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| Sun, 01-06-2008 - 8:41pm |
Someone on the speech delays board asked me to describe my son and maybe someone would have some ideas, so I thought it couldn't hurt to do the same thing on here.
I can certainly try. I don't know how much of this is relevant and how much isn't, so I am basically going to start from the beginning and tell you everything that I can remember.
During my pregnancy his sister kept him kind of scrunched down in a ball (more than a normal baby is) and because of the uterine positioning his feet turned in very badly. Then they did a fetal echo because they thought there might be some birth defects, but didn't find any. I refused an amnio because I was already having contractions and I didn't want to take any more of a chance of delivering them early than I already was. They had me on Terbutaline for almost 11 weeks while I was carrying them. After they were born both of them developed at almost the same rate until our DD started walking at 10 months. DS was not showing any interest at all. When we finally got the doctor to realize that there was something wrong he was almost 2. They sent him to an ortho and they put him in twister cables to straighten his feet. Within a month he was walking (he was 23 months old). He started having asthma attacks at about 11 months and we spent quite a bit of time in and out of the hospital until we finally got a home neb and eventually got him on singulair. Potty training was a nightmare, and we didn't get him to even start until he was almost 4 1/2. Just in the last year and a half have we gotten him past the accidents. He still wears pull-ups at night. He said mama and dada at about the same time that DD did, and then he just stopped speaking and didn't say anything until he was almost 5. When he went to school at 5 he had a vocabulary of about 5 words. The school finally got him in speech therapy and occupational therapy. He had almost no fine motor control either. By the end of the year he was saying about 20 words. At the end of his 1st grade year (the first one...he is in 1st again this year) he was up to about 150 words and trying very hard to communicate verbally. He has always been able to communicate...he just did it non-verbally. Now he is very vocal although he is very hard to understand. He is about on level with his class this year and doing very well. He is very pattern oriented though and doesn't much care for changes in routine. He does make eye contact and is very affectionate which is why the doctor kept saying there was no chance of any form of autism. He is constantly lining things up (which I think is the reason the dr. wants him tested for OCD). They have tested his hearing and his ears are actually more sensitive than almost anyone that I have met -- even the baby crying seems to get to him sometimes. Other than that he doesn't seem to have any sensory sensitivity. I don't know if I have remembered to cover everything or not, but I am willing to answer questions if anyone has any ideas...
TIA!

He is very pattern oriented though and doesn't much care for changes in routine. He does make eye contact and is very affectionate which is why the doctor kept saying there was no chance of any form of autism.
I hate when the docs
Welcome! sounds like your son has lots of red flags, several delays and I would get another opinion. Our son was similar, speech delay but communicated non verbally, did not have good eye contact but was affectionate w/ family members, had flat affect, was resistant to change, but didn't line things up or those kinds of things, was VERY immature. He did a lot of stimming that we just ignored (toe walking, spinning, rocking, slamming into furniture and walls) and found out later were red flags as well. Our family doc and others brushed it off. We finally got a Dx of autism when he was 8. Since we've got the Dx the school district has been much better about providing services and supports for our son.
Betsy
Hi,
I responded to your introductory post below, but I thought I would add a few cents here too.
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