Autism

For all of our Autism related posts, please click the link below.

http://littlebabyfields.blogspot.com/search/label/Autism

For the entire series of posts from Autism Awareness Month 2012, click the link below.

http://littlebabyfields.blogspot.com/search/label/autism%20awareness%20month

Our Story Into the Land of Autism
Cameron, my little breech baby, entered into the world via c-section on March 19th, 2009. He was a happy, peaceful, and healthy baby who enjoyed being held and snuggled. There was no reason then for me to think anything was different about my baby, yet I remember that first night at home with him I stared at him with a sinking feeling in my stomach. Something was wrong. It was a ridiculous thought because he was so healthy but day after day, that feeling just would not go away. Over the next 12 months, he battled with colic, reflux, and a GI Motility Disorder that prevented him from being able to eat solids but he still was a happy baby. His developmental milestones were fairly normal; during his 10th month, he crawled and said his first word "mama" on the same day. He was obsessed with letters and numbers and had begun saying the alphabet and counting. Still, there was something almost fragile about him and a bad feeling that just would not go away.


At 12 months I took him in for his well check, and everything was fine except for his weight was dropping due to his GI issues. Developmentally, there were no concerns. Shortly after that visit, Cameron changed. The few words that he had picked up a few months ago were gone. The babbling was gone. He did not respond to his name. He was overly sensitive. His GI system was a wreck. At his 15 month visit, we were told that there were many red flags, not only in regards to failure to thrive, but now developmental red flags were popping up daily. What happened to my child? We were immediately referred to our states Early Intervention Services for evaluations. My child who seemed to be developing normally now qualified for early intervention because of a 40% communication and adaptive delay as well as a 25% social and gross motor delay.

We began therapy first for adaptive skills to help him learn things like how to drink from a sippy cup and push his arm through his sleeves. Shortly after, we began adding in speech, eating, OT, and attendance at a developmental center once a week. During one of his first speech visits, he scored extremely low on his evaluations and was diagnosed with a severe form of MERLD (Mixed Expressive Receptive Language Disorder) with articulation delays. Cameron's speech and communication abilities at this point had regressed to the level of a 3-6 month old. Occasionally he would repeat a word we would say (echolalia) or make a small attempt at sign language but overall, he was silent. Despite his lack of spoken and non-verbal communication there was one thing he never stopped doing and that was singing the alphabet song. His love of letters and numbers hadn't faded away like his speech and he still would sit for hours, searching out letters and numbers on his toys and books. One day he surprised us all when he read the word "strawberry". Cameron still was not talking, but had somehow acquired the ability to read. So he could read and sing but not talk and didn't even know his name. My suspicions that something was seriously wrong with my child were finally starting to make sense. 

While his development was going haywire, his eating habits were also becoming worrisome. His GI Motility Disorder still flared up from time to time and he was exhibiting disturbing eating habits like gagging, choking, self induced vomiting, and pocketing of food. We had no choice but to put him into an intense feeding therapy program. He was also put in OT for Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) partly because of his food issues but also because he had begun to bang his head, hand flap, spin, and had a lot of tactile defensiveness. During all of this, I kept telling myself "at least it's not Autism, at least it's not Autism". By December of 2010, I had convinced myself otherwise and took my concerns to his teachers at the developmental center. 

It was hard to bring it up, but I knew it couldn't wait. When I mentioned the word, the lead teacher said "let's sit down and talk". She gathered up the other teachers and they listened and loved me with open arms. Even though he was still too young to be diagnosed, I think we all had the same thoughts and they were relieved that they didn't have to wait for the right age to bring it up. His teachers provided me with information about how to start the process of getting him evaluated. 

In February of 2011, Cameron was 23 months. We met with one of the areas top psychologists who spent a great deal of time with Cameron. Instead of diagnosing him right then, he wanted for us to bring him back in two months so that he could see how he progressed in a couple months time. I hated not knowing for sure what was going on with Cameron, but thankful for a doctor who was being very careful about such a serious diagnosis. We took him back in April of 2011, at 25 months old. He was officially diagnosed with classic Autism and Hyperlexia (precocious reading ability before the age of 2 without understanding). 

We had Cameron in so many great therapies already. It has been almost two years since Cameron entered into the early intervention system and one year since his diagnosis. With prayers and therapy, he has made AMAZING gains. He still faces immense challenges and continues to regress in some ares however, I'm going to leave you with his achievements. Every little one, is worth celebrating.

In two years.......
-learned his name, first and last
-learned the names of his family members and his friends Dallas and Greer
-began eating solid foods without choking, gagging, throwing up, or pocketing
-said "MOMMY" a year after he went silent
-now talks in complete sentences 
-reads at a 4th grade level and is beginning to understand more words everyday
-learned how to eat with a spoon and drink from a sippy cup
-understands sad and happy
-uses words like beautiful and wonderful in correct context
-figured out on his own how to add, subtract, and most recently that 5 fives is 25
-gives hugs and kisses
-imitates motions in songs and chants
-tries to tell me long stories
-has figured out how to tell me if he doesn't like something
-graduated from speech and eating therapies

There are so many more.