Hope this helps some of you

I don't want to give false hopes to some of you who truly have an autistic child, but I hope this does provide some hope for newly dx lil' ones. When my child was around 1 year, 9 months old (now is almost 3), he was dx with autism due to specific autistic symptoms: lack of eye contact, not interested in other people, really interested in mechanical things, lined things up like cars (which I think is normal for certain kids - personality styles), and expressive speech delay. I am a school psychologist and have an undergraduate degree in speech and hearing so I noticed his lack of eye contact around two to three months. He really didn't stare at me or others like most babies...he was, however, an easy going baby. So, I brought him into a pediatrician who specializes in Autism and she also reiterated my concerns and gave him the medical dx of Autism. We were then referred to a clinical psychologist who also specializes in Autism and he stated that our son was definitely Autistic. He did not have any reciprocal play, did not copy what the doctor was doing at all...didn't even care, didn't respond to his name...all of the telling signs of Autism. Oh, another symptom he had was that he HATED to get to be dirty, especially on his hands. He also didn't like touch that much; he started to use a spoon and fork at 10 months but never got food on his mouth...it bothered him. He would also sometime bang his head against a wall or floor for no apparent reason really hard sometimes, but didn't cry. He qualified for Early Childhood Services (birth to three) because the county diagnostician felt he was autistic, also. They even had a specialize program for him (he never went because we loved his current daycare). The psychologist couldn't test my son until he was 2 1/2 because most tests aren't standardized until that age (you just can't do it). When my child reached 2 years, 3 months, his speech was slowly picking up and he was a bit more interested in other people. At that time, I was supposed to make an appt for testing. I refused to have him tested because I knew that he still wouldn't follow directions and I didn't want the label of cognitive delay (basically saying my child is in the Mentally Retarded range). I don't want to get too technical here. I also so improvement saw improvement so I wanted to wait. Then around 2 years 4 months, drastic changes started to occur. He was playing with other kids, making eye contact, responding to his name, wanted to be held more, seemed to like touch more, smiled more, etc. His speech was picking up to, although it was still delayed (he was attending speech therapy). We saw same psychologist at 2 years, 5 months. My lil' one was extremely social with the psychologist, responded to his name, copied him during play, engaged in reciprocal play, and spoke more...the psychologist couldn't believe it and stated that our lil' one was anything but Autistic. He mentioned how the change was so significant. Now at 2 years, 10 months, he is the MOST social kid in daycare. He is a very happy kid, manipulative (I think a sign of intelligence), can take things apart and put them back together yet plays with other kids and even starts the play games, and is speaking in sentences. The other day he actually said, "Momma's hand is bigger." We were comparing hand size. A lot of kids don't even know comparatives yet ("er"). He loves to be cuddled and even strokes my hair at times, which he learned from me. He gets upset if I don't lay down with him for five minutes and cuddle before he goes to sleep. He is extremely gifted at nonverbal activities. He has used a screwdriver to unscrew the remote control and took out the batteries...we didn't teach him and thought we had put up the screw driver; he puts together puzzles (not at an extremely high level, but is good) and can make things out of blocks extremely well. He is still a very anal kid. If he sees trash on the side of the road he needs to pick it up (I don't let him and he gets a little upset - dirty), he still lines up cars but doesn't care if they get messed up, he wants to make sure the grocery cart is a little straight but can deal with it if it's not, and if he sees something broken he MUST FIX IT, or he will have a heart attack...he is very good at fixing things...got it from his dad. The other day he saw a sign that said "rest room" and actually pointed to it and said "rest". Perhaps I was just hearing things because it seemed too unreal, although he has done that before..Also, if he sees someone crying, he immediately goes up to them and gives them a HUGE hug and kiss and looks at them directly in the eye!! Anyways, the purpose of me telling you this is to let you know that when a child gets dx with autism at such a young age - keep in mind, he may not be. There maybe another issue...my son may turn out to be OCD...although we are doing everything to help me not be so anal. Who knows..... The one thing I did for Nathan is I gave him Cod liver or fish liver oil - completely forgot the name and he only took it for about three weeks...then I forgot to give it to him...I don't know if this changed him...I doubt it but maybe. Also, even when he was 4 months old, if he wouldn't look at me I practically forced him to. I would move my eyes in his direction...he would always look away but I continued doing that practically all the time. I would also sometimes hold his head straight at me and have him look at me in the eyes, again trying to force him to look at me. I gave him about 15 hugs and kiss every hour and cuddled him somewhat tightly (he wasn't reciprocal at first and even didn't like the hugs). I went to the extreme with him because I wanted to try everything to help him. I also focused a lot of my time trying to get him to copy me. I did a lot of side by side play at first and slowly got him to copy me. Sometimes I would place my hand on top of his and get him to copy me (i.e., place a block on top of another). Also, daycare with other kids without disabilities did help him...I believe. The teachers really worked with him and used some of the techniques I did at home. I don't know if any of these things I did were the cause of his drastic change but he DEFINITELY showed all the signs of Autism!!! Seriously, now look at him!! He may be somewhat anal, but he is not autistic. So just something to think about. I hope this doesn't make others feel bad. My good friend is also a specialist in behavioral modification for autistic children (lives in a different state), and she has really helped kids, too!! Some kids have made drastic changes!