Hello there
We've just had a diagnosis of HFA for our very nearly 3-year old son. He's had/has very slow speech development and some other classic symptoms (he didn't ever point or hold out his arms to be picked up, is very anxious and gets cross very easily) but he also has some very typical/normal behaviour like he has good (ish) eye contact and he's quite happy to engage with others a little.
Since diagnosis (only a month ago) all of the pieces of puzzle seem to have fallen into place and we're seeing so much more typical autistic behaviour - probably because we're looking for it. He's getting really entrenched in his routines, he's freaking out in crowds, he's biting his nails all the time and he's slowly knocking items off his 'will eat' list.
Obviously we're still getting to grips with the realisation of the diagnosis but I'm now scared he's actually getting worse before our eyes. Does this happen? He was always a 'slow burner' so we haven't seen him lose any previously acquired skills yet - he was just really slow to pick up stuff in the first place but it's always been an upward trajectory if a very slow one. But this past few days he's been a bit poorly with a virus and I feel that he's starting to lose some of his memory/speech skills. Is 2 (nearly 3) too young to get a 'high functioning' diagnosis? Could it be classic autism just starting to show itself now?
Also (as we haven't seen anyone since diagnosis) what should we be doing next? It feels so helpless just to sit around thinking about it. I feel sure there's something we could/should be doing at home to help him? We've read loads about autism and the many therapies but some are crazily expensive and never going to happen. We may have managed to get ourselves on an Earlybird course (long story as there's not one running in our area) but that's not until April so can anyone suggest stuff we could be doing now to help him now?
Any ideas and suggestions would be sooo welcome. It feels good to be telling someone all this.
Thanks :)
