Hi, I'm Dr. Mary Barbera, Board Certified Behavior Analyst and author of the
best-selling book The Verbal Behavior Approach. You might be worried because
your child was recently held back or kicked out of preschool or daycare or
maybe you're just concerned that that might happen if things continue the way
they are. I know how that feels because when my son was young he was in a
two-year old toddler preschool program and the staff there started saying
mid-year that he was no problem in the classroom but that he was not engaging
with peers like he should and they were worried about him progressing to the
3-year old preschool the following year because the ratio of staff to students
was going to go up. So there were going to be more kids with less teachers. So they
recommended since he was a summer birthday that we actually hold him back
into the preschool toddler class and remain with the same teacher. They also
indicated at that point that they thought that we should get him evaluated
because they were concerned about his development. Lucas did go on to get a
diagnosis of autism and that year of him being in the toddler preschool was a
year where I should have taken more action. I was really hesitant to even
think about the possibility of autism. But I do see families struggling with
this and it's not always autism in fact most of the time it's not autism even if
a child does not progress to the next classroom or even gets kicked out of
preschool. But parents all over the United States and even the world are
struggling because why are their children not keeping up with their
typically developing peers. And more importantly what you can do
about it. So I wrote this four or five page action guide which you can download
right below this video. It's called Is It Autism, ADHD or Typical Toddler Tantrums
Three Steps You Can Take Today Instead of Worrying. The three steps mentioned in
the book and a lot more detail or these. Number 1: you need to know what the
milestones are of typically developing kids of your child's age. So if you have
a two-year-old or if you have a 15 month old or you have a three-year-old. The
best place that I have found is the CDC website which lists typical development
milestones. This is in the area of language and social skills but also in
the area of physical development so if you're worried that your infant is not
pulling themselves up when they should or rolling over or standing up or if
you're worried about your two-year-old, should they be putting two and three
words together, how should they be interacting with peers, should they still
be on parallel play or interacting more. So the link is within the action guide
below of the CDC milestones. So you need to know the milestones, compare where
your child is at, and if there are delays you need to take the next step which is
to contact your child's doctor and make a sick visit. Most people don't think of
making sick visits for developmental concerns but this is where I'd start.
It's also really wise to get an early intervention evaluation to get
standardized testing done free of charge in the United States so that you can see
standardized testing methods to compare your child's development with typical
development and see what areas are of concern and how far they are delayed. And
finally the third step in my action guide is to start to learn more about
Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA therapy because that is remains the most proven
therapy for children with autism and related disorders. So don't let people
tell you that oh it's just a just a mild case of autism, they don't need ABA or
they're too high-functioning for ABA or that your child just has ADHD, they
wouldn't benefit from ABA because the fact is that every child would benefit
from ABA therapy. And there are techniques that you can learn to do in
your home without paying or driving your child anywhere. So hopefully you have
found this short video blog helpful and I would encourage anyone interested in
more information to click the link right below for my free toddler guide. Thanks a
lot and I'll see you next week on the video blog.