Surviving Autism

Eight years ago of January 09, 2002, I gave birth to healthy, smiling baby.  The first time I saw her all the pains of giving birth were vanished.  She was a precious angel.

The signs of anything different about her was not present at that time.  After all doctors and even new born baby screenings could not really detect if there something wrong with a child and diagnose if a child will and has autism.

She grew-up like an average baby would.  She achieved all her milestones at an average age any other baby would achieve it.  Crawl,  smile, sit down on her own, walk, babble words.  She actually was a fast learner, she already knows how to sing We Will Rock You by Queen and Only Hope by Mandy Moore although the words were not yet that clear she had the tone and pitch perfect.

Until she turned two, everything changed.

At first I thought she doesn’t like her nickname to instead of her A nickname I changed it to her T nickname now.  But still the same problem persist, she doesn’t respond when being called by her name.  She completely ignores you like she can’t hear you.  I made some experiments on my own and made noises of the things that will make her turn her head .  It worked.  But the odd part was she still doesn’t respond when being called.  That’s when I decided to consult an expert.  I thought she probably is deaf or something or some part of her ears were infected or sort.

We went for a BAER test or Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response.  She was put to sleep and they had instruments put on her head to see how her hearing is.  It was normal.

Then we went to a developmental pediatrician who assessed that she is just globally delayed.  Meaning she delayed achievement of one or more of her milestones like on her case her speech and language. Other areas they may be considered globally delayed are delay in their fine and gross motor skills, and/or his personal and social skills.  That she will gain her speech and language at around six or seven years old the doctor said.