DD1 will be 4 in July: his progress since the diagnosis

[tiredmummyoftwo]

I just thought I start a thread about the progresses our children have made since their diagnosis.

DD1 was diagnosed as having childhood autism at 2.5. At the time, he was able to count and recognise to 10, had about 50 single words, knew his colours and shapes, alphabets, was only eating yogurt and drinking mango juice, used to wake up every night about 2pm and never asked for anything, never pointed and never communicated verbally, only used to have huge meltdowns, potty training exercise ended unsuccessfully.

He will be 4 in July and now he is talking in 4-6 words sentences, points, asks for food when hungry, fully potty trained and even wakes up at night to go to toilet. Meltdowns are non-existent, answers questions, says yes/no, choices are great, turn taking not a problem, even following group instructions at school with little prompting, trying to initiate contact with other kids, but still does not know what to say except hello. He is asking where and what quesstions, but not why. Still waking up at night, but 1-2 nights a week, rather than every night. He never had any sensory issues and obsessions, so that was never a problem. he had delayed echolalia, but it is much better now, also developing good imaginitive play. Initiating play with his little sister, always wanting interactions with us and other people includign adults.

He can't still have conversations, still can't ask and answer what are you doing questions, having problem with prepositions.

Would love to know how everybodyelse's DD's are doing.

No experience myself but what a lot of progress he has made.

Hope others read and update on progress - even if not as much as your DS has made.

Good luck for the future.

Sorry to jump on your thread tiredmummyoftwo but your son at diagnosis sounds just like mine is now (2.5 and about to get diagnosis). Can I ask people who post on this thread to also say what therapy etc they tried and what they credit for the progress. We're trying to decide on options and it would be really useful to know whether the child just made natural progress or whether they had specific interventions. Thank you for starting the thread though it will be really interesting for those at the start of the process.

I will talk about ds' progress since his SALT assesment when he was just gone 2 y old as he only got verbal dx with mild ASD 8 weeks ago.

DS AT AGE 2 : had about 10 words to his vocabulary, pointed at things he wanted most of the time! (we taught him to point at around 18 months), had many tantrums when we couldn't figure out what was wrong, very emotional, tried unsuccessful potty training, eating solid foods (ie: family diner) was a nightmare, didn't like to chew so nearly everything was mashed , we fed him 95% of the time as he was so slow just sat there not eating or kept getting up. Had trouble falling asleep at night (this from birth!!!) and could be awake up til midnight!

DS AGE 3Y 7M : has about 150 words he use regularly , makes 3-4 words sentences, has some imediate echolalia, a tiny bit of delayed echolalia (only just started), understands simple commands and is ok with choices, but answers only yes/no /what!? to open questions , is just starting a few 'where, what are you doing?' questions but very limited, cannot subtain any conversation. Is improving with hard/solids foods but still very slow we feed him about 60% of his meals. Sleep is good now we have stopped any daytime nap. Is potty trained since january (it took nearly 7 months) but still has some accidents at times. Turn taking is ok, enjoys joint shared attention with adults ( especially me , hates sharing toys/food, imaginative play is very slowly coming on, has accepted his little sister (it took ages), has a few rituels and a couple of obsessions, very few meltdowns, but very emotional (laughter/tears/anxious) over not much.

DS had 1 lot of SALT last summer for 6 weeks , is starting the next lot this week. Speech has improved but not much to do with SALT as sessions are far too spaced out!

Mysonben, my DS's main diet still is soft food, but he shows interest in everything we eat now, he is even sitting through the dinner with us although he needs some toys to keep him busy. I don't know if it is the intensive ABA therapy he is receiving (10-15 hours a week), but he is a completely different child to what he was in January when he first started therapy. Although we feel that speech was coming to him naturally, his behaviour was really bad and he did not know how to use them to communicate. He never responded to us calling his name, we had to physically make him look, now he responds with a yes to his name first time most of the time. His compliance is 100% with everybodyelse except me (he takes real advantage of me DH says).
Juliaw, ABA has made a huge difference in my son's behaviour and communication skills. His therapist says there is a real chance that he will catch up with his peers in next 6 months if we could increase it to 40 hours recommended session a week, which we can't afford to. I see all the debate about which therapy, but the traditional salt made no differnce to my son.

Thank you Dysgu, future does not look as bad as it did at the time of diagnosis.

Mysonben, my DS ignored his little sister completely as if she was not in the house, but now that she is 2 and is able to follow him around or chase him around, he seems quite taken by her. Also she does not take no for an answer and very bossy, so he probably has no choice other than passing on the toys that she want, she grabs it from him if he does not give it to him, we are letting it to be like that for him to learn to fight back which he does not do at the moment.

would love to know the progress! would give me hope

@tiredmummyoftwo I would also love to know how you're getting on after all this time.