Last month, August 10th to be exact, Liam had a big surprise for me.
The story starts with me deciding to put Liam in speech therapy, a little before his second birthday. For the past nine months, he'd only been saying two words total, and that didn't even include "Mama" and "Dada". When he'd learn a new word, instead of growing his vocabulary, he'd replace an old word with the new one; thus, always just two words. My efforts to teach him sign language over several months failed, even though his favorite movie was the "Your Baby Can Talk" signing video which he watched every day. And lastly, I couldn't get him to wave bye-bye. I'd had his hearing tested, so all this language delay worried me a little. Considered in light of my suspicions about John having some autistic-like issues, I didn't want to "wait and see," like many people suggested. So when I heard about FREE early intervention speech therapy, I made the phone call.
To determine if he was eligible for state-funded therapy, some evaluators came to our home and did a complete developmental evaluation. They said he did indeed qualify, and that they also noticed something might be just a little off with his eye contact and interaction with people, and he should get further testing. Well, okay. I didn't think very much of it. He seemed normal to me, aside from the lack of talking. So in the several months between that evaluation and the next, I put their comments out of my mind.
He started speech therapy and immediately began talking more. We were so pleased; he was learning so much; our smart boy was doing so well. He even learned all his letters and numbers! Five months later, the day came for the next evaluation. I thought the only outcome would be reassurance that he was just a "late talker." I pictured the evaluation team thinking, "You guys are cute for bringing him in. He's fine."
However, that isn't what they thought. They gave him a diagnosis on the autism spectrum known as Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified, or PDD-NOS (it's a fun mouthful -- no wonder the acronym). It could be described as "partial autism," because the diagnosis is given based on the fact that he fits some of the criteria for autism, but not all. About two-thirds. Many people have heard of Asperger Syndrome; this is similar disorder that is "on" the autism spectrum without being full-blown autism, because the symptoms overlap. You can read an "official" definition of PDD-NOS here.
I was quite in shock. I had convinced myself that nothing was out of the ordinary besides his lack of speech. He was making eye contact with me. Showing me things that interested him. Responding when I spoke to him. But apparently, just with me. Jeremy wasn't at all surprised: he told me, "Liam hardly ever looks me in the eyes." Say what?! Now you tell me?! Suffice it to say, I was the one to have my world shaken that day.
I could go on and on about all the thoughts this germinated while in the midst of closing on our new house, John's school year starting, moving into our new house, and being in a physical survival state during the last weeks of pregnancy... but that would neither be brief nor organized. The story of the diagnosis will have to do for now. I look forward to the stories to come, of Liam's development and progress, which have already begun. His future really is bright.
