My daughter turned three in August. She doesn't really speak yet despite over a year in speech therapy, and she has other developmental delays and is in occupational therapy (for three months so far) for those.
She developed normally until she was about twelve months. She stayed up one night screaming and was never the same. She quit talking and just kinda changed. From then on she was just kinda in her own little world.
When she was two and still not talking I brought it up to her pediatrician which is when we got her started in speech therapy. She also had a hearing test and wasn't hearing, or at least wasn't responding to the sounds. There was fluid in her ears so she had a round of antibiotics and acted like she was paying attention to you for a couple months until she got sick again. She had tubes put in her ears not too long after that and has supposedly been able to hear for the past seven months.
She communicates by shaking her head yes or no, but she still doesn't talk much. She sings though, and hums. One morning she woke up and counted out loud from one to thirteen and then laid back down and went to sleep. She also counts backwards from five. She pretty much only plays with toys that play music or make sounds. She has seven little cars from Vtech and she always lines them up. There's usually a stack of books or DVD disks at the end of the line. She also likes slinkies. Her play is very repetitive and she flaps her hands when she's excited, shrugs her shoulders when she's walking, nods her head when she's playing, and is constantly climbing.
The climbing almost seems to be impulsive to her. We have gotten rid of all of our furniture other than the couch and the desk and she still finds things to climb on. She will grab hold of the refrigerator handles and walk up the outside of the fridge and get on top of it, and then she just sits there.
She isn't social at all. When you talk to her she usually looks away. She loves being tickled and snuggling though. She'll always look at you and giggle when you're tickling her, but otherwise she doesn't have much to do with anyone other than me and her dad, and her therapists.
She's particular about her clothes (no socks or tank tops, and long sleeves have to be rolled up to 3/4 length) and is a super picky eater (she pretty much only eats spaghetti, fish, chicken nuggets, wheat bread (no white), shredded cheese, apples, grapes, bananas, French fries, and cooked tomatoes).
She will make eye contact but you can just kinda tell it's difficult for her.
She babbles a lot and every now and then she will say a word or two and shock us all, but overall she seems to have zero interest in communicating. If she wants something she takes my hand and puts my hand on whatever she wants.
So. The reason for the novel is this.
She had an ear infection last week and when I took her to the doctor she saw a different pediatrician in the practice. He asked what her diagnosis was, but she doesn't have one and I told him that. He recommended having her tested in about a year.
At this point I would be surprised if she wasn't somewhere on the spectrum, but I'm wondering if I should go ahead and get that set up, or wait a year like that doctor suggested. I'm planning to take her to her pediatrician soon (just waiting to see if her ear will clear up on its own since it's an hour drive to her doctor), but in the meantime I just kinda wanted to see what other people who are more experienced with autism than I am think about her.
The first OT I talked to said a lot of her delays could be because she probably couldn't hear for the better part of a year. However she's been able to hear for seven months now and she just doesn't seem to be improving like they thought she would.
And if she is autistic, how can I keep her from climbing??? I can't get rid of any more furniture or appliances!
Submitted October 21, 2014 at 05:38AM by vexament http://ift.tt/1sIlT4S autism
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