Advice Please
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Advice Please
| Thu, 11-17-2005 - 11:58pm |
Hi all,
I have posted here before about my concerns about my daughter Ella(almost 17 months).She gets OT from EI for over sensitivity to touch. She really is starting to scare me because I am starting to notice more red flags in her. For instance, she really is not playing for very long with anything. I just got a polar express santa and she just carrys it around half the day. She also loves to wear Jakes fireman hat. When she does actually stand still long enough to do something she gets easily frustrated e.g when stacking she has a complete meltdown if they fall. Shape sorters are another problem she just continues to put the same shape in over and over and gets really mad when I show her where the others go. She really seems like she would prefer if I left her alone to do her own thing.Her new thing is to line things up and that's what's really scaring me.She crys alot and her favourite word is NO(LOL).She will only eat a couple of different foods and won't try anything new.Her eye contact is okay as long as I'm not holding her and she hates to sit facing me. The only pretend play she does is answering the phone or pretending to drink from a cup. She has a pretty great vocabulary and is putting 2-3 words together but so did Jake before he started using Echolia all the time.I notice her echoing me a lot too but I'm not sure if that's just normal for her age. She isn't hand flapping like Jake did but that probably dosen't mean anything either. She points things out to me and has great imitation. Jake was tested at 20 months and the doc told me he was fine. We tested him again at 26 months and we then got his diagnosis. Should I test her now or wait for a couple of months?Could this be SID or do you think it sounds more like PDD? I need advice!
TIA
Teresa
I have posted here before about my concerns about my daughter Ella(almost 17 months).She gets OT from EI for over sensitivity to touch. She really is starting to scare me because I am starting to notice more red flags in her. For instance, she really is not playing for very long with anything. I just got a polar express santa and she just carrys it around half the day. She also loves to wear Jakes fireman hat. When she does actually stand still long enough to do something she gets easily frustrated e.g when stacking she has a complete meltdown if they fall. Shape sorters are another problem she just continues to put the same shape in over and over and gets really mad when I show her where the others go. She really seems like she would prefer if I left her alone to do her own thing.Her new thing is to line things up and that's what's really scaring me.She crys alot and her favourite word is NO(LOL).She will only eat a couple of different foods and won't try anything new.Her eye contact is okay as long as I'm not holding her and she hates to sit facing me. The only pretend play she does is answering the phone or pretending to drink from a cup. She has a pretty great vocabulary and is putting 2-3 words together but so did Jake before he started using Echolia all the time.I notice her echoing me a lot too but I'm not sure if that's just normal for her age. She isn't hand flapping like Jake did but that probably dosen't mean anything either. She points things out to me and has great imitation. Jake was tested at 20 months and the doc told me he was fine. We tested him again at 26 months and we then got his diagnosis. Should I test her now or wait for a couple of months?Could this be SID or do you think it sounds more like PDD? I need advice!
TIA
Teresa

Teresa,
I wish I could give you some good advice here!! But we didn't get the ball rolling with Nathan til he was 4!! The only thing I can say, is to bring it up with your ped, and see what they say. You said that she's already getting OT. What do they say at EI? Do they have concerns too? It can be difficult to tell as such an early age, but if you're concerned about her behaviors, I would definitely look into getting her evaluated....especially if it would ease your mind.
michelle
Dear Teresaa,
Ditto what Michelle said, and as she is so young, you may not end up with a PDD dx even if she has it. SID seems real likely from your descriptions, and you are getting the OT. but again, your descriptions also COULD be PDD ... But then maybe not. Many, many children don't end up with PDD dx until much older, and THEN there are children who truly are just SID and that also becomes clear when other symptomology doesn't pan out into larger PDDs. Severe SID is hard to distinguish from PDD, esp. when they are very little. I would keep treating all symptoms as they become obvious.
I agree that looking into further evals is probably not a bad idea. Better safe than sorry. This is always so scary, right? But staying vigilante and overcautious is the way to go when there are possibly spectrum symptoms.
yours,
Sara
ilovemalcolm
Considering the family history they may lean toward a PDD diagnosis to get her any extra supports available now. Then perhaps down the line if she really wasn't they can remove the label.
I would err on the side of caution and have her evaluated.
Renee
Teresa,
Ella was already evaluated once, right? I think you should have her evaluated again, for comparison to the baseline ou already have, then you can see her rate of progress on paper.
Even if she doesn't qualify this time around, if in a few months you need a third eval, you have another set of numbers to add to the picture. That is how we got services for Siobhan: by the third evaluation, it became obvious (and unarguable) that her numbers were going in the wrong direction (i.e. down, not up) and we got finally services for her.
Good luck,
-Paula
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