Autism

Today we had our follow-up with the Autism Community Network. The appointment was a similar evaluation to our first. Kaitlyn was more cooperative this time. That is, until they tried to sit her in a specific chair that had a tray (basically a high chair that was low to the ground). Our girl marches to her own drum and if she doesn't want to do something she just shuts down. The OT was a guy and didn't seem to have a great bedside manner. She loved the behavioral therapist, who was also a guy. He was really fun. We were there past 12. Long day.

The diagnosis: Mild to moderate Autism Spectrum Disorder.

They assessed her development in each of 7 areas in order to determine her developmental age - gross motor, fine motor, self help, problem solving, social emotional, receptive language and expressive language. Her strength was gross motor. Her weakest area this time was social emotional which is spot on with her daycare teacher's concerns. She also scored low on fine motor which surprised me. Perhaps that was more about her not being cooperative and us not knowing all of her skills.

She was given a 31 on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS). A minimum score of 30 is the cutoff for a diagnosis of autism on the mild end of the spectrum. Down from a 34.5 last time.

Her DSM-IV-TR (standardized criteria to help diagnose) was a 8 (up from a 5). A score of 6 or more is considered on the spectrum.

The most surprising thing of the visit is that they want us to do more than we are already doing. In addition to the school PPCD program, they want us to do additional speech therapy two times a week. She currently get speech therapy at school two times a week. They also want us to add behavioral therapy two to three times per week. I need to explore our options with our insurance and look for a place that can visit her daycare. Never a dull moment around the Aitken house.