Susan's Blog

Friday, November 29, 2013

Our Favorite Autism Therapy: Time

I wrote an essay, published by WBUR/NPR, related to the new findings that autism may be detectable as early as 18 months of age.  I’m not convinced that this is the best form of research we could pursue. Autism resources are frontloaded into the early childhood years. As Nat’s mom, I gotta ask: “What about the grown-ups, and all that they need? What works for them?”

posted at 7:28 am 1 comment

1 comment

I know it IS true that autism is detectable by 18 months.D was “unofficially” diagnosed at 15 months at a toddler autism screening, the “first words ” project. There were many things suggested to us that we implemented right away, which included giving him 25 or so hours a week of engagement and force him to request for everything. Cheerios went into baggies that he had to bring us to open, toys were on shelves to high for him to reach. I often wonder where he would be now if we hadn’t implemented those things so early on, because he has made a lot of progress. So it is my experience that the sooner the better, but I certainly do not think other research should be discounted. He is currently part of a different research study right now at age 9. I agree that the research should not be frontloaded and hope that my son’s situation is indicative of more research being done across the board. Autistic individuals are capable of making substantial progress at any age.

— added by eileen on Friday, November 29, 2013 at 5:54 pm