Hello everyone,
I have a wonderful 20 month old son (my only child), who for the last few months has been showing signs of having ASD. He has no speech (though certainly makes lots of emotive noises), does not respond to his name, has limited eye contact at times, no pointing or waving, and likes running in circles.
His mum and I have recently started having him assessed. She is being very positive, however for entirely personal (and probably selfish) reasons this has hit me hard and this evening I was speaking with my doctor to try and get some counselling.
When I described my sons behaviors, he claims to have seen similar situations that were not ASD but actually due to a lack of adequate parental contact, and with hard work can be reversable. Some parents might be offended by this, but if I'm honest I can't say it's entirely impossible. It's certainly true that due to work pressures I'm not able to spend as much time as I'd like with my son, and while his mother is able to stay at home with him, his first year and a half was somewhat unusual, uneventful and a bit isolated. Maybe we just haven't done enough to engage him?
Normally every time I speak with a health professional about my son they refuse to be drawn on the odds of his having ASD. This is the first time I've heard someone actually suggest an alternative reason. I'm wondering if anyone else here has ever had a similar suggestion?
