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3 1/2 years old - Mild Autism? Does this sound familiar?

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McAnulty
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02 Jul 2012, 1:29 pm

Videos help with us too. While typical children tend to learn better when taught by a person, it seems like children with Autism often have an easier time learning through technology. It's much easier for my son to pay attention to a video about something than it is for him to pay attention to me trying to show it to him.



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03 Jul 2012, 2:47 am

So many great responses out there. Sorry I can't respond to them all, but I'm listening and taking notes to all of them.

Wreck-Gar wrote:
Hi, your son sounds similar to mine in some ways. Mine speaks but it's mostly labelling (naming objects), not communicating. He turned four recently and now he does ask for things he wants/needs (food, drink, etc) but he still doesn't do it consistently.

You are not necessarily going to see the "stereotypical" signs of autism like rocking back and forth. My son doesn't do these things either, he mostly has the language and social delay. However you do say that he likes to watch the wheels on toy trains turning, and he likes to line up toys. These are both red flags.

My son was actually diagnosed about a year ago and we were living in Japan at the time. We only speak English at home so this was the primary language he heard, but outside the home there really isn't much English in Japan. Japan is very behind countries like the US when it comes to services for the disabled in Japan (they said they wouln't start speech therapy till age 5 in their school system) and there was pretty much nothing availabe in English (many therapists/schools shut their doors after the Lehman shock and the rest after the 3/11 earthquake/nuclear disasters) so we started planning our exit. We have been back in the US since February and my son attends a special needs preschool (he was in a public daycare in Japan, he had a teacher assigned to him but she had no training in special needs) and he seems happy and has been progressing.


By the way, I'm in Japan :) I'm also an ESL Teacher.

Yeah, not many services at all around here if they are little. It's the reason we've been waiting to this age to address it. It seems we kept getting turned away until he was at an old enough age (3 1/2) before they thought it would be worth looking into to see if there is a problem.

We're also thinking of having my son spend time with his grandparents, where he'll often see his four cousins that are very close in age. I think part of our problem is our son is very isolated and left to his own devices here in Japan. If he were regularly socializing with cousins who only speak English all the time, it might do a world of good for him.



zette
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03 Jul 2012, 10:19 am

I would urge you to make arrangements NOW to get testing done when you're back in the states. Many places have months-long waiting lists -- I imagine if you explained the situation of living in Japan they would make a special effort to fit you in.

You might also consider a 12 week intensive program like the one they have at UCLA.

http://www.semel.ucla.edu/ecphp/program

An intensive program like this could train you on how to work with your child after you go back to Japan.



Wreck-Gar
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03 Jul 2012, 11:51 am

zette wrote:
I would urge you to make arrangements NOW to get testing done when you're back in the states. Many places have months-long waiting lists -- I imagine if you explained the situation of living in Japan they would make a special effort to fit you in.


Problem with that is what to do once she gets back to Japan. Nearly NO services available compared to the US. I remember being told that the would not even start speech therapy till age 5. Once my son got his diagnosis he was allowed into a public daycare (usually these have monster waiting lists) but no one there was trained in special ed.

The only "service" he got was a class that was supposed to help with social skills but it was only one hour a week, and it was mainly just therapists performing for the kids and trying to get them to interact and sing songs. There were something like 4 kids in each class, all with different disabilities/diagnosis and no one-on-one time at all. My son got put in a class with a bunch of VERY low functioning kids, there was one kid who always had to be restrained and one time he got away and BIT my son. We complained and they put him in a class with higher functioning kids, still, I am not sure he really got much out of this.

I will write more later when I have more time.



McAnulty
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03 Jul 2012, 11:57 am

Honestly, we're in Quebec, and the waiting lists are just as bad here. Years for diagnosis, and then another 2 years waiting for treatment, and the only thing offered is ABA, which I'm not a fan of. We've done everything pretty much on our own, reading as much as I could get my hands on. It's not fun doing it alone, but you can do it. We finally got seen for a few sessions by a speech therapist, and she couldn't help me at all because I already knew everything she had to say. You don't need a degree to get educated about this stuff, professionals aren't some miracle cure, they're just a convenient resource. The information is out there. You can do this.



zette
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03 Jul 2012, 12:13 pm

Wreck-Gar wrote:
zette wrote:
I would urge you to make arrangements NOW to get testing done when you're back in the states. Many places have months-long waiting lists -- I imagine if you explained the situation of living in Japan they would make a special effort to fit you in.


Problem with that is what to do once she gets back to Japan. Nearly NO services available compared to the US. I remember being told that the would not even start speech therapy till age 5. Once my son got his diagnosis he was allowed into a public daycare (usually these have monster waiting lists) but no one there was trained in special ed. .


That's why I suggested a 12 week intensive course -- they need something that will teach the parents how to be his speech and OT therapists when they get back to Japan.



Wreck-Gar
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03 Jul 2012, 12:27 pm

zette wrote:
Wreck-Gar wrote:
zette wrote:
I would urge you to make arrangements NOW to get testing done when you're back in the states. Many places have months-long waiting lists -- I imagine if you explained the situation of living in Japan they would make a special effort to fit you in.


Problem with that is what to do once she gets back to Japan. Nearly NO services available compared to the US. I remember being told that the would not even start speech therapy till age 5. Once my son got his diagnosis he was allowed into a public daycare (usually these have monster waiting lists) but no one there was trained in special ed. .


That's why I suggested a 12 week intensive course -- they need something that will teach the parents how to be his speech and OT therapists when they get back to Japan.


Yeah. Thing is, that could work for now, but I think things could get very difficult when the kid gets older.

I don't know the OP's family/financial situation but for us, like I said, we only speak English at home. In Japan English is not really used at all in daily life...so if the OP is planning on sending her son to school in Japan, she'll need to make sure he learns Japanese. I don't know how easy it is for a language delayed kid to be bilingual. My son knows some Japanese words but responds mostly to English.

Another huge issue is the school system there. For special ed, they really don't do a lot of integrated classrooms, special ed kids go to a different school in a completely different system. Some parents do not seek diagnosis and try to hide there kid's condition because of this. Even in schools that do have integrated classrooms, there's no such thing as an IEP. Special needs kids to not get even close to the attention they get in the US.

Honestly there is not a lot of support in Japan for people with disabilities of any sort. If you've ever been to Tokyo, for example, you may have noticed the lack of elevators and wheelchair access in even many of the major train stations. Support is pretty much left to the families and many feel very overburdedned.



Last edited by Wreck-Gar on 03 Jul 2012, 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

McAnulty
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03 Jul 2012, 12:37 pm

Research has shown that it is not a problem for language delayed children to be bilingual. They might learn slightly slower, but not enough to warrant using only one language. However it is best if the two languages are used in different contexts to help them understand that they are two different systems. Popular ways of doing this are using one language at home and one at school, or having one parent speak one language and the other parent another. It is best if the child hears language from someone fluent, so if your Japanese isn't good it's best they learn it at school instead from someone for whom Japanese is a second language.



Wreck-Gar
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03 Jul 2012, 1:15 pm

McAnulty wrote:
Research has shown that it is not a problem for language delayed children to be bilingual. They might learn slightly slower, but not enough to warrant using only one language. However it is best if the two languages are used in different contexts to help them understand that they are two different systems. Popular ways of doing this are using one language at home and one at school, or having one parent speak one language and the other parent another. It is best if the child hears language from someone fluent, so if your Japanese isn't good it's best they learn it at school instead from someone for whom Japanese is a second language.


Yeah that was pretty much what we did. My son did pick up a little Japanese (which he still uses) at school.

We decided to return to the US mainly because we felt that the system was not right for us. We had originally planned to stay for a few more years but we felt that the school system in the US would work better for my son.



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17 Jul 2012, 2:37 pm

Your post might as well be about my son (moderate ASD). We took him to the developmental paediatrician expecting him to tell us he had ADHD, and possibly dyslexia. We were shocked that he diagnosed ASD, because he's affectionate, and other things that we thought ASD kids were not. It turns out there are three symptoms that all autistic kids share, which to my understanding are repetative behaviour (spinning things, stacking, switching things on and off), language development, and social skills with their peers. All the other symptoms such as affection, eye contact etc vary from child to child.

That's what we were told anyway.