Is it time to think autism

Fifteen years have passed since my third child was diagnosed with autism. Back then the statistics of being diagnosed with autism was 400 to 1. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007), the odds of a child being diagonosed with autism today are 150 to 1.

I vividly remember my first concern, “why isn’t my son talking”? My son was around eighteen months when I began to question, “something being wrong”. He looked perfectly normal. He was a bit hyper but that did not make me suspect. The pediatrician eased my concern by saying, “it takes some children longer to learn to speak, so don’t worry, he is perfectly normal”. A year and a half would pass until a diagnosis of autism would be made.

Prior to the “official” diagnosis my husband and I had taken our son to a local developmental testing center where it was suggested that we have our child’s hearing checked. It happened that the creator of the TEAACH center in Ashville NC was in town and agreed to casually meet us at the local McDonald’s in order to observe our child’s interaction with our family. After visiting with us, his overall impression was not one of autism. We were relieved that our son actions didn’t jive with that of autism .

Although somewhat relieved, we continued to seek an explanation for our child’s lack of language development. We followed up by having his hearing tested. The hearing test revealed normal hearing. The developmental testing center then advised us to have an MIR (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) done on our son’s brain to see if there were any physical abnormalities.

We drove three hours to the hospital who would administer the MIR. After checking in, the nurse administered medication which was suppose to cause our son to sleep, but resulted rather in producing a very hyper active two year old. For an MIR to be sucessful the patient must remain still. After about an hour of waiting for the meds to calm him, it was decided to put an IV in his arm to administer stronger medication, or to reschedule. With so much time and effort invested in the trip; there was no question but to continue forward with the test.

I can’t find the words to tell you how terrifying it is for a mother to see her little two year old so afraid and uncomfortable. I had to hold his little arm while the nurse inserted the needle. He cried and looked up at me with his big brown eyes as if to say, "mom why aren't you rescuing me"? Once the medication was administered I was able to hold and comfort him until he fell asleep. The MIR was taken and the results came back with NO abnormalities!

Well, praise God, but what next? What could possibly be preventing our child from talking? Earlier on, his vocabulary was, mama and dada. What was suppressing our child’s language?What other tests would we be willing to subject our son to for an answer?

1. Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007).

The story will continue!