Re: Getting worried (autism)

January 15, 2006

It is very important that you have your local regional center in on

this! (You may need them for a referal to another agency) You

should also contact your state school for the deaf and ask for an

assessment. Assessing autism in children with hearing loss is very,

very difficult and I think should only be made by somebody who knows

about deafness AND autism. . The local regional center decided my

child was pervasive development disorder - not otherwise specified.

I never was comfortable with that and took her to a place in Santa

, CA where she worked with Dr. Byrd who had worked in

deaf mental health. He showed me how she was not autistic - she

needed to be engaged. I do not want you to worry about autism until

you have somebody working with her. What state are you in? I bet

somebody on this list can give you a resource right away. There is

no sign of autism or PDD in my daughter today. I doubt the original

DX as did our state school for the deaf - at the time, CSD

Riverside.

Another thing. What might be typical behavior for a 2.5 year old in

one family may not be typical in another. With a 2.5 year old child,

aren't there as many extremes as there are kids?

I did read Semesky's response to you and I cannot agree more

with her. By the way, back in 1997 - was one of my sounding

boards regardig autism so I would heed her recommendations as

well as Edith's below.

--- Once it was officially diagnosed, the mom started putting the

puzzle together, and his therapies (OT, DT, Speech) got much more

focused around his autism needs.

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