The end of January of 2008, we noticed something had changed in our daughter. She wasn't aware of what was going on around her. Just in her own little world. If fact she didn't response to us either, her own parents. Jim and I sat down to discuss what we were witnessing. Within a month or so Jim brought up Autism to me. I researched it and no she didn't fit the key points of no affection or isolating herself or playing with spinning things. So it was dropped.
In July of 2008, I set up to have her hearing tested. Her first test was below average, but not low enough to say she had a "Problem". This was done in the office, in a box, that had a sound come out of the left or right side of it. The a little stuffed animal lite up on the side the sound was coming from. I didn't feel like it was accurate at all, since Sydney only looked that way when the light came on for the animal. I asked about doing a more accurate test for her age. Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR)
A test that uses electrodes (wires) attached with adhesive to the baby's scalp. While the baby sleeps, clicking sounds are made through tiny earphones in the baby's ears. The test measures the brain's activity in response to the sounds. As in EOAE, this test is painless and takes only a few minutes. The results, "Good news, her hearing is normal." But I just walked out of there even more confused. That made no sense for how she was acting. Now what?
I called First Steps to ask for assistance with her speech. Before, when I had called for Zoe they wouldn't even do an evaluation. Now they were asking how soon could we set up an evaluation. In August of 2008, Sydney started speech therapy plus another therapy that was suppose to assist the speech therapy. During that time we were introduced to Signing Time, a form of sign language for young kids. Boy did Sydney take to that. She loved it. The best thing was we found if she could sign the word and visualize it, then she would try say it. Of course, this is over a 6 month time frame that we began to start using signing to try and say a word. One of the therapist asked if I'd ever heard of Autism. No, never. She just politely said that she couldn't offer anything else but I might want to do some research and had I ever heard of a sensory diet? No again. What do you eat on that? It's not that kind of diet, it physical.
September of 2008, my parents are over for dinner and my dad says they would like to talk to us. We send the kids in the other room and sit down to see what's up. My Dad asks if we have ever looked into Autism. Why yes I have, she loves affection. She is always wanting hugs. My parents point out that only from Jim and I. And we always give her full body, big hugs. I asked my dad if he had done his homework, which I knew was a silly question. Then why don't you print off what you've read to support your theory and show me what you mean. The next day I was at work and Jim at home. We didn't know that both of us were on the internet checking out what my dad had said. Well we called each other and asked if the other one had looked on line yet. Then dead silence. We both knew that we needed more help for our little girl.
Which by the way, this whole time our pediatrician would tell me not to worry. Sydney didn't talk because Zoe and her were 17 months apart. We've had 5 children between the two of us. We knew it was more than that. In fact, she never was any help and I ended up firing her and finding someone new. This doctor was in more denial about Autism then I was.
In October of 2008, First Steps also evaluated her for Occupational Therapy. We were told she should be on a sensory diet. I told them she was already on a gluten-casein free diet. LOL. No sensory meant something completely different. We had to brush her and do joint compression so many times a day. Then swing her, with a twirl. But look to see if she changes colors or her eyes move back and forth to fast. This means she has had enough or to much. Then the therapist wanted to use paint and play dough. Really??? The 2 least favorite things of mine to pick up in my house. But here we are playing with play dough. She put Sydney in a bag of ball pit balls and would shake her around. Sydney loved it so much, I found one a bought it. Funny thing was, both Zoe and Sydney would get into the bag and want to be thrown around together. It ended up becoming a favorite event with kids that came over.
Still Updating::::
We first got Sydney's diagnose of having Autism, in December 2008, just a few days before her birthday.
We also got on a list with Touchpoint to help families with Autistic kids and how to deal with compliance. Well, this process was not fun at all. We had to make her ask for something. She had never asked before, because of her 17 month older sister, who did the asking, Sydney just patiently reaped the benefits. The first tantrum we had lasted 3 hours. The hitting, screaming and throwing herself was horrible. We knew we had to stay strong and luckily I had to go to work. So poor Dad got to finish the tantrum, and won. Over the next couple of months the tantrums got fewer and fewer, plus not lasting as long either.
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