Introduction

[Guest guest]

Hi. I'm Marie. I am a single mother and have a 21 month old daughter I adopted

from Vietnam last year at 9.5 months old. She has developmental delays and is in

therapy. She had a social/cognitive evaluation by a special ed teacher a few

months ago and she thinks she has autism but her ped. never suggested it. We are

going to a developmental pediatrician in Dec. to see what he thinks. Her

autistic tendencies are decreased eye contact, lack of initiating play, doesn't

point to things, speech delay and taps her head with fingers on her left hand.

She has a new special ed teacher who said she is not convinced she has autism. I

took her to an autism screening at the university and they said she was a

complicated case because of her orphanage background and diagnosed mild

attachment disorder and she couldn't hear until she was 15 months old after she

had tubes put in her ears. They recommended further evaluation. The guy was a

psychologist, not a doctor. She has an attachment therapist who says the lack of

eye contact (which has since improved) and decreased social initiative (which

has also improved) can be explained by the attachment disorder. The strange hand

mannerism has also decreased. She used to do it constantly and now every so

often. This may be an anxiety thing. I am going to start her on TAAT (targeted

amino acid therapy). People in my attachment group use that and it has made many

children more engaging. If I don't see a difference I am going to try high dose

vitamin B6 with magnesium. I am a medical librarian and have read several

articles on the benefits of that for autistic behaviors. Sorry for such a long

post! Thank you for letting me join the group. I am looking forward to learning

all I can.

Marie

mom to Jasmine