Please Help - Carrollton, TX

Search for "Special Care & Career Services" on the internet. It is a local charitable organization that assists children with special needs before they are old enough for public school. They may be able to give you direction, help you find out how to get your son tested, and other things. contact your local social services agency to see whether there are governmental services that would help in your situation, whether it is autism or just speech therapy. I hear there are free services for children through the school district even though the child is not yet school age. Finally, research autism and dallas and see if you can find an autism support group; attend and see what you can find out. good luck to you.

Does your son look you in the eyes? Does he snuggle? Is he super sensitive to touch or other sensory information? If you answer no to these questions I wouldn't worry about autsim. Contact Olga at the One For Autism Academy. She might have some advice or be able to point you into a cheaper direction.
I wouldn't worry about him if speach is your concern. Plenty of kids don't speak at all until they're three and are just fine.

Good luck and God bless.

Oh, and YES, he should pay for it!

Since he is under 3, your son qualifies for a free evaluation by ECI. http://www.specialcarecareer.org I saw that you live in Carrollton. I also do, and they do cover our area as I had my son evaluated. They come right out to your home and do a basic eval there. If they see possible issues they will schedule a time to see a specialist. I never needed further help with my son, but from what I remember the first 6 months are free so long as your child hasn't turned 3. After that, they use a sliding scale based on income so prices shouldn't be too high.

With that said, it sounds to me like your son is doing just fine. Nothing you said seems to point to autism to me. Of course, that is a completely personal opinion. He sounds like he is doing great. One thing they told me was to not compare my son to girls, which I guess I was doing. I have a lot of friends with toddler girls who seemed so much further along than my son. It is true that boys do typically take longer to develop language skills than girls. You said your son seems to be picking up new words nearly every day, and he knows his colors, shapes, letters, etc. I think that is exactly where he needs to be. If you need or would like a great support group of friends with kids the same age, message me and I'll give you info on a local moms group I am in. It is very informal, but a wonderful bunch of women all in the Carrollton area. We have play dates weekly, and I really do think they do wonders for my son developmentally and socially.

I would talk to your son's ped first. It sounds like your son is doing well (much better than his dad). My son was speech delayed so I did research the autism thing at great length before he was evaluated (for speech delay). Feel free to ask me off line about all that. Your son's speech sounds like it's pretty good actually, but of course I don't have the full picture.

The symptoms of autism are a lot more than just speech delay. It will often include things like poor muscle tone, poor coordination, digestive issues (ie chronic diarrhea), sensitivity problems (ie doesn't like to walk on grass, loud noises, will not eat certain foods/textures), deals extremely poorly with change (ie freaks when you move a piece of furniture), poor eye contact, plays with toys innappropriately (as in doesn't know how to play with his toys) among other things. Often times autistic children will experience other developmental delays in addition to speech. As you can see, there are a ton of potential symptoms and no one behavior is a guarantee (for lack of better terms) your child has autism. It's not like strep where a blood test will show for sure. You can have 2 doctors diagnose a child differently (ie one will say he's autistic the other might say no). For this reason, it's important to find the right Dr if you do indeed suspect autism.

I'm not sure where you're husband is suggesting your son go for 5 hours. Could it be he's trying to get at you through your son somehow (rather than truly being concerned)? Not sure what his motives are. I will tell you that only a developmental ped (and not a speech therapist, inlaw, etc) is qualified to make the autism diagnosis for the reasons I mentioned previously. There are maybe 2 total in the DFW area (one may be retired) and good luck getting in any time soon and not without a referal from your primary ped. If you are concerned about his speech, you could have him evaluated for this through eci. It's sliding scale and very affordable from what I understand. They could also let you know if this is something more than just speech.

It sounds like your ex may not have spent as much time with him and perhaps is trying to punish you somehow. I'm not a shrink so forgive me if I'm reading to much into this.

What did your ped say? I would try ECI they can do some testing to help diagnose any prob he has.

My daughter is 19 months old and can only say Mama, Dada, Baba and Go on a reg basis. She has had a hearing test which came out fine and has used ECI for speach thrapy. They work with you on a payment scale. Right now we havent paid anything and wont for six months. Although we changed to Therapedia for Speach we are still using ECI for Occupational Therapy for some Sensory issues.

RE your husband...if he wants it done than HE CAN PAY FOR IT! AND STOP BEING CHEAP AND PASSING THE BUCK!

My son was the same way, and he was later diagnosed on the spectrum, but that requires more than just a speech delay. Call ECI/PRIDE. They provide services for free or on a sliding scale. They will evaluate him and provide speech or other services if needed on a weekly or every other week basis. Call ###-###-####. They serve until age three, then he can enroll in a public school PPCD class, but they typically only get 30 minutes of speech a day, and there can be some problems in these public school programs. Also, contact Bridges to growth in Georgetown. They do not diagnose, but they have community resources, videos, books, playtimes, classes, and things that may help.

My son had ear infections so bad that he failed a hearing test as being 97 percent deaf! Medicines and tubes helped. He has been in speech therapy and that helps. He is at Capital School now, a private speech based school with small classes, but it costs quite a bit. Some insurance programs cover it, some don't.

Autism is becoming something of a catch word, but there can be a wide range of funcational levels and diagnosis that are related. Usually, you are looking for something besides just speech, like social interaction issues, delay in another area, like potty training, sensory issues and the like. NewsWeek had an artical about common signs and symtoms. I think you can find that on line or at your local library.