concerned about dd~dev. delays

You are describing my son, exactly.He said mama and dada for his foster parents and then stopped talking... by the time we got him at almost 2 years he wasn't doing anything but screaming and humming.A couple things...Our son's gait (the drunk walk) was HORRIBLE. It took him until 24 months to start walking and even then he walked very wobbly until a few weeks ago. We received UCB's (orthodics) and it improved his gait SO MUCH!Did your daughter do other milestones on time? Like crawling... was she a "good" crawler or was it disorganized? Does she do other things that would lead you to post on the autism boards? Does she spin or fixate on shinny/spinny things. Does she make "weird" movements with her hands or eyes (blinking a lot, looking at your out of the corner, top or bottom of her eyes) does she play strangely with toys? Etc.I don't mean to sound alarmist, but you are not wrong to think something is going on with her. Please have her evaulated asap with just the info you gave... the late walking and no talking I don't know that she is autistic, but something is going on!FYI, my son is pre-natally exposed to a similar plethora, just as your daughter... he is also brain injured and autistic and has sensory processing dysfunction. So! Post some more info or PM and I will surely give you a listening ear. Its very hard when your child is not progressing like you dreamed they would.

Thanks for your reply. I want to talk more and will pm you later. But I need to head to bed now. Just wanted to copy this over here to update. Thanks so much! Easter Seals has qualified DD for PT & Early Intervention services 4x a month. We had an appt with the pediatrician on Tuesday. She saw right away that DD was delayed and in need of services. On all the developmental questionaires I filled out she was consistently falling in the category of a 6-9 month old. She is almost 18 months. We had an appt scheduled for a hearing test, the ball is rolling with ENT and also with an Opthamologist to rule those things out. The pediatrician mentioned the possiblity of FragileX, mild CP, or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. She noticed a lot of what DD does falls into the autistic spectrum, yet she is pretty social so that makes her want to rule that out. I guess time and getting all these doctors visits out of the way will tell.

I am parenting a 5yr old who received an ASD (autism spectrum disorder) dx at the age of three. The most difficult thing about figuring out what is going on is that you are dealing with a spectrum of disorders. Each of them has their own set of diagnostic criteria, and each symptom can and does vary in severity, sometimes from day to day. There are children in my son's autism classroom who have a dx of classic autism and have NO sensory issues, while our son has many. Our child was ultimately dx with PDD-NOS. This is considered a part of the autism spectrum. He exibits some but not all of the diagnostic criteria for classic autism. It is also common for children with an ASD dx to have other dx as well. My advice to parents with concerns is to track the behaviors that you are most worried about. At the same time document what is happening right before the behavior is exibited, what time of day it happens and in what environment. This can be helpful for whoever is evaluating the child because no child behaves exactly the same in every single situation or environment that they find themselves in. Prior to going in for our evaluation I completed the online survey at [url=http://www.childbrain.com]Childbrain.com - Welcome[/url] and noted my reasons for every response. The developmental pedi. found this very helpful and it also prevented me from forgetting to mention something.

We are fosting a 3 yo with PPD-NOS. I just wanted to mention that our kiddo is extremely intellegent, and an amazing kid. Don't let the diagnosis be the handycap to the child.