John is 6 years old. John met all of his milestones up until he went to the pediatrician for his 18 months visit. He used to say, "bye, go, Da-Da, Momma, Hi", etc. One day, he didn't say anything! I started Googling just like most moms would nowadays. Autism kept popping up. I addressed this with his pediatrician and he lacked concern about this alarming development. He stated, "Wait until it's a problem." Well, I did. I waited until he turned 2 years of age. His words had not returned. I addressed this with the same pediatrician. He said, "Wait until it's a problem." I did not wait. I walked across the street to the Pottsville Hospital and scheduled an appointment with the speech therapist. After testing, the conclusion was that he was 24 months old and 11 months delayed with his speech. We immediately started speech therapy. After spending $700, I was then told that in PA, they have the county agency (ours was Schuylkill IU29) that will come out to your home for free (no matter if you have private insurance or not). The speech evaluator showed up and immediately figured out that John was reversing his sounds (ex: train track would be traik tran). They immediately came into our home and began therapy sessions for 1 hour/week. It wasn't long before she noticed a need for an OT and then a Special Instructor. I am an educator and had been teaching them about shapes and puzzles, etc. Everything that children should know how to do. What I didn't realize was that the state of PA requires the children to know how to use scissors! A 2 year old with scissors?!? We had to start working on that skill. He is still struggling a little bit with that one. Well, after a while, we determined that John needed socialization skills and placed him in the IU29's preschool. He thrived very well in that classroom! He was one of 2 verbal children in the entire class. The transition to Kindergarten was going to be a challenge. There would be 14 verbal children in there. John is sensitive to sounds/noise. He ended up being placed in an inclusive classroom and receiving speech and OT therapy services. There was a regular ed teacher and a special ed teacher co-teaching in his classroom. The problem that I had was that it was only a half-day for Kindergarten for the school district. They kept sending home the same worksheets. They weren't challenging John.
From around the time that John was 2 years old until now, John has omitted several foods from his diet. I took him to the Hershey Feeding Clinic and he was diagnosed with Selective Eating Disorder. No matter what we tried, John refused any foods of color. For those of you that don't know, Selective Eating Disorder is different than a picky eater. A selective eater is one that chooses their foods based on a particular color or texture. With John, BROWN is his color of choice. He has managed to place himself on a white foods diet (starches only). When he eats, he tells me that certain foods "are not good for me, Momma." He will not eat meats at all. He will not eat veggies or fruits (except for bananas).
I had placed John on a waiting list with our nearby Pediatric Neurologist in 2010 at Geisinger in Danville, PA. It was a 6 months waitlist. The initial diagnoses for him were: Globally Developmentally Delayed, Moderate Receptive/Expressive Speech Delay and Mild Visual/Motor Skills Delay. They have changed several times since then and we have no conclusion or recommendations to follow at this time.
We have decided to move to the Memphis, TN area and start a program through the UT Memphis Boling Center. They assign a psychologist with a doctorate to your case. You don't bring your children for the first visit. It is a 2 hour interview process that involves several rating scale surveys. From there, they call you back to schedule the assessment portion. You bring your child for that visit and they spend 8a-5p observing your child. By the time that you leave, any recommendations (IF needed) are given to the parent. I have also been assigned a family advocate to assist us with any needs that might arise within the school system.
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