Expert: Catherine Ridenour - 6/29/2006

Question
Thank you. I will wait until the speech therapist starts. I actually do not know for sure if they will want to use sign language.

Should I contact our school district even though we will be getting in-home early intervention?
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Followup To

Question -
I was wondering how to begin teaching my son sign language. I will be getting help with this within the next few weeks, but I would like to start as soon as possible.
My son is 18 months old and may have autism. He says no words, does not point, does not imitate. Should I just do hand over hand? How long should I try at one sitting?

Answer -
Hi Cheryl,

I hope you have had a professional evaluation done of your son. You don't say who has recommended sign language. Speech therapy should also be included in his program from the beginning. The fact that he does not talk now is no proof he can't learn to do so and speech acquisition happens best BEFORE the age of three. The human child is normally wired to acquire language very early on.

Now, America Sign Language IS a language and will foster intellectual development. The only problem is he will be limited to communicating with the few people who also can sign. Ideally, sign can be used as the bridge to speech.

While I actually learned some sign language a number of years ago, I would not recommend you begin before you have the help of a sign instructor. You don't want to teach a gesture that turns out to mean something totally different to your son and to the teacher. Learning is hard enough without unlearning.

As to how to get your son to participate...how do you get him to do anything else? How does he get what he wants now?
These are keys to his avenue of communication. Some autistic children do not communicate in any way that we can decipher, some develop a gestural system of their own. Many parents play an elaborate guessing game to stop the tantrums that accompany the child's frustration at not getting his needs/wants met. Each child is different and work an individual timeline.

As he grows, watch for food and feeding issues. If he is rejecting anything new or eats only a very limited diet, get occupational therapy to help him learn to accept the taste and textures of other things. Don't wait until he's seven and eats only french fries from McDonalds. I'm not making this up, I actually heard from a mother in this situation.

Your local school district is obligated to supply therapy at no cost to you provided he has an official diagnosis from a doctor or other qualified health professional. You don't have to wait for him to be school age. Disabled children qualify from birth. It is unfortunate that autism is diagnosed so relatively late. Of course, you may already know this, but it terrifies me how many parents don't know or are afraid to ask.

Here is a list of web sites to explore. Educating yourself is the very best thing you can do for your son. He will need you to be his advocate.

http://www.patientcenters.com/autism/news/resources.html (books and resources)

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/asperger/asperger.htm (the definitions and government links)

http://www.autism.org/temple/meds.html (about medication)

http://www.autism.org/ (many links to information)

http://www.autismasperger.net/intro.htm (Stephen Shore’s web site which has books, links and useful information)

http://www.angelfire.com/pa5/as/asteachersites.html (teaching resources)

http://groups.msn.com/TheAutismHomePage/toilettraining.msnw (toilet training) Check this one out soon.

Best wishes,
Catherine  

Answer
Hi Cheryl,

As I understand it, early in-home intervention actually comes from the school district or their "educational services district."  You can ask the therapist what the parent organization is. If it's one of the above, they already know about him.

Be sure, as he grows up, to take advantage of adaptive pre-school programs. He learns social skills and YOU get a break. Parenting an autistic child is a 24/7/365 job. Burn out is common. Take good care of yourself so you can take better care of your son.

Best wishes,
Catherine