Not Wanting to Hear the "A" Word

What is your question here? Who diagnosed your son with Autisum? Did you take him to a specialist at some point?

Two points... pediatricians are general practitioners, not developmental specialists. I know it seems like they should be, but they are not "developmental pediatricians" unless they are certified as such.

Autism as a disorder far pre-dates vaccination. There is significant evidence that many children were diagnosed with "schizophrenia" or "mania" as early as the mid 1700's b/c the term "Autism" had not been coined. They were institutionalized and in many cases abandoned by their families, thus records are sparse and anecdotal at best. Please do some research within the realm of scientific journals... the vaccine-Autism connection has been debunked for some time. Autism is a syndrome, which by definition means a series of behavioral patterns or symptoms that occur in a cluster. It is a broad term and is more difficult to diagnose than one may think.

MANY children have speech delays and difficulty processing sensory input, but very few of those children are later diagnosed on the spectrum.

If your friend is concerned about her child's development, then she needs to have him seen by a neuropsychologist for a complete evaluation.

Every State, has an "Early Childhood Intervention" organization.
Up until 3 years old... they do full developmental assessments on children. For FREE.
You don't have to be referred by a Pediatrician.
Do a Google search for one in your area.

Only with a formal assessment, can you find out about your son.
A layperson, cannot conclusively 'diagnose' nor get the proper assistance on it, otherwise.

Oh sorry, your son is already 8 years old.

all the best,
Susan

I'm not sure what the exact question is here, even after reading your addition. I have a 2 year old boy who has a speech delay, and to hear that you'd jump to say autism if you met him would be so far from correct. Sometimes a speech delay is just that, a speech delay.

As far as your opinions on your child, you may be correct, but you might want to get an actual diagnosis. He may have a specific disability that was from birth, that may not be obvious to you. I believe that many disabilities are mistaken for autism. Seek help to help your son.

There are all different reasons for speech delays and sensory disorders or delays in hitting other milestones -- a niece of mine has a mild case of cerebral palsy -- took until she was 4 to be diagnosed....after ruling out genetic disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and a host of other things. Though your friend's kid may be autistic, I would let her and her doctors work through things on their own and stay out of it. It is a sensitive subject for people. We ALWAYS wait for my SIL or BIL to bring it up and never ever broach the subject of their daughter's delays. She is now almost 5. Be a good friend and supportive but be careful to tread lightly.

Regards.

My son is 2 and he is in the Early Intervention program in our county. the program was recommended to us by our ped. Also our ped has been doing evaulation of our everytime he goes in for his check ups. When the people from early intervention came out and were able to diagnios my son, it was found he speech delay at the time was at aobut a 5 month old and he was almost 18 months at the time. He has not been diagnois as being austic, but he has some of the symptoms of austism. The ped wants to check him again at his 2 1/2 visit to see if anything has inproved. The early intervention has been wonderful for my son and he has increased his verbal skills to almost a 12 month level. Even if my son has austism of any kind or any kind of delay or developemental problem, I will still love him and work with him the best I can. I also will find any help I can for him too. Also I would thinks aobut a switching doctors because it does not seem like the ped you have is either familar with what your son was going thru or did seem to have the right knowledge to direct you to an Eary Intervention program which would have been very helpful.

Is there a question?

I am a little confused -- It feels like the original question has changed?

Hearing your child does or may have a life altering condition unleashes a myriad of painful and confusing emotions for parents. I would think it would be similar to the loss of a loved one...The first step in dealing with that is denial. What parent wouldn't need to time to hear, understand, accept and finally act on a diagnosis of autism?

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