tomorrow.[/quote]

Good luck, Amanda. Whatever the outcome, early services make a HUGE difference. Hope you have a support group handy. If not, let me know, I've been plugged into the community for years and can get you some groups on or off line.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Wed April 6th, 2011, 2:15 am

Best of luck, Amanda. My boys were 6, 4, and 2 when they were diagnosed. Please let us know how it goes. Either way we're here for you.

Amanda · Post by **Amanda** » Wed April 6th, 2011, 8:32 am

Joel is 3 (last December) and has a speech delay. He is also a shy child. We have had speech therapy and had some advances so we took a break. He also started child care 2 days a week this year. After about 6 weeks one of the carers told me he didn't talk to them, and was showing some repetitive play which could be an indicator of autism, but then she knew it was also early days for him at day care. So I thought I would take him back to speech therapy, and he was fine the first visit and she could see some improvement. Then after that he has refused to co-operate with her. So she thought it might be a good time to get him assessed.....as we clearly are not going to get anywhere with speech therapy atm. He is also not interested in toilet training, though he brother was 3.5 when he did it and it was over and done with very quick.

Today we had our visit with the GP to get a referral for the paediatrician for tomorrow. GP thinks he is ok.....just speech delayed. He interacted with the GP fine.

He will be due to start school in just over 18 months, and with a new baby on the way in August, I am hoping for a real improvement soon.

We will see what tomorrow holds......

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Wed April 6th, 2011, 4:12 pm

Good luck, Amanda. Don't get too upset at any particular diagnosis. Labels are more for the medical, educational and social services folks; so families can access services. I found it useful to concentrate on the behaviors we wanted to moderate (in my daughter's case it was social skills and physical tics.) If you know the child's strengths and deficits, you can use their strengths to help ameliorate the deficits. In any case, our thoughts are with you and our hopes for a happy outcome!

Rowan · Post by **Rowan** » Wed April 13th, 2011, 2:11 pm

Though I don't know anyone in my immediate family, my best friend's daughter and son are both autistic. I'm more aware of it now than ever before.