Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi,
My child is waiting on an assessment and I keep asking the health professionals on how many traits a child must show to be diagnosed with autism? Unfortunately, they tell me they don't know. I was wondering if any one could help me out on advice with this please. My child has two, doesn't talk a lot and will not touch or eat solid foods.
Also my child says words in context, but not enough. Will my child ever speak or is this the only forms of communication?
my nephew ( autistic ) didnt speak until about 7 now we cant get a word in sideways. Some autistic's can be mute for a while.
there are probably some more traits you havent noticed ...
the big one is eye contact does ur child maintain eye contact with you, other children, siblings, anyone
if no, autism is highly suspected.
does your child play on its own and ignore u and other toddlers. do u have a dog if yes does ur child play with the dog or does it treat the dog like an object.
does your watch certain TV programmes in a constant loop.
Are there routines you have to stick to. Are there screaming meltdowns when your child does not get their way ?
.does your child stack and line up, or put in some order, their toys and then not play with them like other kids
they will be looking for more
each trait has a score, some traits have higher scores than others, and they are all totalled up to indicate the likely hood ur child has autism.
ur child may not be autistic it could be adhd plus other things like partial deafness ( my nephews needed their ears fixed )
so maybe a speech expert ( therapist ) may be called in as well
It's early days.
.
Hopefully then my child will talk some day I hope. Yes eye contact is brilliant, the speech therapist commented on that. At home there is eye contact continuously.
My child plays with adults all the time. At school will sit next to a child with no difficulties, however at play time would participate for 2 minutes and goes and plays with the teacher. However, at times I wonder is it because there is no other children in the household. Yes we have a dog. The child gets excited to see it, pets it and starts laughing.
No, just watches TV normally. Obviously I keep screen time to a limit to maybe help promote speech but no progression as yet.
No he has no routine that needs to be followed and no meltdowns either.
Yep plays with everything correctly and doesn't line any toys or objects up as yet.
I read that some autistic children don't like bright light, loud noises or crowds of people. My child has no issues with these traits. Some obvious traits I have read is head banging, spinning, meltdowns, lining toys up as you said and have difficulty with touching textures. Again my child loves sensory trays, sand, paint and getting dirty.
I know my child has difficulty with eating that's for sure and his speech. However, I feel sometimes am I missing traits considering my child has been reffered just with two traits.
i am not a professional but i dont think he has autism. They are probably assessing him for more than autism. Talk to your speech therapist more what does she think ? They could be ruling things out and working from there. They have to be so careful because he at an important phase. Can he hear ok play some sound games see if there sounds he can or cant hear. maybe start learning sign language ask speech therapist about that , the most suitable one. It wont do him any harm its another form of communication.
I know the speech therapist did say the muscles in the mouth and throat are working, but there is an issue with solid foods and possibly this could be sensory. However, she wasn't sure as its just food textures, and viewing the food is the problem. She explained to have sensory issues there are other areas such as light and noise which there is no issues with.
Yes no issues with hearing thankfully. I have seen an improvement this week. Usually my child could count to ten, sometimes I wondered is it just words or is there full understanding of the numbers. This week my child is counting non stop and if shown the number can identify this clearly.
Yes I will as it would come in useful especially for feeding and understanding