AUTISM AWARENESS: Ask For Help, get FREE STUFF!
“Little Kimmy didn’t speak a single word til they were 4, now we can’t shut them up.”
We heard that a lot. We Googled it a lot.
Our wild-child, Luke talked when he was 2.
He even had a sentence (Scary The Shining Voice): “Ashes, ashes, WE ALL FALL DOWN.”
He said a few other things — Mom, Dad, REDRUM.
But aside from that creepy line that sounded straight out of a Wes Craven movie — he had no real sentences. Not too much babbling. Little back-and-forth communication. And didn’t have many two word phrases.
Books and Google say, at 2…this could be a problem.
At his 2 year old doctor visit, we were already flagging his lack of speech(he said some words but not sentences), I was VERY FAMILIAR with autism and special needs in general, and we even talked to his pedetrician about it — who dutifully recommended getting the usual tests(ears/hearing and Infants and Toddlers). She (and we) didn’t really suspect Autism. He didn’t have many other signs. He smiled a lot. Made eye-contact. Ate lots of different foods. Slept well. Didn’t tantrum much. And from our layman’s point of view, he didn’t check other boxes on the checklist. He was our first(only) child, so we didn’t have specific comparisons(lots of nieces and nephews).
We put off getting Infants and Toddlers involved…he seemed more like he was just a little behind. He was a little behind on walking and crawling and stuff. But pretty much on target.
We decided to wait a little while.
DUMB! DUMB! HEAD SLAP! DUMB! DUMB! DOUBLE-DUMB! DUH!
What were the reasons/justifications/dumb-excuses for not sending up the Bat-signal?
REASON #1: Hope. Everyone had a story about how their kid didn’t talk one word then suddenly was spitting out the lyrics to Bohemian Rapsody …And besides, Luke already said “REDRUM” at least, speaking in full sentences was right around the corner. Or at least saying “THINNER” in a creepy voice. Right?
REASON #2: Procrastination(did I spell that, right? I’ll look it up later). We knew nothing about ‘the process’. Fear of the uknown…scary…shudder…really not so much scary as lazy. We weren’t afraid of it. We didn’t even know what it was. “ “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done the day after tomorrow just as well.”
REASON #3: Denial. There was a decent probability there wasn’t an issue. In fact, short of the language, he displayed — to our amatuer eyes — very few of the typical symptoms. I didn’t want to be a parent that panicked at every little thing, and it was easier to bet on optimism.
Hope isn’t a great strategy.
Yeah, some kids don’t talk and then you can’t shut them up. So what?
1 in 88 kids have Autism. Even more boys. Even more in my neck of the woods (it’s like 1 in 66 in my ‘hood or something) .
Science-ey guys with fancy degrees and huge student loans tell us — with Autism, the earlier you intervene the better. If symptoms are there, there’s no reason not to get started…in fact, there’s good reason to jump on it.
1. Infants and Toddlers(or whatever it’s called in your area) is free. And I think it’s federally regulated. Did I say FREE! The people are very cool and helpful. People are going to help you — FOR FREE!! Also, things like hearing tests are free(at least here).
2. If your baby doesn’t have autism or some other delay — awesome — no harm no foul. You can breathe a sigh of relief.
3. If they do have a delay — FREE SCHOOL!! We were about to enroll Luke in a lame program and pay. After the diagnosis, they began sending people to the house…FREE…and ultimately when he was 3 he got in a full day program with door-to-door busing and professionals who studied teaching special needs kids. FREE STUFF!
4. Getting help HELPS your child. I think there’s a ‘I don’t want to put them through all that at such a young age’…but giving them communication skillz can ease their anxiety and frustration and the sooner you do it the better.
5. There’s a lot to navigate and it takes time to get it started. The sooner the better.
Did I mention FREE STUFF!
If symptoms are there, get started, I either rattled off from the top of my head or cut-and-pasted(don’t judge!).
Here are the common symptoms:
- no babbling or pointing by age 1
- no single words by age 16 months or two-word phrases by age 2
- no response to name
- loss of language or social skills previously acquired
- poor eye contact
- excessive lining up of toys or objects
- no smiling or social responsiveness
