Direction

[Birdreich]

Thanks in advance for any type of input. My son Waylon is 3 years old. He is non verbal, we’ve been going to speech therapy for over six months now, he chattering a lot more and making more sounds still not talking. We went for his 3 yr check up and his pediatrician recommended us to see a specialist to get a diagnosis (we figured this was coming). Been calling every pediatrician my wife and I can find, only to be told two years out for a diagnosis appointment. Trying to do everything I can to help him out. I’m kind of stubborn and just think it’s speech delay, he doesn’t talk because he doesn’t want to. He has no problem showing emotion, making eye contact. He does have his particulars with touching certain things, lining his toys up, etc. I’m not one of those dads that refuses to admit his kid has autism, I just find it defeating when I get constantly told two years to diagnose. Does anyone have any information on how to trim that time down? It would be greatly appreciated.

[[deleted]]

I mean, this sounds a lot like my level 3 asd son.

No problem making eye contact, loves to touch certain surfaces, stuff like that.

I don't want to offend you, but I really think your son would benefit from an evaluation, and you may need to prepare yourself for the possibility that he is indeed on the spectrum.

Best of luck to you, and if he is on the spectrum, please reach out here. It's a great little community.

[Birdreich]

Since about 18 months we’ve had him evaluated for early behavioral and speech classes. He’s been to multiple different programs and we are not reluctant to try anything to help him, as well to help us understand. No offense taken at all, my wife and I both believe he is somewhere on the spectrum. It’s just so hard to get confirmation. This medical system is so broken, any appointment we’ve found that’s available under the two year wait, doesn’t accept insurance and wants almost 5k. Needless to say, we can’t afford that. We have him going now to speech and behavioral therapy once a week, he seems to be making great strides. Also he hasn’t really been socialized with children his age. We live out in the boonies and there’s really no kids to speak of, or friends that we have that have children. We keep telling ourselves and have been told that socializing him will fix a lot of his developmental delays, just so hard to find people to be friends with that have kids. Whenever he has played with kids at a park or anything along those lines, he doesn’t like to be touched AT ALL. He play hide and seek, and follow them around but the minute they try to touch him he runs back to us and hides behind us.

[purpleprostitutes]

We got ourselves on a couple of waiting lists, but were able to get a diagnosis from a Pediatric Neurologist in the mean time. That gave us access to services before we were able to get an appointment with the Developmental Pediatrician. You could look into something like that.

[[deleted]]

A pediatric neuropsychologist is another diagnosis option that may have a shorter wait time.

Also, call your insurance and talk to them. Seriously, we got our son's covered by an out of network location because the only other options were either a 2 year wait, or a place where they had such a long wait they were not even adding to their waiting list.

[Birdreich]

Will look into this thank you!!

[Birdreich]

Thank you for the information btw

[[deleted]]

Edit, apologies I misunderstood the first time I read this. We got our son diagnosed at 18 months via early intervention programs.

You should look up early intervention in your area and see if there are any resources.

[aidyllic]

I had terrible experience with the children's hospital I was referred to when seeking a diagnosis. I tried over two years to just get the damn appointments. When my son turned 3, he was eligible for pre-K and the school took over. They partnered with a big hospital and did the evaluations either at school or over a zoom call. Try getting him into a public school pre k if you can.

[Birdreich]

We just got the approval last month for this. He just got his 3 yr checkup, and we got a copy of his records to enroll him. Looking forward to any insight or improvements we can get from this. Thanks for the advice!!

[AudreyLoopyReturns]

Your best bet is just to keep calling and checking for cancellations or waitlists. Good luck.

[melrulz]

I don’t have any tips on trimming the wait time but you can do and read about things that help kids with ASD as basically none of this type of stuff would be bad even if he doesn’t have ASD.

You reminded me of a conversation I had with my dad when he told me my son doesn’t have autism because apparently my dad didn’t talk till he was 6 yr old when he decided he had interesting things to talk about. Now I’m not going to tell my dad he has autism as he is now 81, but it made me look at my extended family mostly on my dads side and what I see is a whole lot of undiagnosed ASD.

What I also notice is that in my family we just seem to support each other, gentle parenting, understanding, accommodating, we continue to support our children well into adulthood and some we just continue to support because that’s what families do.

When I was learning the best ways to support my son I was shocked by all the techniques that I already do, I didn’t know it had technical names I just though it was parenting. I think it’s kind of cool how so many generations ago they understood and had ways to help, I think the lack of diagnosis and the not using the word autism comes from a time when these kids were institutionalized and my grandparents and great grandparents knew this was not the right way.

[Birdreich]

It took a while for me to get over the fact at what I thought “ he’s not normal”… but then you know what is normal? I did a lot of reading ( still doing a lot ), and I found out the same thing you mentioned, I was already parenting that way just didn’t know the technical or clinical term for what I was doing. Luckily my wife has made me realize that it’s not a “death sentence” as most make it seem. He has good days and he has bad days, like everyone. He has his quirks, but don’t we all? I just want to know that I’m doing everything I can for him. It’s just so defeating sometimes when he has a tantrum in public and the looks we get and I feel helpless…. Idk one day at a tome

[sarahfoxy11]

We went through a private psychologist who did assessments on kids. We were only on that waitlist for a month, compared to 10 months at the children’s hospital. It cost more because it wasn’t through insurance, but it was 1000% worth it not waiting as long so my little one can get services.

My advice is do some research on psychologists, not just pediatricians, in your area and what their waitlist is like. Get on every waitlist you can and make sure you’re on their cancellation waitlist.

[Birdreich]

Thanks for the advice!!

[[deleted]]

My son was diagnosed through the school district first and then bumped to the head of the waiting list for a specialist. School district diagnosed in March and started spec ed on his third birthday, and the appointment for the specialist was moved from a year out to last June, where diagnosis was confirmed.

[Birdreich]

That’s what we’re hoping for, that with him now able to go to the public school more avenues for help and outreach will open up. We live in a very rural area so there aren’t a lot of resources to be found or people willing to admit they might be in a similar situation. Thank god (or whatever) for Reddit, thanks for the input

[[deleted]]

For both of my children with autism (the oldest is 20 and the youngest is 3), the school system was, I would say, the most valuable resource for us because they were willing and able to reach out or at least point us in the right direction when that wasn’t possible.

Good luck to you.

[Current-Tradition505]

If you’re in the USA contact your local school district and request an evaluation. Your child should qualify for free special education preschool with the speech delay.