My grand daughter does not speak yet. She moans a lot. She has said momma, daddy and will blow kisses. She doesn't seem to know her name though or just doesn't give a reaction when you say it.......won't even look at you! I'm so worried about her. She does love to be held and loved on, and watches some tv without moving or moaning. She seems to moan when she is focused hard on something. They say she is to young to diagnoise with autisum. Any ideas or has anyone have any info?
If her parents are concerned, they should have her evaluated by Early Intervention. It's free, and it's run by the state.
Hi! The link for Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) is http://www.dars.state.tx.us/ecis/searchalpha.asp?letter=d. Their services are Free or Very Low Cost. They WILL help you with anything related the child's development from 0-3 yrs old. Once the kid gets 3 years old your school will take over. They usually provide the services at your home.
Hey -
I always felt like something was "off" with my son from very early in his life. By 8 months, he was making no sounds and my pediatrician finally referred me to someone (honestly, at this point I don't remember who) and they said that kids should be making real sounds by 8 months and should be "babbling". So, my son was put through a series of hearing tests and they said he could not hear as a result of multiple ear infections. He got ear tubes and that helped tremendously. But, by 18 months, he was still not very verbal and so he started speech therapy. All of that addressed some of the concerns I had with him, but it did not address other things that I thought were "off". ECI evaluated my son and said he was on the low range of normal and so there was nothing they could do. I did NOT stop there. I still thought something was off with him and so I paid for a private occupational therapy eval of him (he was about 2 by this age). They said he had sensory integration disorder and he got occupational therapy and physical therapy. However, none of this was covered by ECI because he was too high functioning. I covered it with private insurance.
So, as others have said, you can start with ECI, but you may need to go private routes and push for some evaluations. YOu have said that this is your grand-daughter and so you may not even have the power to do anything about it if she is not in your custody. I pushed because I was concerned about my son, but my parents thought I was being overreactive and they did not see the need for the therapies. However, as the therapies started working, they did see the changes in my son. If your grand-daughter's parents don't buy in to the fact that something is wrong, then you are definitely fighting an uphill battle.
Good luck!
L.
ECI is a good start. I'd also bring it to the attention of her pediatrician. If her doc is "cookie cutter", you're going to need to find somebody who's a little more open minded. Depending on her biomedical condition, you may need to customize her immunization schedule to prevent any further set backs. With our son, the biomedical stuff has been key. We discovered that he has multiply food sensitivities and also that he is heavy in metal toxins (especially mercury). These issues have hindered his development. He's 4 1/2, small for his age, and still non-verbal. I tell you all of this because it's better to know what you're dealing with than not.
It may be too early to take her to a developmental pediatrician for a diagnosis. But you don't need that in order to take action now. Developmental pediatricians (at least in my experience) are really only good for one thing - the "official" diagnosis. Other than that, they don't do much. They refer you to a neurologist most of the time. You may want to research DAN doctors in your area. We've seen Cavazos & Kotsanis. Message me if you'd like some contact info.
This very much sounds like Classic Autism symptoms. If you havent already, I would maybe call around to see if any doctors could evaluate her at 18 months. They may test her more around the age of 2-3 but I have heard occasions where they have around her age. Keep noting and documenting everything she does because they will ask many questions that will be hard to remember. My 7 year old daughter Akina has High Functioning Classic Autism but honestly I didn't get her diagnosed until the beginning of this year due to doctors brushing it off. She had delays and regressions but doctors weren't worried and thought it was normal. Hopefully you will find someone highly experienced that will note everything right now as a red flag which she definitely does have. You may want to go to the pedi and stress everything to them and see where that can lead. I will be praying for that sweet baby girl and that she gets doctors that will start getting involved now. There is also websites/Facebook Pages for Autism that you can join with forums that really help and some can help find a doctor. One good website is autismspeaks.org and also templegrandin.com. I hope this helps a little bit, I wish I could help more. :( If you need someone to talk to or have any questions then please feel free to pm me anytime.
