If you thought your toddler might have cancer and were told that you had to wait nine months
or two years for an evaluation by an oncologist it would be completely unacceptable.
Yet, parents are often on wait lists for months or even years to see a developmental pediatrician
or other autism specialist for an evaluation.
After the diagnosis there's often a wait too for behavioral therapy.
Today I'm going to give you three action steps you need to take at the first signs of autism.
Hi.
I'm Dr. Mary Barbera, autism mom, board certified behavior analyst and best selling author.
Each week I provide you with some of my ideas about turning autism around.
If you haven't subscribed to my YouTube channel, you can do that now.
Back in the late 1990's when my son Lucas started showing signs of autism soon after
his first birthday I was completely oblivious.
Even after my husband Charles, who is an emergency medicine physician, first mentioned the possibility
of autism when Lucas was 21 months old I told him I never ever wanted to hear the word autism
again.
I remained in denial for over a year.
One of my first video blogs back in early 2017 is on denial.
Back then in the late 1990's the wait list for an evaluation for autism were only a few
weeks or maybe a few months maximum.
Today all around the United States and in many other parts of the world too the wait
list for an autism evaluation are usually several months long and sometimes even years.
This is a huge problem because research done starting three decades ago showed that if
autism is caught early and treated aggressively with ABA therapy recovery is a real possibility
in almost half the cases.
When an infant, toddler, or preschooler starts showing signs of autism it's critical parents
take action.
I wrote a free guide awhile back called, is it autism, ADHD or typical toddler tantrums,
three steps you can take today instead of worrying.
I'm going to cover those three steps right now.
The first step is to know the milestones for every age.
Sure, there's going to be variation in development but it's very important that you know when
the child should roll over, when a child should start with one word utterances, when a child
should point and when they should start putting meaningful short phrases together.
If you see one or more delays in your child you need to move on to step two which is to
make a sick visit with your child's pediatrician or physician so they can help you really determine
if your child is showing delays.
If they are, they can also hopefully connect with you some services in your local area
and most importantly get you on a wait list for a developmental pediatrician or some other
physician who can diagnose autism.
The third step is to learn about ABA, which stands for applied behavior analysis and is
the most effective treatment for kids with autism and it's really helpful for kids without
autism who have some delays too.
In my two decades of experience the child who have the best outcome have at least one
parent who gets out of denial quickly and learns to be the captain of the ship to try
to teach the child needed skills as soon as symptoms appear.
To learn more go to marybarbera.com/toddler-ws and sign up for a free online workshop where
you can see me working with kids with and without autism and here are some of the success
stories of the children I've worked with over the years.
It's time to stop waiting and worrying about autism and take action today.
Leave me a comment or subscribe to my channel for more autism videos and I hope to see you
right here next week.