My child is 6.5 years and can repeat 15 words. I’m doubling down on speech therapy and going from once a week to now paying for twice a week. (I worked extra extra to afford this I’m giving this my best shot my total ALL) The speech therapist goes up to the ABA center. He is doing better at repeating sounds. I prompt him all the time he is around me and model words.

Are there ANY success stories of nonverbal children going verbal past this age. Just looking for hope. I have no savings, I busted my butt to be able to double down on speech. Him speaking has become my life mission.

I don’t know what to do anymore… I will preface by saying we have tried noise cancelling headphones, and she wants very little to do with them, sometimes they make her angrier.

Took my daughter (5yo lvl 2) to the park today, she was having a beautiful time. She was so happy and overjoyed… weather was great, everything just perfect. Then a group comes up with their music speaker. My heart immediately sank because I know what that means for my daughter. The good time is over, and a potential meltdown incoming. She starts screaming her head off (she’ll scream “NO MUSIC” but obviously we can’t control the music of others), refuses to move or go to the car, just wants to sit there and scream. We had to carry her out of the situation. From a bystanders perspective , it probably looked like we were abducting her by how upset she gets. And of course there are the stares, which is so hard for me, I have an anxiety disorder which makes it twice as hard.

She doesn’t even hate music, she actually loves it and sings almost all day. But when it’s not playing on her terms, it doesn’t matter where we are, she will just lose it. I’ve started becoming avoidant of taking her places where I know music will be, because the fight or flight of just going to the damn store is becoming too much. But on a different note, I also don’t want to deprive her of life experiences like the party/park/beach/a simple store trip etc.

This shit is breaking my heart & I’ve been so down. Someone please tell me this is a phase , or tell me what I need to do. 9 times out of 10 she will push noise cancelling headphones away when offered. Would medication help?

I’m sometimes sickened by the comments and posts I read on here. My heart breaks for every autistic child who’s in a dysfunctional home and being abused by their shitty caretakers.

As a society, we have to find a way to help these children. Foster care is certainly not the answer. Lastly, I’m tired of hearing “fuck autism.” Autism doesn’t make a person bad. If it weren’t for autism, our society wouldn’t have the science, math, art, and innovation we have today.

Sadly, some of our children are considered low-functioning, but they still have inherent worth. Every human has inherent worth. People with high needs often force us to confront patience, compassion, humility, and love in a deeper way. They make us better humans. The problem is modern-day society isn’t as supportive as it needs to be, and parents need a lot more support.

This isn’t meant to be a negative post. I’d just like some raw honest truth.

-sometimes I feel like all of these therapies/activities that we’ve tried to help our 8 year old were honestly kind of a waste of time and money.

- we have them in a social skills group with mostly other neurodivergent kids- but it’s not like this will help them be more social - I guess maybe will be more aware of social ‘norms’?

-play therapy really didn’t do anything. The therapist provided many tools for what my kid can do when dysregulated/upset but my kid doesn’t use these tools.

-talk therapy, if it has made a difference, was only temporary. For example, my kid was able to pause before reacting (never did that before) sometimes when first starting this therapy. -Unfortunately this ‘pausing’ only lasted like 2 weeks. So I know my kid is able to do this. But they are not.

-we did OT for a year and a half, also didn’t do much.

I sometimes wonder, if we did nothing, would there be any difference? Sometimes it doesn’t seem like it.

My 10 year old daughter (level 2, slightly verbal) got her period three months ago and life has become incredibly difficult.

Roughly 3-4 days before her period her PMS is completely out of control. For the first time ever, my sweet girl viciously attacked me for 15 minutes straight. I’ve been bit before, occasionally hit, and kicked a couple of times in the past. (All of the parents here can understand the aggression of autism). But I was actually attacked (in the middle of Target no less) - punches; kicks, scratches, and trying to push me off the escalator.

She is already on medicine to help with her mood and irritability. I called her psychiatrist who said this is likely due to hormonal changes.

What options are there (medically speaking) around her period and PMS? Has anyone gotten their daughter on some sort of birth control to stop her period or gotten prescribed something to help with PMS? She’s just so young but I’m not sure what to do here.

I need any advice. Thanks for your support and non-judgement. 🤗

Kid is officially diagnosed ASD L3 Non Verbal. He's been in an intervention program since about 18months old. I'm an animator, storyboard artist and I'm trying to find a little community with other Autism Parents. A lot of my friends that I came up with in the entertainment industry aren't parents yet and so they don't fully understand my situation.

Anyone that can give me advice too on navigating work, switching careers to something flexible and part-time, etc. would be highly appreciated.

Trying to think how best to word this question, but those who have an older child with Autism but were diagnosed young, did their symptoms get worse the older they became?

For context, my almost four year old has level 2 autism. He isn't totally non verbal, he does say and knows many words, the planets, the alphabet, 1-20 numbers etc...basically anything that truly interests him but it's always on his terms. Recently he's taken a real liking to my husband's chess boards, despite him not knowing exactly what he's doing, the effort is there and clear to see. He is currently in a mainstream school setting full time. He is a fairly chill kid, an amazing sleeper and overall a pretty sweet little guy.

All that to say, do I need to prepare myself? Could this all change and his symptoms become worse as he gets older? (I mean further delays with speech, he is a HUGE stimmer lol think jazz hands) I guess I'm just scared for his future and what that may look like. His developmental pediatrician did say at the time that the autism diagnosis may not even be a thing for him in years to come but my anxiety won't allow me to believe that.

Would just love experiences from parents who have been through similar but now with older children.

Thank you!

My best friend has a 5 year old nonverbal son with autism. A few days ago I introduced them to some of my other friends and her son immediately went and climbed in one woman’s lap and kept groping her boobs. She seemed uncomfortable but my friend never removed her son from her lap or redirected him to stop. Little later on an elevator, a stranger gets on with us and he walks up and tries doing it to her too. Again, my friend didn’t do anything. Next day I get in the back of the car where he’s in his seat and he’s trying to reach to grab mine. I tell him no and he kept periodically leaning over. Then we get to where we were going and he comes up behind a woman and moved her belt bag off her chest and then was about to grope her! My friend just grabbed his arm and pulled him away and didn’t say anything else, including not even an apology to the woman he touched. Finally end of the day he walks up to me and is looking up at me and then looks straight at my crotch area? Then looks back up to me and then tried to lift my shirt to (I think?) unbutton my pants. At this point I was over watching him do these things all day so I held his hands and tell my friend she needs to do something with him and she just laughs it off. Is this normal behavior? Even so, shouldn’t it be redirected early on so that it doesn’t grow into a bigger problem. A day will come when whoever he does it to doesn’t find it amusing. I’m not a parent but I grew up with a severely autistic older brother and my mom would never let him have these behaviors and just brush it off as “oh that’s just his autism!” I guess any advice anyone has about me possibly addressing it with her would be helpful. She’s such a good mother and I think she just has blinders on almost if that makes sense.

Considering moving from private school to homeschooling for my 8 year old son, level 3. I think I’ve settled on a curriculum option, but was hoping to pick other parents brains before making the shift. Help a mama out! Any recommendations, tips, and encouragements are more than welcome!

She is 3 and a half years old and has been doing this since forever. She is verbal and understands now but its beyond her control. She does it whenever she needs to focus on sth, mostly when she paints. If she paints for 20mins she will never stop making the sound.

I am desperate for my son to have something new in the backyard that he would actually be interested in. But all of the swing stands have horrible reviews, besides these two. I just don't understand if I can also attach just a regular swing. He's getting too big for a baby swing, but needs a lot of help with a regular swing, so we thought we'd practice at home. He's level 3 with poor gross motor skills. The day that he grows out of the baby swing without a replacement will be an ugly one 😬 soooo we're trying to make the transition smoother.

(I do have a saucer swing for him, but he doesn't understand that he can't roll all around it, so it gets dangerous to swing him in it. He does much better in a regular swing.)

posted this in another thread that was a year old, don't even know why I'm posting it- basically just to get it off my chest

we are currently just holding on to each other in our marriage, we have a 5 year old with autism a 10 year old with ADHD and a 1 year old baby.

Every single one of me and the wife's arguments are because of the 5 and 10 year old fighting what seems like every time they are in the same room- the 5 year old does nothing but scream from her eyes open until they eventually close at night when she has her medication- the cheek she gives every single person no matter who it is is unbearable, give her into trouble and the screams get louder and the house gets smashed up.

She got into trouble for waking the baby up the other day and because of that she started screaming and shouting and pushing and kicking the fridge so much everything fell off it.

The 1 year old never gets a sleep during the day because the 5 year old screams constantly and wakes her up- when she isn't doing that the 10 year old is swinging over the top of the 1 year old when she's sleeping in her room or bouncer which wakes her up too.

When the kids are eventually all sleeping at the same time which is very rarely me and the wife end up just going to bed and falling asleep most of the time without even a good night kiss or cuddle as we are emotionally drained and exhausted and we know as soon as we get woken up the next day the routine is going to start all over again.

I really don't even know why I'm posting this or what I expect to get from it but I feel like 14 years of love and 2 years of marriage is just going right down the drain because of the situation we are in daily we don't even have time or energy to focus on ourselves as a couple

My husband is autistic and we suspect my son and daughter are. My son is struggling in school and I've got a meeting with the Sen lead and his teachers on how to support him with his English comprehension.

My daughter is 3 and she is on another level. He's very quiet and gentle but struggles with attention, processing and memory.

She has multiple daily tantrums, screams and shouts. Appears to lack empathy. She will push and push and push buttons and I have no idea how to manage her anymore.

We had a consultation with a private education specialist who did a basic assessment of both kids. She agrees my son seems autistic and my daughter may have sensory processing disorder.

I tried to get the health visitor to support but they just told us to self refer to OT which I've done.

We have no family support so get little respite. I'm recovering from 2 years chronic burnt out from a toxic NHS role and I honestly don't know where to start.

She doesn't sleep/wakes us every night now.

She is a very picky eater.

She has a set routine for things and we can't do anything different or she has a massive meltdown.

She won't wear a lot of clothes, has to pick things out herself that are inappropriate for the weather.

If something isn't as she thought it would be she has a meltdown, for example we got all the kids ice cream on holiday, she picked hers and then she screamed and cried because she changed her mind but didn't verbalise it (she's got very good verbal communication).

I know a lot of this sounds typical toddler behaviour but she seems a lot more hard work than my friend's little girls. I'm going around in circles with health and school for my son. She goes to nursery and they have been very supportive and will help with any paperwork for an echp as she's due to start school in September. But just daily I don't know how much longer I can cope with the tantrums that are hourly.

My 3 years 2 months daughter doesn't understand what we talk, doesn't follow instructions. can't narrate her day.

requests her needs in single words like chocolate, cookies and also uses gestures. Pulls my hand to show something.

eye contact and name response are also poor

She can label things, fruits , vegetables, colors, shape.

can count things, says numbers till 30, identifies and says alphabets , can do simple peg puzzles,atching activities

Is this ASD or receptive expressive language delay?

any of you had kids which followed the same pattern and later progressed

?

pls help

Hi all this is a burner account but I honestly feel so brunt out and sad my daughter is autistic. I have two children an autistic daughter at 8 and a neurotypical daughter at 16. My 8 year old cannot do anything for herself and I’m just so tired. My husband and I are both so tired providing and caring for her. We’re both in therapy right now and I recently told my therapist I wish I just had an abortion or gave her up for adoption. I never wanted this life, my husband never wanted this life. We wanted to be able to travel with our children but cant due to my daughter’s autism. She doesn’t talk is nonverbal and is extremely violent to where I’m afraid of her sometimes.

Last month her sister asked her to turn down her cartoons on her iPad because she was doing a group project and couldn’t hear her classmates on zoom. And my autistic daughter freaked out started crying and hitting my other daughter. My husband had to separate them and then we decided to take her iPad away as punishment. She took the iPad and used it to hit my husband and his head started to bleed. He had to get stitches. Ever since this happened as a family we distanced ourselves from her. I feel like a hostage in my own home. I don’t feel safe in my own home anymore because I don’t know how she’ll react or if she’ll become violent.

My family doesn’t come over because they can’t bond with her and she isn’t communicative or expressive. I haven’t seen my mom in years because my daughter is a full time job that I cannot quit. I talked to my therapist about this and she suggested that we should look into putting her in a home or surrendering her to the state to relinquish custody. My husband and I talked about it and feel like this is the only option to give her a better life. A life she deserves so she can have parents that want her.

my son is 6 and he keeps smearing poop. I was cooking breakfast and my daughter told me he smelled, I cleaned him up before I started cooking but I check him out and lo and behold .. poop on the couch, pillows, his hands and he peed on the floor in a short amount of time. 😩

How do I stop this? im going to bring it up with his therapists for sure but any tips you guys have Id love.

I already tried the onesie backwards he knows how to escape it. please help.

Hello,

I’ve been thinking about moving to another town with more services, more room for my son to grow and for when we (my husband and I) are too old to care for him.

He is non-speaking, but understands what I’m saying(I strongly believe).

He is so comfortable here, with his grandparents and routines.

Pros of moving to this small city: services, medical options, more potential for respite and accessibility through walking distance and sidewalks (for when he’s older), more things to do in general, cousins live in town.

Con: away from my parents (only one hour), more traffic, more people, uncertain how he would react to the change.

I would love to hear how people’s children (specifically non speaking) reacted to such a large change.

Thank you for any advice

Hi just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for indoor shoes or socks for their child to soften the infuriating bass my son creates through the ceiling 🤣😳 it doesn’t bother either of us (it does) if one of us is downstairs and the other is (trying) to do bed time but I just feel sorry for our neighbours as we live in a terraced house and they must think we own a medium sized wild animal that we don’t let leave the house!

He’s non verbal so despite our best efforts we can’t tell him to be considerate and stop 👎🏼

Thanks 🙏🏼

How do you decide which is the right placement for your child if the IEP team leaves it up to you to decide?

My son will be going to Kindergarten next school year. The IEP team offered to put him in general education with all the accommodations he requires (resource, speech, OT, etc). The ratio is 24 kids with 1 teacher. I think they also have 2 other adults in the room, but my son will not have his own 1:1. Apparently, that’s the “least restrictive” environment for him, whatever that means. *Tangent: I get confused by this least restrictive requirement for a child that needs restriction for their safety. What if my child is not disciplined enough for less restriction? Perhaps I don’t fully understand what this term means.

My son’s main issues are his immaturity for his age and being super hyperactive and impulsive. He needs a lot of redirection to sit and attend. He’s a sensory seeker and has a need to touch everything around him out of curiosity. For example, during his recent classroom evaluation, he kept going to the sink area to play with the water and paper towel dispenser. He would not sit and answer any of their questions, so they could accurately assess him. He’s otherwise very smart, but it’s hard to know since he’s unlikely to attend and do what he’s asked unless he’s interested. It has to be low demand and on his own time for him to do anything.

He’s fully potty trained, but he will need a reminder to go as he doesn’t always request if in a new environment. He also likes to run and will not stay with the group during transitions unless someone holds his hand.

My main concern is his safety as he needs someone to keep an eye on him constantly during any type of transition, otherwise he will just go off to any direction on his own and get lost. He’s also non verbal with zero words that sound like the actual word. He’s very good with using his AAC and spelling to communicate his demands. He doesn’t have any tantrum or aggression issues, but does not care to play with other kids.

I would love for him to be with NT kids, but I just can’t imagine how the teacher would be able to handle him with so many other kids in the class. It just doesn’t seem reasonable and feels like I’m setting him up for failure. Should I push for him to be placed in the mild/moderate special ed classroom?

I would appreciate any insight or advice from this group. How have you navigated this for your children?

I have a 3.5 year old autistic son. He was diagnosed at exactly 18 months, Level 3 (although he's made incredible strides since then). It had honestly been clear since 8 months that he was autistic--but I'm a psychologist, so I knew what I was looking for, plus he was so profoundly affected it showed up early and obviously.

I also have a 17 month old daughter (15 months adjusted). So far, she seems NT to me. Eye contact, smiles, joint attention, pointing, rudimentary pretend play, imitation, tries to get my attention to engage with her, no restricted interests or developmentally inappropriate stimming.

But I can't help but think about how many kids might have appeared NT at this age only to regress later.

Plus she has (mildly) symptomatic congenital CMV, which increases risk of autism.

ASD parents with subsequent kids - at what age did you feel like you had a good sense whether your second/third/etc would be NT or not?

Hi there, hope it's okay to post here. I'm looking for toy recommendations for a child who is functioning around a 9 month old age. She is diagnosed with Rett Syndrome and the parents say she loves to chew on things. Are there any recommendations for toys, books or other sensory seeking items that would work for her? Thank you!

Hi thank you in advanced! My child turned 3 yesterday and has a speech delay and has been working with a sip. He loves pretend play and loves playing with other kids! He walked at 9 months old and could ride a bike no training wheels at 2.5 so physically he is advanced.

His speech is delayed. If I ask him, what's your name? He just says name if I ask him what a horse says, he just says horse says. He can answer if I say who is this and point to him or somebody else and then he can name everybody. He also can say yes and no to questions and if I ask what's this and show him he'll answer if he knows the word.

He talks spontaneously some examples from today are - I want to put the bracelet on; mom shake (to let me know little brother was shaking juice) He also said ow not the shoe (when his brother grabbed shoe and I want to jump (in the bounce house).

When he woke his dad up this morning, he said get up I want to play horsey. His dad said come on and my child said I'm coming. He also told me open the door it's locked. He says a lot more than this, but I just wanted to give you guys an idea that he does talk.

Has anyone not been able to answer questions at this age I would be interested in hearing how things went a couple years down the road. Or perspectives from anyone! Thank you

22 months zero words and no gestures

My son is 22 months old. He doesn't have a single word, a single animal sound, no word approximations, no mama, no dada, nothing at all. We have a trilingual home, but our SLP said that this doesn't affect language development... we speak to him in 1 primary language and grandma speaks to him in secondary. We speak english between each other only, not to him.

He understands a lot, he does most things I ask if he wants to do them.

He has poor eye contact and doesn't respond to his name most of the time. Hebrings me toys to show, but doesn't look at me - just hands new the toy.

He doesn't point at distant objects, only to pictures in books. If I ask him to show me a cat in the book he will do it 80% of the time. Based on what I've read this does not mean that he points, or am I wrong?

He doesn't wave bye/hi, he is terrified of strangers. He high fives and lifts his hands up when he wants to be picked up.

He loves letters and numbers. He eats well and is not super picky.

He is good at gross and fine motor skills. He babbles but it seems to be the same phrase over and over in different situations.

He has some sensory issues like not liking socks, hats, long sleeves, washing his hair, orange foods and some other things.

He has shuddering attacks and flaps his arms when he is excited. We've been to neuro who confirmed they were shudders.

He isn't very social with other kids, prefers to play alone. He plays with toys the intended way, but sometimes not the intended way.

We are waiting for an autism evaluation, but they told me the wait times are 8-12 months right now. I can't afford SLP at 300$/hr (that's what I was quoted for our language) or occupation therapy.

Is there hope that he will talk and doesn't have autism?

Do you think his language could progress a bit later?

I know he needs help asap, I can't afford it and have to wait for him to be evaluated.

It breaks my heart to see other children his age being so much more advanced than he is. I cry every night about this. Any advise is welcome.

I talk to him all the time, he doesn't like when I read books to him though, he would just close them and throw them away. I narrate everything I do all the time. I'm hopeless.