Andy's been officially diagnosed with Autism

It has been recommended to me by several health professionals to have Andy evaluated for Autism. I was told this would become more important around age 4 or 5, but the concern wasn't heavy at 18 months old, but mentioned to me. I recently realized that a lot more services could become available to Andy, should he receive a diagnosis of Autism, so I was interested in pursuing it, as he is approaching five years old.

My insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM), has to have several things
happen before they will accept a diagnosis of Autism. Once all of these things have happened, a case can be presented to them for the approval of the need for Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy. These things are: psychological evaluation, speech evaluation, and neurological evaluation.

The DMC Children's Autism center extensively interviewed me first, as part of the psychological evaluation, asking me "yes" or "no" questions about Andy's behaviors. A lot of the questions were, "since he was four years old, have you seen this..." Or they would compare when he was a newborn or toddler, compared to, since he was four years old. The next part of the psych eval involved a one-hour observation of Andy.

They wanted to see if Andy would share things with them. He did not. He keeps to himself while playing. They wanted to see if he would respond to his name when called, he does not. They mimicked having a sick baby in the room to see if he would show compassion or concern, he did not. They tried to see if he would try to draw them into his play, like extending toys to them, giving them something if they asked for it, would he look at them to want them to come join his play, he did not.

They met with the speech pathologist, and neurologist and looked at all the psychological reporting and observations. They had me come back in for a feedback visit. They told me they feel that in addition to Andy's mental and physical impairments, that he also has Autism. They said that it can be difficult to tease out what behaviors are from his developmental delays, and what is from Autism.

Andy also exhibits lots of hand flapping by his face, putting objects and his fingers to his mouth, covering his face due to loud noises or when he's frightened, and they feel these behaviors could be from the Autism part of it. He has self-injurious behaviors, such as head banging, and face scratching. He has frequent meltdowns, at any time , and at any place. He doesn't show awareness of what is socially right or wrong.

I have never had an opinion on whether Andy has Autism or not. I went through with these evaluations, because I want Andy to receive the maximum amount of services that he deserves. Now that he has this diagnosis, he can possibly start to receive intensive ABA therapy, which has been shown to very positively help children with Autism, developmental delays and other disorders.

The paperwork they sent home with us also shares several Autism websites and techniques that can be used to increase Andy's communication with us. I will list these below. The PhD delivering the news told me that one of the main goals of the ABA therapy is going to be to increase communication. Other goals include: increasing peer-interaction (responding to children, interest in peers), socio-emotional reciprocity (offering comfort), play and leisure skills (imitation, pretend play), shared enjoyment and offering to share. I cannot schedule any ABA visits until my insurance company approves it, which will take a couple weeks.

The documentation will also be helpful to submit to the school because it states that according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), for young children with a diagnosis of the autism spectrum the AAP recommends:

• Intervention consist of a low student-to-teacher ratio to allow sufficient amounts of 1-on-1 time and small group instruction to meet specific individualized goals. 
• Provision of intensive intervention, with active engagement of the child at least 25 hours per week, 12 months per year, in systematically planned, developmentally appropriate educational activities designed to address identified objectives.
• Inclusion of a family component (including parent training as indicated)
• Promotion of opportunities for interaction with typically developing peers 
• Ongoing measurement of child's progress toward objectives
• Incorporation of strategies to apply learned skills to new environments and to maintain functional use of these skills.

For further information regarding the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendations on treatment of children with ASD, please go to:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/120/5/1162.full.pdf+html

Here are the web resources they shared with me for Autism:

http://www.autismspeaks.org

http://autismallianceofmichigan.org

http://autism-mi.org/

http://michigan.gov/autism

http://www.asatonline.org/  (Association for Science in Autism treatment)

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm   (NIH Autism fact sheet)