11 month old just diagnosed ASD

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Yeah, we have videos. Thing is this is our first kid so some stuff that should've been obvious wasn't. For example he did (and still does) the backwards "bye bye" think you mentioned that your daughter does.

Also he started the learn the alphabet and counting at around 18 months so we thought we had a little genius on our hands.

And also we are not in America, we are in Japan which is YEARS behind when it comes to disabilities, early intervention, etc. No one ever suggested we get him screened or anything at that time, which may not have been the case had we been in the US.

That threw me off too. My son never said Mom or Dad much, but he could and did say them between 12 and 18 months along with a few nice big words like rubber ducky and thank you. Somewhere around 18 months all his language was replaced by numbers and letters, I was so impressed that he knew them that I didn't realize he couldn't say anything else anymore. I did know something wasn't right but whenever I'd ask someone if his behavior was normal they'd always lie and say yes.

hahaa.. we have also always thought we have a little genius in the house. LOL She said her first words at 13mos and by 18 mos was talking in full sentences. I have video of her at 2 giving full monologues using big words and perfect grammar. She always impressed people with her intelligence and verbal skills.. still does. But she was always different too. At playgroups as a toddler she would stand beside me watching the kids play. Others would try to tell her she could join and I would have to inform them that she was actually waiting for them to be done so she could play with whatever toy by herself. She was patient about it but her preference even then was to play on her own rather than with the others.

My concern with so much treatment so young is that it is separating the child from normal caregivers at this age. If the child is ASD than these relationships will be more difficult anyway - how will separation affect that. I know for my daughter her only truly strong bonds at age 10 are with the 3 people who cared for as an infant. She does not just form close relationships with others. Also, how do you know what traits to change at such a young age? There are many aspie traits that my daughter has that I feel are benefits. I would prefer to see how my childs personality and abilities develop a bit before jumping into to too much treatment. But then again, the severity has a lot to do with it and we know very little about the actual symptoms this child is showing.

Like I said, Im sure they will tailor the therapy to his needs. My daughter had a lot of therapy and if you count school where she attended an autism program she got over 40 per week....if you count swimming lessons even more. My daughter loved therapy, as a matter of fact, part of the problem when we moved here is that we went from having all that therapy and assistance to nothing and that was very hard for her. I know not all children are like my daughter and so do the therapists that is why they will throw out a number like 40 hours and then they will see how the child reacts and what his or her needs are. They do assess your child before the start therapy and every other week to see how progress is and if they need to adjust anything. For the person who says therapy could "take away" your childhood...what a bunch of poooy! Have you had your child in therapy? I think people watch these old videos of ABA therapy and think its a horrible thing. All they ever did with my daughter was play with her. While they played they taught her things. Like turn taking, paying attention to another person, speaking, asking, ect. Therapy is fun at this young of an age, they are just trying to engage the child. I can say with a great amount of certainty that my daughter would be no where near the functioning level she is if it were not for this early therapy and the amount she received. We have old camcorder tapes of my daughter when she was younger, when she spent all her time spinning, staring at the TV, and lining up animals (if this is what you mean by a childhood). We are going to have these tapes made into digital film so I can make a video showing her progression. For the past year I have been making digital movies of her and they are on youtube and you can see for yourself how amazing she is....you can find her under Autistic Princess or under my name Aspiemom42.....She is a beautiful, awesome little girl, and yes I do give her credit, the therapy helped but she put forth the effort.

Well, I'm still pretty new to all this. And yes when I envision ABA I do imagine a kid sitting at a table getting drilled for 40 hours! We are still trying to work all this out.

Not at all. My son was diagnosed when he was 3 yo and since then we are doing ABA. After 8 months, there's an huge work to be done but he reached some goals. If he started 6 months before I think he would be a different boy today. But here in Italy that wasn't a late diagnosis and parents are not told that ABA exists. California is up-to-date... I'm not surprised for french situation. Italy is nearly the same. Only an hospital in Rome does ABA early intervention but it started less than 2 years ago and intervention lasts only one year.

Yeah, you want to avoid this "old fashioned" ABA type therapy. Look up the TEACCH method its what was mainly used with my daughter. Also Temple Grandin (speaking of her) says basically the same thing....play games with them, turn taking games. Its all about getting them to engage with you. I think I read something about your son being turned on by music. My daughter is the same way and we used that and so did the therapists. We played games with songs and games that you step on squares while the music is playing and then stop when it ended. Kind of like musical chairs. Bubbles are also a good way to start out....most of our kids LOVE bubbles and it is a good way to motivate them to start asking for more. Its how we got her first sentence, "More bubbles please". Also when ever my daughter would get overwhelmed they would do sensory type stuff with her. We had a swing in our house (in home therapy is the best because they are more comfortable in their own environment and the learn faster) so they put her in her swing. They would pick her up and swing her or squeeze her with pillows, she also loved to squish putty and things like this. Sometimes they would just do the entire session playing with play doh (sensory) because its what she was in the mood for, or what she needed. The therapy that works is the play therapy and sometimes they will push them a bit out of their comfort level but never to a point where the therapy itself becomes stressful and if a therapist does this its our job as our childs advocate to say "no, we are not doing this". I only had two therapists out of about 10 different ones that I had a problem with , they just didnt "get" my Maddy so we changed and we made sure that she was happy and that she was progressing.

I've done ABA therapy. I've also watched many videos on Youtube (recently posted, by the way) of ABA therapy being done with kids.

Sometimes, the kid seems to having fun and it looks mostly like play with some commands thrown in. Other times, the kid looks bored, like a kid in school, just doing what they're told so you'll stop bugging them or to get a reward but not enjoying the activity at all. And a few of the videos I've seen the kid looks frustrated or upset. I've noticed a big difference between ABA and Floortime, too, in that Floortime always seems to be fun for the kid. (I don't know TEACCH, I'll have to research that.)

If you're careful to make sure the therapy is fun for the child, then I don't think it takes away the kid's childhood. (Though I still think unoccupied time is good for at least part of the day, so the kid can figure out how to occupy him/herself - my unoccupied time is when I do creative things.) But 6 years old is young enough for school, we don't need kids being in school-like settings at 2 year old.

Oh yes, he loves music. He can do the "fill in the blank" singing thing pretty well, you know, I say "Twinkle twinkle" and he says "little star."

We also got him a swing over the weekend, he loves it. Like I said elsewhere we're gonna have to do all the therapy at home since there's nothing available here that we can use. Be glad your husband is not Japanese, seems worse than France here. They are SOOOO behind when it comes to disabilites here.

No, I am not WRONG WRONG WRONG. I have yet to see anything outside of youtube that says these diagnoses can be made before the age of 1. And usually they are made even later than that. I don't see how classic autism is too much different because I do not see how you can diagnose a language delay if the child is at an age where it is not supposed to speak anyway. Also doctors misdiagnose people a lot. It would not be astonishing if someone is misdiagnosed with autism at the age of 11 months.

Google Scholar on recognizing autism in infants:

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/di ... aid=105987 - retrospective study compared 1st birthday home videos of NT, MR and autistic kids. They found that autistic kids reacted less to their names and made less eye contact than MR kids, and both autistic and MR kids used fewer gestures, less often looked at objects held by others, and had more repetitive motor movements than NT kids.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... x/abstract - prospective study of younger siblings of autistics assessed at 6, 14 and 24 months, who at 24 months were classified either as autistic, language delayed or NT. No differences in developmental skills were found at 6 months, but at 14 months the autistic kids were clearly delayed in motor, language and cognitive skills relative to NT kids, with the language-delayed kids in between.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/4424853183n4316n/ - a case series of nine younger siblings of autistics who were studied in infancy and later diagnosed as autistic. Many showed clear autistic traits before their first birthday, with all but one being diagnosable by 18 months.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/120l4j5777084168/ - a study of the reliability and validity of a new assessment scale, the Autism Observation Scale for Infants, designed to detect autism in 6-18 month olds. In another study they reference, 11 out of 14 kids diagnosed as autistic at 3 years scored 9 or more on this scale at 12 months.

There is more to language than just spoken word. In infants they start with body language and then progress to babbling and repeating sounds. These are important pre-cursers to language. My son was delayed in these respects, but it was only part of the assessment that produced a positive result for ASD. He was diagnosed by a team of 4 doctors - one being a speech language pathologist.

Also littlelily, I must say that I did not post to get comments on if people think his diagnosis is wrong or not. Your comments are not very supportive or helpful that is why someone called you out on them.

Ryio I certainly hope that you stick around and that you keep us informed on how your son is responding. I still think its amazing that you got the diagnosis and are going to get the help at such a young age, what a wonderful opportunity. Id encourage you to video him so you can see his progress. It helps a lot because you really tend forget things and its helpful to you to see how he changes and learns. Maybe if you were inclined you could use the footage to help to show how early intervention works and how important it is. All that is of course a completely personal decision but I do hope that you let us know how you are doing and if you have any questions along the way there are people here who are happy to help, I certainly am. I think there are a lot of us who are very happy for you and your son. Even though the diagnosis can be difficult no matter how prepared you are (my husband and I also knew our daughter had autism before the actual diagnosis) its reassuring to get all the help. Im so thankful for all the therapists we have had, all these kind, caring, understanding individuals that have helped educate us and teach my daughter, there are not enough thank you's in the world to express how thankful we are.

Thanks liloleme! We do plan on recording him and will keep people updated with his progress. I hope that Levi will be able to help other infants some day from the work we are doing with him now.