cc6 ... I know it sounds like I'm against the diagnosis itself but I am not. I am open to it ... I just want to make sure that's what he really has and want to explore other possibilities as well. The diagnosis was based on a 30 minute evaluation. And when the diagnosis was made a lot of things I told the evaluators was taken out of context (I realized it reading the reports afterwards) ... such as when I mentioned he counts objects and recognizes numbers to 20 ... the report said ... "repetitive behaviors - rote counting" ... and other things like that. That's why I don't want to just go with that diagnosis and be done with it. Especially when it doesn't really help with the fine motor skills issue. The recommendations were mainly behavior therapy when what we're seeing is figuring out what is best Speech and OT for him. I hope that makes sense?
Other than that, I don't have a problem with my child being Autistic if that's what he is. I find people having a lot more patience with him when I disclose it (like Emergency room at the hospital, etc.) ... it's like a magic word that suddenly gives more patience to everyone around.
But the lack of certain movements of his mouth (along with serious lack of skills when it comes to his hands) ... there's definitely something that needs to be checked out. When I mentioned it to the speech therapist he had with EI her response was have him make faces into a mirror (he smiles / laughs but does not stick his tongue out at all (tried like once!), doesn't make any other faces like other kids do, can't pucker his lips.
He had a small birth defect where there was a small hole in his bottom jaw bone. So it just makes me wonder, if there was a defect in his bone structure, no matter how small, how do I know for sure there isn't something wrong with the muscle structure as well?
