Could It Be Autism?

Melinda,

I know a great source to help out - her name is Dr. Cheri Florance - she used to be based here in Columbus, but has since moved to New York City to be close to her children who have all gone to college in the city.

Anyway when her 3rd child was born he was born with the cord wrapped around his neck and diagnosed with severe autism. Dr. Florance (who was trained as a speech and hearing pathologist and a psychologist) knew that there was more to her child than just autism - she saw numerous signs that he was very intelligent - OK so long story short - she embarked with her older two children to bring him out of his head and into the world. She accomplished this - her son is now 21 years old and going to college in NYC. She calls her findings with her son the Maverick Syndrome and for the last 21 years she has been helping others who appear to be autistic and very visual based learners become more successful in learning and interacting with others.

Read her book "Maverick Mind : A Mother's Story of Solving the Mystery of her Unreachable,Unteachable, Silent Son" or go to her website http://www.CheriFlorance.com or http://www.ebrainlabs.com/video_view.jsp.

I know all of this because I have been working with Dr. Florance for the past 6 years helping her put her practice online so that she could move to NYC to be with her kids and continue to do the work that she begun her in Columbus.

I hope that this helps you gain the knowledge so that you can talk with your friends about their child because as you know the worst thing they can do is ignore it.

Mel

1 mom found this helpful

It does sound similar to Autism. I would not push the parents though, it is very hard to be a parent of a special needs child, and sometimes it takes time to adjust. Just be supportive and you could give simple hints. A lot of autism or autistic behaviors are caused from mercury poisoning. You may suggest that you heard of someone being cured from those types of behavior by going through chelation. Dr. Larry Everhart at ###-###-#### can help with this and address the nutrional needs a lot more. Good Luck, just be supportive and lend a listening ear, and a gentle comment when it is brought up....

1 mom found this helpful

It might not be serious but then again it might. It's very hard to tell. The sooner they look into medical assistance the better off they will be. Even if they just get speech therapy that would begin to help, or if they find out it's more, the earlier the better.

I have a 12 yr old with autism. These parents should seek medical advice ASAP. The earlier their child recieves help the better results are for their child.

Melinda,

First of all, what a good friend you are to be so concerned. Oddly enough, about 18 months ago I was in a very similar situation. The child in question was 3 1/2. I often had him in my care and thought "something is just off". He wouldn't interact with my son, he rarely spoke, when he did it came out like silly baby talk and often times his fingers were in his mouth. He was and still is, very clingy, had very irrational fears (like so terrified of my dog that he'd almost vomit - which I know kids can be scared of dogs, but this was such an over the top reaction) and the list goes on and on. Now nothing is really different with this child. He's now started spelling large words backwords - it just makes you wonder. How does that happen?

At any rate, I tried to very gently bring up my observations with the mom. She wasn't completely unreceptive and often times, I'd just say "hey, may be bring that up with the pediatrician". They did go on to have him tested at which time the child was seen by a psychologist who said he was unable to determine at that point. They were referred to a speech pathologist and were supposed to take the child to occupational therapy. After 5 sessions, the parents decided it wasn't working.

My thought was that this wasn't going to change overnight and didn't think they were honestly ready to deal. I know it's got to be so hard for a parent to sit and wonder if my child could have something like this going on. I know it's gotta be a normal reaction to deny any difference in their child. I know my friend went thru the same denial process.

I sort of let it go and thought to myself that there will come a time (like when he went to school) that this would definitely re-surface. Well, yes, he's having difficulty in school, socializing, speaking, and now the mom is starting to actually accept that this little boy could be mildly autistic. I don't know and haven't read a ton on the subject, but when our Mom radar goes off we can't help but wonder.

My advice to you is to sit it out and hope that this little boy is a late bloomer. Time will tell and the parents will deal when they're ready if it's something more.

Hope that offers you something.

Hi,
My brother and my nephew have autistic spectrum disorders. The sooner the intervention the better and Cleveland has some of the best resources in the world.With some kids, if intervention is early enough they can get them pretty much functional by kindergarten.
One reason you might encourage your friend to take this seriously is that the symptoms of autism are often mocked by poinsoning or dietary difficulties. My brother's son was found to have mercury and lead poisoning and if they had not checked their water their infant son would have soon been developing symptoms. Other kids are helped tremendously by avoiding gluten. Best of luck.

I know nothing about autism and I am no doctor, but I can tell you that he should be eating more than crackers and should at least be on vitamins. It is not good to have that many soiled diapers a day, he may become mal nourished if he isn't already. I think I might offer some hints to the parents.

I think you are right to be concerned. My nephew had many of these symptoms especially the eating thing. He still at 9 only eats about 5-7 different items ever. Try a search on Asperger Syndrome. Yahoo health has a list of symptoms. It took my sister a lot of doctors and even more personal research to figure it out. (she really figured it out herself and asked the doc to test him for it!)He was about 6-7 when he was diagnosed. There are many types of Autism and related syndroms. I hope this helps a little

Something should be done. The fact that is he not eating anything other than crackers and having that many dirty diapers is a problem. I was watching a medical show were a family brought their toddler in because he wasn't walking, talking, or acting the way he normally would. Turns out he was suffering from a vitamin deficiency! This child really needs to see a DR. It could be as simple as eating better! I can't believe they don't seem concerned about his dietary habits.