As many of you regulars know, I have been so worried about this with Allie for some time now.

Back in October, we took Allie to see a developmental Ped at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. This place is supposed to be one of the best hospitals in Michigan. We took her there based on the recommendation of many of you to see this type of doctor for concerns about Allie's development (thank you, thank you!)

She conducted a very thorough evaluation, and promised to get us a report ASAP (within the week) so that Allie could start getting Early Intervention. To make a long story short, she did not give us her report until today, and it took a lot of work to get it. However, the most important part of her report is on page 4, which states:

"Her poor fine-motor skills limit her successes and since she cannot point, that has been some of the concern that she has some mild autistic features. She, in fact, does not meet criteria for autistic spectrum disorder secondary to her ability to follow simple commands, communicative intent, joint shared attention, emerging use of gesture to get her needs met (up) and lack of repetitive or stereotypic behaviors. "

So, it does not appear that Allie has autism, or at least in this doctor's opinion. Although she was so late in getting us her report, she seemed pretty knowledgeable in what she was doing, so that's good news.

What a relief.
Who's got the bottle of Dom Perignon? :drinkalot:

And, why did it take this doctor so long to tell us that? :sad3:

And, to top it all off, now that I see this report, Allie is doing all of the things now that she couldn't do then. Her fine motor delay that existed back then is now gone, and she is eating a little bit every day of solid food!!!!!! :yahoo:

Good times are ahead. Allie still has a speech delay, but I'm hoping that will turn around soon too.

Christyn

That is such great news! It is sure time to celebrate!:smt041:smt041

I sounds like there is a good story in how you finally got the report! Wow- you waited a long time!

Yea Allie!!!:yahoo::yahoo::yahoo::drinkalot::drinkalot ::drinkalot:

I sounds like there is a good story in how you finally got the report! Wow- you waited a long time!



You don't even know. Basically, after months of trying to get it, DH had to call and be put on hold all day yesterday and finally got a supervisor, who promised to have it to us before 9:00 a.m. today (which was finally done!).

:yahoo: That is great!!!!!!!!:yahoo: The way she has beening going, I am sure the speech will pick up soon too!!! Yeah Allie!!!!!!!!:drinkalot:

Outstanding!!!! You all must be so relieved! I know, at least for myself and having a child with some delays, that it's often difficult to see how far you've come until you're reminded of where you used to be.

:yahoo: Allie :yahoo:

thats great news for you

Wonderful news! Crap that it took them that long to send you the report and she's already changed since then, but glad you finally got it!

That's great news! Isn't it nice (even though you had to wait so long for the report) to be able to look back and see that progress that Allie has made! Keep up the good work, Allie!:smt041

Fabulous news! But you must've been sweating over this for months! GRRRR! :banghead:

But it is kind of nice to see where Allie was in October and how much progress she's made since then! :smt041

:yahoo: :yahoo: Hooray!!! Fantastic news!!! :yahoo: :yahoo:

:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

:smt041 :smt041 :smt041 :smt041 :smt041 :smt041 :smt041 :smt041

That's fantastic news Christyn! You must be so relieved!

:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

Awesome news!!!:yahoo: :hug: :yahoo:

What a long and stressful wait though!

:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:


I got butterflies in my tummy when I saw the title of your post, Christyn!!!!!!!

Christy, what made you think Allie had autism? I just was curious, I work in the mental health field and that is always in the back of my mind about Brice, not that he is showing any symptoms though. Thanks!!

By the way that is wonderful news!!!!

Pop the cork . . . CONGRATS- that is fantastic news. I can't believe that you had to wait so long. The past few months must have been horrible for your family. Here is to a bright future.

That is fantastic news. Why do these dr.'s have too wait so long with GOOD NEWS???? Yey Allie :yahoo:

How happy I am for you!!
what a relief you must feel...what the heck took so long to get this report?
:hug:

Christy, what made you think Allie had autism? I just was curious, I work in the mental health field and that is always in the back of my mind about Brice, not that he is showing any symptoms though. Thanks!!

Allie had a lot of the "red flags" they talk about. She didn't clap or wave bye-bye by one year of age, in fact, she just recently starting doing those (at 18 months). Feeding problems are a sign of autism, as well as the fact that Allie still does not point. We have been told that her eye contact is good, but could be better. She also has problems with speech and her expressive language, i.e. she understands us very well, but never really takes our hand and takes us to a toy. Or, when she wants something, she will usually just give up instead of seeking the help of an adult. However, she does let us know when she wants up (she will pull on my pant legs and scream uh-uh -uh until I pick her up).

But, it seems that Allie is doing enough to not be on the spectrum. I suspect she is just delayed, as she has pretty much always been, but we are making huge progress.

If you suspect this, you should get an evaluation done by early intervention. It's free and the therapy we have received from them has been awesome.

:hug: :hug:
Christyn

It must be such a relief to finally have the "official" word that she does not fall onto this spectrum!:yahoo: I wonoder why they made you wait so long for that? I understand about the report as it will likely be the end of next month before Iain's report is finished, but they told me right away at his developmental screening that he does fall onto PDD NOS or the autism spectrum. It might be that she had soft signs and the doctor needed to take a closer and subjective look at it, I do not know but she could have given you some indicator back then, I would think. It is insane to have to sweat out waiting for such reports for so long.

With Iain, she used a diagnosing chart and ticked off the criteria he met for it. She showed me the chart at the end and told me why she was feeling confident to say Iain is PDD NOS. It was a useful tool and I would have thought a universal tool as well. Maybe not?

Anyway, grab a well deserved drink, your Dh, and sit back and indulge yourself for a bit. :drinkalot:

:hug:

First of all - that's great news! But I cannot believe how long you have had to wait for the report! I think I would have lost if I ever had to wait so long for a report...I get impatient when I have to wait a week! That is great that you are seeing big improvements. I know we were so happy to witness Brayden's testing and see how far he came in just six months time...

I agree with Leigh - I'm surprised they didn't tell you that when you were at the appt. We saw the dev pediatrician the same day as Iain (I think). Our actually told us he wasn't autistic but still has troubling signs so she would diagnose him PDD-NOS in June if he hadn't made more improvements so he can continue EI sevices after age 3. I even got a report faxed to me one week later with more specific info..so I guess I should consider myself lucky that I am getting such quick responses (I did realize she was an awesome doctor right away though)

Thanks for explaining to me!! I appreciate and good luck with Allie!

That is fantastic news! :yahoo:

Allie still has a speech delay
I think that may be due to not eating as well as she should. That is what happened to Shae-Lynne b/c she didn't eat, the mouth muscles did not developed as they should. Roni taught her sign language which was a huge help.

Now Shae-Lynne never shuts up! I am sure Allie will catch up talking very soon!:smt041

Best wishes
Jean

thats great new im so happy for you