Hi!
My son started getting Early Intervention when he was 20 months old. We had 4 hours of ABA 5 days a week, 1,5 hours of speech, and an hour of OT. It took us two months to start therapy because we couldn't find therapists, but I worked with him for those two months, and honestly, therapists were saying that he is nothing like in his report. I worked mainly on pointing and increasing his attention span. We discontinued his OT in about two months because I saw no point. We kept speech for 1,5 years. And decreased hours of ABA from 4 to 2 hours in about four months and then eventually discontinued after four more months. ABA therapist and I had a nice tandem, he used some ABA tactics but appreciated my respectful parenting approach, so he would beautifully mix those.
My son had about ten words at the age of 24 months. And then he just sped up so much. I don't remember how it went from 10 words to beautiful sentences, he says now. He is bilingual. He understands English completely and says some very needed phrases but prefers his native language, so it is just a matter of preference. He is a brilliant little guy. Very passionate about trains, dinosaurs, cooking, letters, reading. He learned letters before his second birthday and counting and recognizing numbers around 24-25 months (by himself, we used to take trains a lot). I’m not saying it's early.
I am just happy because, during the evaluation, they would repeat to me that he will have learning problems in the future. Well, he doesn’t show this and has been good at so much stuff, including physical development. When he is on a one-one playdate, you can notice how he is emotionally more stable and mature and how much better is his play skills. His pretend play skills are so good. He shows so much creativity when playing. But when he is around peers at the playground, he shuts down and tries to learn those little guys and shows his shy personality. He is very slow to warm up, and I would not say he is as careless as other guys. His emotional intelligence was always a priority for us, so he can understand what he feels and communicates well about those situations at the playground. He shares being shy because of XYZ, being scared because one guy is very unpredictable, etc. I’ve heard that there are so many pandemic babies like him. My lo didn’t have any other exposure other than a few therapists and myself for 1,5 years of the pandemic. Then we started safe playdates with a few other moms, and he became best friends with all his playdate buddies. I want to mention that he is so good at maintaining friendships that we had to take him to Chicago to see his pandemic best friend that moved out😁
Another issue that we face now, but I am sure it is common, is separation anxiety. As I mentioned before, he was always around me, even during therapy sessions. So leaving the house is so hard. His dad ends up taking him outside and looking for me. That is what calms him down. We are working on this right now. We had another issue caused by therapy sessions - the inability to play independently, the main reason I canceled therapy earlier. I had to work with him, and we can finally see that he has become more independent. He is a picky eater, which I am still working on, but he does eat a lot of different dishes that we had to introduce 100 times before he started enjoying it, but he just doesn't like new flavors, and it takes him forever to trust me and try something new.
None of his therapists could solve this issue. I think it's just the way he is. We had a hard time with potty training, but I’ve decided to give up, and by his second birthday, he just shown interest. We dropped diapers cold turkey 😁 He doesn’t have an ASD diagnosis. Even during follow-up evaluation, when I had already canceled ABA therapy, the coordinators said he would never qualify for ABA with reports he has now. I don’t know what will happen when he is at school, he is only three years old, and besides drop-in classes, where I stay with him, he never was in the school settings alone. I can definitely say that he struggles with separation anxiety and mild social anxiety. I will update you in a few months about our progress. I wrote so much! Sometimes I am asked about my son’s development and what helped us overcome problems. I always say books! I spent a fortune on books, but then I started going to a public library, and we started checking out so many different books. Some books literally helped him overnight with sharing, taking turns, recognizing emotions, etc. Nice playtime is always helpful. The days I don’t play with him, at least for 30 minutes, are the days when he starts being shyer, more antisocial, shows behavior problems, and is clingy. I strongly suggest taking care of yourself, your emotional state. They do feel everything. I didn’t follow this rule, I was crazy worried, and you could see that it affected poor baby. If you have any questions, I will happily answer them.