ConquerAutism.com ASSIST Blog

There are many theories on the environmental triggers leading to autism.  After your child received a diagnosis of autism or the related autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), you probably spent considerable time looking for a reason or cause.  It is important to understand that there may be hundreds of different things in our environment which can cause autism.  It is critical to determine your child’s unique sensitivities in order to avoid them and to tailor a treatment plan.  As far as we know, there is no one cause of autism and no single cure.

The causes of autism are all very controversial.  They should be considered not as established fact, but as theories and possibilities.  However, don’t dismiss them for lack of proof; it is simply not possible to test them.  Toxic heavy metals such as lead and mercury are highly toxic to life and are known to cause developmental disabilities.  Exposure to these elements may have contributed to your child’s autism.

Lead is a potent killer of brain cells (a neurotoxin).  Even short-term exposure to small amounts of lead by a fetus, infant or young child can cause permanent learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, and reduced intelligence.  Lead was banned from paint and gasoline in the 1970’s, but it still poses a serious threat through contaminated soil, plumbing, old painted surfaces, vinyl mini-blinds, and lead in toys.  Lead poses a serious threat to all children, but may be much more devastating in children with a genetic or biochemical predisposition to autism because the pathways to rid the body of toxic heavy metals like lead and mercury are often seriously flawed and ineffective in these children.  High lead may show up on a blood minerals test you can give your child with the help of a physician.  If it is higher than average or if you live in a home built in the 1960’s or earlier, you should purchase a home lead testing kit. The Lead Inspector® Lead Test Kit was recently reviewed (December, 2007) by Consumer Reports as being one of the most accurate available.  They cannot accurately detect low levels and can be fooled by dirty surfaces, but if you follow the directions and consistently get a strong positive reading, it is time to throw away the object or call in the experts.  Almost every city has lead remediation services that will come to your home.  Don’t forget to test plastic and wood toys, interior and exterior painted surfaces and to do tests at any location where your child spends time - like at a daycare center or friends’ homes.  If anything changes in the house, like remodeling a room, or scraping paint from woodwork, or if the exterior paint begins to wear off the house - retest!  Unfortunately, your child may have a problem with lead toxicity and still have a low blood lead level, because many autistic children cannot excrete toxins like lead.  This means it gets trapped in the tissues of their bodies where it does great harm and cannot be detected with routine blood tests.

Mercury is a naturally occurring toxic heavy metal that is present all around us.  It can be found in the soil, in the water and in the air.  There is no longer any sensible debate over the facts that; 1) mercury is dangerous to our bodies, 2) mercury poisoning can cause neurological symptoms in humans and other animals, and 3) fetuses, infants and young children are more sensitive to damage from mercury than adults.  Mercury is released into the air by coal-burning power plants, comes down in rain, is absorbed by bacteria where it is converted into the organic form (methylmercury), and is carried up the food chain into the bodies of fish and then to fish eaters.  Once absorbed, methylmercury gets stuck in the body and does not leave easily.  You might think it would be easy to avoid mercury poisoning by just not eating fish.  Unfortunately, mercury is also used in a number of industrial processes which can contaminate the environment and most insidiously, is a component of preservatives used in many vaccines.

Currently, there is great controversy concerning the link between mercury poisoning and autism.  An unbiased review of the scientific literature will point to studies saying there is no connection and to studies concluding there is a link.  Some of the most convincing evidence is a comparison between the symptoms of mercury poisoning and autism.  The symptoms are so close that there can be no debate that many of the symptoms of autism look just like mercury poisoning.  However, from this comparison alone we cannot conclude that mercury can cause autism.

Unless your family eats a lot of oceanic fish (like tuna), lives near a coal-fired power plant or near a factory that spews out mercury, the main source of mercury for most of our children will be from childhood vaccines - the shots we are told will protect our kids may be their worst enemy.  The villain of this story is a preservative called Thimerosal. It is 50% mercury (by weight) in an organic form called ethylmercury.  The saddest part of this story is that this is a totally avoidable risk.  We know this is almost impossible to believe, but every time you brought your baby in for routine shots they were exposed to more than 100 times the amount of mercury considered safe  (by the Environmental Protection Agency) for an adult! Your baby’s exposure was even higher if the mother received an influenza vaccine or a RhoGAM® injection while pregnant.

Thimerosal is a very effective chemical.  It prevents microbial contamination so effectively that vaccines can be produced and sold in multi-use containers rather than in single dose vials.  Per dose, it is slightly cheaper to manufacture this way.  Given the huge number of doses produced each year, this adds up to significant savings to the pharmaceutical companies who manufacture and sell vaccines.  As early as 1935, Eli Lilly, the maker of Thimerosal, began receiving scientific reports on the dangers of this preservative.  In the 1950’s and 60’s, several scientific papers were published concluding Thimerosal was toxic.  In 1971 Lilly’s own scientists concluded Thimerosal was toxic.  The company kept secret, then disregarded these findings, and expanded Thimerosal use to a topical disinfectant - resulting in the death of 10 newborns.  In 1982 the FDA concluded that Thimerosal was too dangerous to include in over-the-counter products.  In 1991, Thimerosal was banned from animal vaccines.  In 1999, the Public Health Service (PHS) agencies, the American Academy of Pediatrics and vaccine manufacturers agreed that Thimerosal should be reduced or eliminated in vaccines as a precautionary measure.  In 2001 the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine stated that removal of Thimerosal from vaccines was “prudent”, but in 2004 concluded the connections between Thimerosal and autism were only “theoretical” since the exact method by which this toxin allegedly caused autism were still largely unknown.

You might think that this disgraceful history would mean that Thimerosal was permanently banned from any medical or veterinary use, but it was not.  You might also think that a link between autism and Thimerosal was easy and obvious, but it is not.  There have been a number of other scientific studies that conclude there is no linkage between Thimerosal and neurological injury in humans - and equally compelling studies that conclude there is such a link.  Thimerosal use has been reduced and eliminated from childhood vaccines in many states and countries and still the rate of autism continues to go up in these places.

Many scientific studies have been done to find out the “why” and “how” of Thimerosal toxicity.  It seems Thimerosal damages many parts of the body, including brain cells and the immune system - even when present at very low concentrations.  One interesting study compared the level of mercury in hair after vaccination.  It found that mercury levels in hair were lowest in the most severely autistic kids and higher over all in typically developed children.  This agrees with what we now know about autism - many autistic children are poor at removing mercury and other toxins from their bodies. This study provides a clue to why our kids ended up with autism and most others do not, even though they probably all got the same level of mercury exposure.  Our children may have been born with genes that predispose them to develop dysfunctional detoxification systems incapable of efficiently removing toxins like mercury from their bodies.  The bottom line is the best science we have at this time cannot PROVE mercury or Thimerosal causes autism.  You and your doctors cannot even be absolutely sure that your child’s autism was caused by Thimerosal.  It may be that some kids with autism are MUCH MORE sensitive to ethylmercury poisoning than the population in general. If this were not the case, we would be a nation of autistic individuals, because almost all of us have received unsafe levels of mercury through our childhood vaccinations and flu shots.

So what should we do as a nation and as parents?  It seems sensible to ban Thimerosal and other mercury containing preservatives from ALL drugs.  The extra cost involved in single use vials is tiny compared to the price most consumers end up paying for vaccination - to say nothing of the lifetime cost of treating a person with autism.  We have no reason to believe the FDA will take responsibility for this, so it is most important that we as parents do.  You must insist that ALL vaccinations you receive (if pregnant) and those given to your autistic child and their siblings be mercury-free and in single-use vials or pre-filled syringes.  This includes childhood vaccines and flu shots.  Your pediatrician or health professional may think you are crazy and try to convince you of the safety of the multiuse vaccine.  Stand your ground on this issue!  Ultimately, YOU are in charge of your children’s health care, and physicians need respect the decisions you make.  One good way to make sure the vaccines are mercury-free is to request this from your health care provider in writing and insist on a written record of all vaccines including manufacturer, batch, and lot numbers.  You can, and should, check the safety of vaccines prior to having them administered by checking the SafeMinds website.  If the doctor won’t accommodate your requests for mercury-free vaccines or won’t give you the batch and lot numbers upon request - you need to find a new one!

You can choose to delay or avoid childhood vaccinations but this poses a very serious health risk, because they will be less protected from some dangerous diseases.  You also will not receive much support for this decision from your medical professionals or the school system your child attends.  However, under some circumstances, you can officially abstain from childhood vaccinations for “religious reasons”.

It is very important for you to try to figure out the environmental triggers of your child’s autism.  You need to protect them from further injury and since there is strong evidence for a genetic link to autism, there is a chance their siblings will have similar sensitivities.  However, if your child’s autistic symptoms are linked to toxic heavy metal poisoning, you are not helpless.  You need to do all you can to detect the toxin and most importantly, you need to remove the toxins from their bodies as soon as possible.  There are some very reliable tests that can be administered and some safe treatment options once toxicity has been established.  This information is reviewed in detail in the book Conquer Autism, available at http://www.ConquerAutism.com.

In the 1940’s and 50’s, the prevailing “wisdom” concerning autism was that it was primarily a psychiatric problem caused by disinterested and cold parents. This must stand as one of the cruelest and misguided opinions in the history of medicine. It placed blame on the people who were suffering the most, already felt embarrassed and scared, and were in the best place to help. Rather than trying to understand the disease, medicine wasted time and the lives of autistic children by focusing on psychoanalysis and blaming parents.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to pioneers like Bernard Rimland, Ph.D., an experimental psychologist who, like many of the brave groundbreakers in the field of understanding of autism, is the father of an autistic child. These pioneers have taken an intellectually honest look at autism, and have shown their colleagues and fellow parents of autistic children that autism is a complex set of flaws in the chemistry of life. These biochemical flaws affect many different organs and systems in our children’s bodies. This is a powerful sounding conclusion, but don’t be fooled, there is still much we do not know about autism. What we do know is there are genetic, immune system, gastrointestinal, detoxification, and neurological aspects that probably affect all autistic children. These biochemical flaws are influenced by the environment our kids develop in to produce the varied collection of disorders we call autism and autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs).

Should we relegate the “disinterested parent” cause of autism to the junk heap of wrong science and medical quackery? What made well educated and presumably well intentioned practitioners even think to blame parents? It turns out there are probably things we can learn from their errors. There is a body of scientific literature that describes “Institutional Autism”. This work observes that there are some overlaps between the symptoms of true autism (a diagnosis of one of the ASDs having a biochemical basis) and a syndrome experienced by children placed at a young age in neglectful institutions such as poorly operated orphanages. Do not imagine this is just a casual overlap or just poor socialization. “Institutional Autism” can be highly regressive and feature all of the worst symptoms of the disease our kids suffer from. So, what can we learn from this? 1) One of the roads leading to the symptoms we call autism is very different from the ones we typically recognize and think we understand; 2) maybe one way of understanding the problems faced by our autistic children is that they do not experience the emotional bonding, socialization and language signals they need to develop normally. This does not mean that we as parents are at fault. The problem may be that their biochemical flaws make them unable to perceive or benefit from the contact we give them.

There may be no relationship between Institutional Autism and our children’s disease. However, the possibility may serve to open your eyes to some of the possible roads to autism and help you cope with the certainty that many approaches you try to treat your child’s disease will not be effective. You need to understand the unique road they took to arrive at a diagnosis of autism in order to make them better - and that is going to be difficult! The book Conquer Autism, available at http://www.ConquerAutism.com is a comprehensive guide to the causes and treatments of autism. It describes a rational approach to diagnosing and treating your child’s disease, and gives you the tools you will need to navigate the rough and dangerous waters of living with autism.

Autism and the related autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) are very serious and complicated in every way.  It is obvious that they affect your child’s speech and language, but also impact emotion, hearing, digestion, immune system, strength, coordination, and future ability to live independently.  If you want your child to get better, you must accept that autism is a disease of the whole body, not just a learning disability or a mental health issue. Once you have accepted this fact, the road to recovery opens up before you.  It will be bumpy and long, but the path becomes clear.

If you are new to autism, you might get some comfort in knowing that the immediate post-diagnosis period is the toughest.  You just got hit with a life altering bit of news and probably know very little about how to move forward.  We were paralyzed for weeks until we made contact with a group called Defeat Autism Now (DAN!) which is supported by the Autism Research Institute.  It is absolutely essential that you look up and contact a DAN! doctor.  DAN! is an organization of scientists, physicians and parents whose members believe in a biomedical approach to treating autism and ASD.  This means that they accept that autism is a disease of the whole body, and acknowledge that there are effective treatments for autism.

Most DAN! doctors are fully trained and licensed medical doctors.  They are not any less qualified than similar doctors who are not DAN! certified. They simply believe in a rational and scientific approach to treating autism.  Your pediatrician or general practitioner or other specialist went to medical school at a time when autism and ASD was not well understood, and most received almost no training in recognizing or treating it.  They are likely to tell you that you are worrying too much about your infant/toddler and that they will grow out of it.  The best you can hope for is a prescription for Ritalin or similar drug.  If you tell them you are thinking about seeking help from a DAN! doctor or tell them about some of the biochemical therapies you learn about, you are likely to get an “are you crazy” response or a patronizing attitude.  YOU MUST get beyond your blind trust of your pediatrician.  They are often great doctors, but more often than not, know nothing about the causes of autism or how to effectively treat it.

Your DAN! doctor should act as your partner in finding a cure for your child. At first, they will know more than you do about the next steps.  They should listen to you and your concerns.  They should help you learn about the causes and treatments of autism.  They will act as a gatekeeper, giving you access to biochemical testing and treatments that require prescriptions.  They will help manage and coordinate the various treatments and make sure there are no adverse effects.  DAN! doctors are absolutely essential to your child’s recovery, but you are still the Captain of the ship.  Having a DAN! doctor is not an excuse for not understanding autism and the treatments available.  Our book Conquer Autism available at http://www.ConquerAutism.com will provide you with all the information you need to get started on the road to recovery!

Autism is a serious disease can affect all aspects of development and result in a lifetime of disability.  Although not commonly acknowledged by the Medical Profession or in the popular press, there are effective treatments available for autism.  One of the most important first steps to treating this disease is getting an accurate diagnosis of your child’s abilities.  The information will open the door to critical clinical services like specialized education programs, speech, occupational and physical therapies.  These services are an essential part of your child’s recovery.

As a part of the diagnosis of autism or one of the autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs), you should get a neuropsychological evaluation which spells out in plain English the developmental deficiencies your child has.  You have probably recognized many of these problems yourself and the evaluation should accurately reflect your observations since you know your child best.  However, you might find yourself exaggerating your child’s capabilities and getting angry when the evaluation claims your child can’t do something you know they can.  This is the natural parental defense mode kicking in, but you must try to avoid this tendency.  It is VERY important to get a good and objective clinical appraisal. The neuropsychology evaluation should contain the results of a parent interview and the results of an inventory filled out about your child.  The Conner’s Parent Rating Scale-revised(S), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale are common and important components to a complete neuropsychological evaluation.

A neuropsychologist with experience in autism and ASD will know which additional tests are most important for your child.  One common and important test is the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-III).  It has both verbal and visual components. This is very important because one very common and telling aspect of autism is extreme unevenness between verbal and visual skill. Your child might be years ahead in performing some visual tasks and way behind in things like word reasoning or the ability to name words on cards.  Some of the most frustrating aspects of these tests are that your child might be fully capable of doing the task if you ask them in just the right way or when you know they are receptive - and might be completely unwilling to pay attention when the clinician is administering the test.  The social/emotional limitations of autistic children make it hard for them to understand the importance of doing what adults tell them to do.  It is really not necessary to fully understand the nuances of the various tests - that is why you are paying a neuropsychologist.  You just need to be convinced they are doing an adequate job assessing your child.

There are other early evaluations which may be carried out on your child. These include behavioral psychology, occupational therapy and speech pathology.  At this point, the more evaluations the better, as they will accurately document your child’s status and open the doors to special services your child needs. Be sure to carefully file all these reports in your reference book, organized by type of test.  As your child is reevaluated, be sure to keep your records filed chronologically as well.  For example, behavioral problems documented by behavioral psychologists can be used to argue for placement of your child in a specialized private school or autism program.

Once you have an accurate diagnosis of your child’s disease, you can move forward and begin treatment.  Effective treatment has two parts; identification and treatment of the unique biochemical problems at the root of their disease and clinical services to give them the skills they did not acquire during development.  If you don’t follow through on BOTH parts of the treatment, your child will not reach their full potential.  For more information on effective treatments for autism, go to http://www.ConquerAutism.com.

Play is very important in the lives of all children.  There is excellent research showing that play is the most important method by which children learn.  It is very clear that children with autism or related autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) play differently than typical kids.  Whereas an average toddler might play with several toys in rapid succession, an autistic child will often fixate on one toy for long periods of time or only play with one particular toy.  Children with autism will often play with toys unpredictably.  For example, three very common play-traits are lining up objects, fixating on a minor mechanism of a toy such as staring at a spinning wheel of a toy car and destructive play like peeling off decorative stickers.  Most children with autism will not engage in play that is obviously imaginative.  This can be hard to pick up on its own, because ASD kids often do not have much speech and rarely seek out playmates (or you) to play with.  Another autistic behavior that can look like play is waving hands and fingers in front of the eyes

Another recognizable sign of autism in young children is the way they move when playing.  Some kids seem to transition from toddling to track star/gymnast.  They run, jump, hang and swing like little adults.  Children with autism are often weak and uncoordinated, with poor muscle strength, balance, an immature running gait, and delayed gross and fine motor skill development.  Because of this, they often do not engage in running games or climb around on the monkey bars.  It is quite common to find an child with autism standing alone and flapping his/her hands and arms rather than engaging in typical playground play. One very common manifestation is an inability to go up and down stairs without support.  Look at how you and typical children climb stairs - continuous and smooth, with one foot per stair and no need to hold a hand rail.  Autistic children often use an immature and choppy two foot per stair gait and depend heavily on hand rails for stability. Climbing stairs is so done so frequently that it is a good way to measure your child’s progress as they begin to conquer their autism.  However, they may need significant help from a physical or occupational therapist before they master this task.

Somewhere around the age of 3-4 years, most kids will begin to play with other children rather than playing separately but side-by-side.  Children with autism commonly lack the social skills necessary to initiate or engage in cooperative play and subsequently do not develop typical cooperative play behaviors.

Little kids love to show and tell.  They thrive on shared enjoyment and seem to want to teach their parents in the same way they are taught.  A normal kid may look up at the sky and point to an airplane with a joyful “AIRPLANE” or something similar.  Autistic children often do not exhibit any shared enjoyment or exhibit a need to “teach” or “show” their parents.

Whether you are new to autism or an experienced parent /caregiver, it is VERY important to learn to recognize the sign and symptoms of autism and ASDs.  It will help you to understand your child’s strengths and limitations and is a critical skill when observing your child’s progress towards recovery.  To learn more about recognizing the signs and symptoms of autism, and about an effective approach to treating autism, go to http://www.ConquerAutism.com.

Speech and language are an essential part of our existence. Autism is a disease that robs our children of this most important human trait. Learning to recognize the common problems faced by children with autism will help you to understand the disease and how to help your child.

Learning to speak seems like an absolute miracle, but is actually a highly evolved and orchestrated skill pre-programmed into our developing brains. It is such an essential part of our existence, that it can be hard to imagine life without it. Try looking at or thinking about an object without using its name. Think about a time you were in a foreign country or in the presence of people who did not speak your language. You may have felt disconnected and uneasy as you tried to use your communication skills to no avail. Failure to speak is certainly the most easily recognizable and difficult aspect of autism or a related autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). It hinders our ability to easily teach our children about the world around them and about how to behave in that world. The most common early sign of autism in a toddler is slow or no language. Sometimes words will be learned and used for a while, but they are soon lost or used inappropriately. The brain is hungry to learn and use language, however, and depending on how compromised the language learning “center” is, this can manifest itself in some surprising ways.

Echolalia - the repetition or echoing of sounds made by another person, affects more than 75% of people with autism or an ASD. It often comes across as sophisticated speech out of nowhere, with long and intricate sentence structures. You might hear a familiar slogan or advertizing jingle (delayed echolalia), or get an exact recitation of the words you just spoke (immediate echolalia).

Scripting - Scripting is the repetition of long spoken passages that have been heard, and is very common in autism and ASDs. It is an extension of echolalia, but tends to be longer and less immediate. A typical script would be bits of dialogue from a favorite movie, TV show or cartoon. The scripts can be surprising long, and frequently the child will repeat the dialogue from all the characters, as if reading through the script.

A skilled speech pathologist will redirect echolalia and scripting towards true communication by listening carefully to the script and building communication around the subject matter. With some help from a speech pathologist and a heavy dose of patience, you too can learn the skill of redirection.

Scripting can be used to begin teaching communication and socialization skills. Having sure fire conversation scripts helps build the give-and-take skills of real communication. For example, a script for seeing someone for the first time would be to say “Hello, how are you today” or if you want to play with a toy you can say “I would like to play with that, may I have it when you are done?” The child may not fully understand the meaning of the script, but these phrases are a great way to provide a scaffold on which a conversation can be built.

As they get older, autistic children will often refer to themselves by name and have great difficulty with the proper use of pronouns like I, he, she, you, we, and they. They will also rarely ask you questions and will have a hard time asking or answering who, what, when, where, how, and especially why questions (collectively known as the “wh” questions). Older children with autism or an ASD will often fixate on their own narrow interests and speak without allowing their conversation partner to talk or not show interest in what others have to say.

Recognizing the signs and symptoms of autism and ASDs is important for initial diagnosis and for monitoring progress towards recovery. To learn more about the signs of autism and effective treatment options, go to http://www.conquerautism.com.

The Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) was designed to assist parents, physicians and researchers to evaluate treatments for autism. The Autism Research Institute (ARI) offers a no-cost internet scoring procedure that calculates four subscale scores and a total score from the ATEC. The scores are weighted according to the responses and the corresponding subscale. The higher the subscale and total scores, the more impaired the subject (your child). You can get a copy of the ATEC here. If your child has a diagnosis of autism or an ASD, or if you suspect there is a problem you should fill out an ATEC form to record your ASD child’s starting or baseline score. Be sure to be very honest, you do them no favor by exaggerating their skills. Once it is filled out, you can go to the ARI website and fill in the information. They will score the information and send you a report.

For more information on the signs, symptoms and treatments for autism go to www.conquerautism.com.

The American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) has published a set of red flags that indicate a child should have an immediate autism evaluation. These are:

• No babbling, pointing or other gestures by 12 months
• No single words by 16 months
• No 2-word spontaneous phrases by 24 months
• Loss of language or social skills at any age

To learn more about the signs, symptoms and treatments for autism go to www.conquereautism.com

The checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT) is a set of diagnostic criteria that can be used to screen children at 18 months of age. This is a big improvement over the more traditional criteria because it can catch autism earlier. It is designed to be administered by a physician but is easy enough that any parent capable of being objective can administer it. The first part consists of nine YES/NO questions:

1. Do they like to be swung and bounced?
2. Are they interested in other children?
3. Do they climb?
4. Do they play peek-a-boo or hide and seek?
5. Do they pretend?
6. Do they use their finger to point to something they want?
7. Do they point to indicate interest or to have you look?
8. Do they play properly with small toys?
9. Do they ever bring toys over to show you?

The second part requires observation of the child then answering five questions:

1. Does the child make eye contact?
2. After getting the child’s attention, pointing across the room at some object and asking the child to look, did they look at the object or your finger?
3. Can you get them to demonstrate pretend play?
4. After getting the child’s attention and asking them to show you some unreachable object, do they point to the object?
5. Can the child build a tower?

The test scores a severe risk of autism when the child fails (answer is NO) the bold questions (Part 1, questions 5,7 and Part 2, questions 2,3,4). There is score of mild risk if the child fails only the pointing tasks (Part 1, questions 6,7 and Part 2, questions 2,4). A child is at risk for other developmental disorders if they fail more than three questions. This test and has been given to more than 15,000 infants with some success in predicting autism.

If you think your child is at risk of autism, you need to contact your pediatrician immediately. Children with autism have no time to loose. There are effective treatments available, but they are most effective when started early. To learn more about treating autism go to www.conquerautism.com.

If you feel your child has any of the early warning signs of autism or autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) you need to act RIGHT NOW to start the evaluation process. Several medical professionals may be required to get the proper diagnosis. It’s going to take time to see all these specialists and your child does not have the time to waste!

Start with your pediatrician - Tell them your concerns, and be as specific as possible. If the pediatrician wants to see your child before making a referral, make the appointment for as soon as possible. No matter how old you child is, don’t let them take a wait-and-see approach, or wait until the next regularly scheduled check-up visit. Until the appointment, keep a log of all the behaviors that concern you; what they are, when they occur, and with what frequency. Pediatricians are an important doorway to the initial testing your child needs. Just do not expect them or any of the specialist you meet with to be knowledgeable about the real causes of autism or to know that there are effective treatment options.

Speech/language pathologist - If your child has limited language skills for their age, a session with a licensed speech pathologist is in order. This individual can assess both the receptive and expressive components of your child’s language abilities and at the end of the evaluation, should be able to give you a general estimate of where your child is at with regard to speech development.

Developmental pediatrician - Developmental pediatricians specialize in diagnosing and treating developmental disorders like autism.

Pediatric neurologist - Pediatric neurologists specialize in diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders like autism, epilepsy, neuromuscular diseases, headaches, developmental delays, behavior and learning problems in children. They specialize in the study of the physical workings of nervous system (brain and nerves of the body) and how it functions. As a specialty, they are well placed to be an important part of an ASD treatment team. They will administer tests to diagnose seizures, convulsions or other serious nervous system malfunctions associated with autism and may prescribe drugs to treat these problems.

Neuropsychologist - Neuropsychology combines the study of neuroscience (how the nervous system works) with the study of mental processes and behavior. This includes the study of cognition, which describes how we think, acquire language, solve problems, and how our memory works. Neuropsychologists can be a very important part of the ASD team. You might receive the ASD diagnosis from them and they may be the professional who can best document your child’s problems and progress. They will probably be the ones to administer and interpret the language and cognition tests your child will take.

Behavioral psychologist - Behavioral psychologists specialize in diagnosis and treatment of behavior problems. They may be very helpful in documenting and solving problems with your autistic child’s behavior at home or in school.

Audiologist - Audiologists study hearing and sound processing (how our ears and brains work together to interpret sounds). You may see an audiologist to document your child’s hearing early on and may receive clinical services such as auditory integration training (AIT) if they have a particular problem with sound sensitivity.

Physical therapist - Physical therapists are a very important part of the autism treatment team. They can assess specific problems with strength and coordination that your autistic child almost certainly has, and target therapies to work on these problem areas. They can also help you identify and purchase specialized equipment for your child. This might include pressure jackets (to provide comforting body pressure), protective gear and exercise equipment.

Occupational therapist - Pediatric occupational therapists specialize in diagnosis and treatment of problems with activities children do in everyday life. This includes walking, running, writing, sitting, catching and throwing. Good pediatric occupational therapy is presented in activities that are fun so kids want to participate. Our son looks forward to his OT visits and has had a very close relationship with the therapists, who he sees as friends.

As you make your way through this maze of physicians and therapists, remember that they are members of YOUR team. If you find one who does not seem to know anything about the causes of autism or that it can be treated, this is not necessarily a reason to drop them. However, if they have a condescending attitude towards you and your LEADERSHIP of the team, we suggest not wasting your time or energy trying to convince them. Make sure they understand that you want a copy of the final report be sent to your pediatrician and to you personally. Make careful note of the specialist’s DIRECT contact information and ask when you should receive the report.

Children with autism or other ASDs have no time to lose. They need an accurate diagnosis to get the services they will require, and you probably need the diagnosis to begin to take action to help them. Most importantly, they need effective treatment. The specialists we have described are probably great doctors, but unless you are very lucky, they will not know how to diagnose the underlying problems that have led to your child’s problems or how to treat this disease. This is why YOU need to take the lead in helping your child. The information you need is available at http://www.conquerautism.com.