Re: question about 3 year old daughter

[Guest guest]

Usually by age 6-7 you will be to know which one she to be but for now just

to know autism is autism you to just be wanting to know what flavor of child

you to be with LOL this is okay as we all do this when we seek answers for

the children's. If she to be to have this since birth she maybe as she is

and not per say get worse but will progress as she has with cycling of

behaviors and then calms again. Time will be to tell on her. I to be adult

with autism and made steady but slow progress all of life but most gained at

age 38- 40 mostly do to awareness of the DX and the whys of my challenges.

Awareness brings forth change.

Sondra

[Guest guest]

Usually by age 6-7 you will be to know which one she to be but for now just

to know autism is autism you to just be wanting to know what flavor of child

you to be with LOL this is okay as we all do this when we seek answers for

the children's. If she to be to have this since birth she maybe as she is

and not per say get worse but will progress as she has with cycling of

behaviors and then calms again. Time will be to tell on her. I to be adult

with autism and made steady but slow progress all of life but most gained at

age 38- 40 mostly do to awareness of the DX and the whys of my challenges.

Awareness brings forth change.

Sondra

[Guest guest]

Usually by age 6-7 you will be to know which one she to be but for now just

to know autism is autism you to just be wanting to know what flavor of child

you to be with LOL this is okay as we all do this when we seek answers for

the children's. If she to be to have this since birth she maybe as she is

and not per say get worse but will progress as she has with cycling of

behaviors and then calms again. Time will be to tell on her. I to be adult

with autism and made steady but slow progress all of life but most gained at

age 38- 40 mostly do to awareness of the DX and the whys of my challenges.

Awareness brings forth change.

Sondra

[Guest guest]

My experience with my daughter (now 3 yrs 8 months) is that she

pretty much plateaued by around her third birthday. We began

therapies around 20 months, so I don't know what difference that

makes.

As far as prognosis, it can change over time. For example, at 23

months I was told Allie was very mild. At her 3 yr testing she

qualified as severe. Her teacher told me this past Monday that she

thinks Allie is mild. The go through hills and valleys as far as

development goes. I think it's more difficult on us parents. I was

bad about hanging on every thing Allie did. If she had a bad day, it

sent me into a depressed state. Time makes it more bearable, and I

recently had another baby that keeps me occupied.

I suggest just trying to take it one day at a time. I'm sure that

wait on further testing will drive you nuts. Just remember it will

get better. The first few advancements can literally take months, but

then it seems, at least with Allie, that her improvement snowballs.

HTH,

Debi

> Hi. I am new to the group. I have a daughter who was recently

referred for

> further testing for early onset autism. It will be 3-4 months

before we can

> get her in to see a team of professionals who diagnosis autism. My

question

> is will she continue to show more and more autistic behaviors? If

a child is

> diagnosed with early onset autism when do they plateau? She has

recently,

> within the last 4 months, become very resistant to change in her

rountine.

> For example, if she doesn't have a bath at night then she refuses

to put on

> her pjs. She throws such a fit that I let her sleep in her

clothes. She is

> in an early intervention program now and we were 5 minutes late and

she cried

> and acted like she had never been there before. She was hiding her

head

> under my shirt and covering her eyes with her hair. One positive

is it

> doesn't take her long to recover from one of these episodes. Her

eye contact

> is getting worse also. She is very sweet and social and gives me

hugs and

> kisses all the time. I guess I am scared that she is going to lose

that

> also. At what age does the early onset autism usually stop

progressing and

> you know where on the spectrum they are going to be?

>

> Thanks in advance!

[Guest guest]

My experience with my daughter (now 3 yrs 8 months) is that she

pretty much plateaued by around her third birthday. We began

therapies around 20 months, so I don't know what difference that

makes.

As far as prognosis, it can change over time. For example, at 23

months I was told Allie was very mild. At her 3 yr testing she

qualified as severe. Her teacher told me this past Monday that she

thinks Allie is mild. The go through hills and valleys as far as

development goes. I think it's more difficult on us parents. I was

bad about hanging on every thing Allie did. If she had a bad day, it

sent me into a depressed state. Time makes it more bearable, and I

recently had another baby that keeps me occupied.

I suggest just trying to take it one day at a time. I'm sure that

wait on further testing will drive you nuts. Just remember it will

get better. The first few advancements can literally take months, but

then it seems, at least with Allie, that her improvement snowballs.

HTH,

Debi

> Hi. I am new to the group. I have a daughter who was recently

referred for

> further testing for early onset autism. It will be 3-4 months

before we can

> get her in to see a team of professionals who diagnosis autism. My

question

> is will she continue to show more and more autistic behaviors? If

a child is

> diagnosed with early onset autism when do they plateau? She has

recently,

> within the last 4 months, become very resistant to change in her

rountine.

> For example, if she doesn't have a bath at night then she refuses

to put on

> her pjs. She throws such a fit that I let her sleep in her

clothes. She is

> in an early intervention program now and we were 5 minutes late and

she cried

> and acted like she had never been there before. She was hiding her

head

> under my shirt and covering her eyes with her hair. One positive

is it

> doesn't take her long to recover from one of these episodes. Her

eye contact

> is getting worse also. She is very sweet and social and gives me

hugs and

> kisses all the time. I guess I am scared that she is going to lose

that

> also. At what age does the early onset autism usually stop

progressing and

> you know where on the spectrum they are going to be?

>

> Thanks in advance!

[Guest guest]

My experience with my daughter (now 3 yrs 8 months) is that she

pretty much plateaued by around her third birthday. We began

therapies around 20 months, so I don't know what difference that

makes.

As far as prognosis, it can change over time. For example, at 23

months I was told Allie was very mild. At her 3 yr testing she

qualified as severe. Her teacher told me this past Monday that she

thinks Allie is mild. The go through hills and valleys as far as

development goes. I think it's more difficult on us parents. I was

bad about hanging on every thing Allie did. If she had a bad day, it

sent me into a depressed state. Time makes it more bearable, and I

recently had another baby that keeps me occupied.

I suggest just trying to take it one day at a time. I'm sure that

wait on further testing will drive you nuts. Just remember it will

get better. The first few advancements can literally take months, but

then it seems, at least with Allie, that her improvement snowballs.

HTH,

Debi

> Hi. I am new to the group. I have a daughter who was recently

referred for

> further testing for early onset autism. It will be 3-4 months

before we can

> get her in to see a team of professionals who diagnosis autism. My

question

> is will she continue to show more and more autistic behaviors? If

a child is

> diagnosed with early onset autism when do they plateau? She has

recently,

> within the last 4 months, become very resistant to change in her

rountine.

> For example, if she doesn't have a bath at night then she refuses

to put on

> her pjs. She throws such a fit that I let her sleep in her

clothes. She is

> in an early intervention program now and we were 5 minutes late and

she cried

> and acted like she had never been there before. She was hiding her

head

> under my shirt and covering her eyes with her hair. One positive

is it

> doesn't take her long to recover from one of these episodes. Her

eye contact

> is getting worse also. She is very sweet and social and gives me

hugs and

> kisses all the time. I guess I am scared that she is going to lose

that

> also. At what age does the early onset autism usually stop

progressing and

> you know where on the spectrum they are going to be?

>

> Thanks in advance!

[Guest guest]

My daughter will be 4 in less than 2 months, and we have known for

two years (since she was 22 months old) that she is a child with

autism.

New behaviors pop up all the time. When one fades, another one takes

its place, although the newer behavior is often more age appropriate

and less noticable to the outsider.

You also see an increase in behaviors associated w/ autism just

before a burst in development, and also with new interventions

(educational, medical, OT, PT, AIT, you name it, an intervention will

produce the stress to cause more of the behaviors associated w/

autism).

I believe a behavior is an indicator of something happening on the

inside, so you might keep your eye open for a particular stressor

that is associated with a particular behavior. (Is she more rigid on

early intervention days? Is her eye contact better on days where she

gets to swing at school? Those are just 2 examples, and you have to

be the investigator to figure out any correlations, then give her

the " good stuff " when you can.)

We began a home ABA program at 23.5 months, and I think that has

helped our daughter to become more flexible. She's still rigid in

some of her thinking, but she's doing very well.

We just spent 3 nights in a motel because our power was out, and she

didn't miss a beat. The weird motel room, the different bed and

sleeping situation, the meals in 's, the difference in her

schedule (she didn't get to go to school, either), having a tutor

come to the hotel to work with her, NONE of that phased her one

little bit. We didn't even see an increase in stimming, and I

expected that because of the stress of the situation.

Over the last 2 years, we've very gently, and gradually helped her to

deal with changes in her day-to-day life, and taught her through

experience that she can let go of some of her rigidity and still

be/feel safe.

Now, that doesn't mean I don't have tantrums. *MY* child doesn't

want to wear a heavy coat in below zero wind chills and has

tantrummed and thrown herself to the ground and had screaming fits

over this one.

One book that helped me see her " rules " was a book by Barron and

his mom. The title is something like, " There's a Boy in Here "

(Or " There's a Boy in There " ). He had rules that had to be followed,

and it sounds like your daughter's bath before pj's rule is something

that she believes shouldn't be broken. You pick your battles.

My NT kids sleep in their clothes some nights. A coat in below

zero wind chills is a more important battle (and I still lost one or

two of them).

Temple Grandin's " Thinking in Pictures " is very helpful, and I have

read it several times. I've loaned it to someone, and when I get it

back, I need to read it again. I learn something new every time I

read it.

McKean's book, " Soon Will Come the Light, " is another good one.

I don't know why, but Donna books are difficult for me to

read. Maybe because the books I read were about when she was older

than my Alyssa, and I couldn't relate to it yet. I need to revisit

them.

BTW, Alyssa's eye contact greatly improved with the removal of gluten

from her diet.

And Sondra and Kassiane have been instrumental in giving me insight

into the WHY of certain behaviors, and in telling me when and how to

let up or adjust, from Mom's end of the equation.

> Hi. I am new to the group. I have a daughter who was recently

referred for

> further testing for early onset autism. It will be 3-4 months

before we can

> get her in to see a team of professionals who diagnosis autism. My

question

> is will she continue to show more and more autistic behaviors? If

a child is

> diagnosed with early onset autism when do they plateau? She has

recently,

> within the last 4 months, become very resistant to change in her

rountine.

> For example, if she doesn't have a bath at night then she refuses

to put on

> her pjs. She throws such a fit that I let her sleep in her

clothes. She is

> in an early intervention program now and we were 5 minutes late and

she cried

> and acted like she had never been there before. She was hiding her

head

> under my shirt and covering her eyes with her hair. One positive

is it

> doesn't take her long to recover from one of these episodes. Her

eye contact

> is getting worse also. She is very sweet and social and gives me

hugs and

> kisses all the time. I guess I am scared that she is going to lose

that

> also. At what age does the early onset autism usually stop

progressing and

> you know where on the spectrum they are going to be?

>

> Thanks in advance!