Jul.26.05 Well, it looks like E. has a speech delay and possible signs of mild PDD. The main problems are: (1) His echolalia (repeating, word for word, whole sections of dialogue from TV and books), which accounts for at least 50% of his speech now, (2) The fact that he ignores most of what is going on around him--he falls far short of anything in the social skills category, and (3) In spite of the echolalia, his vocabulary is not where it should be. There are other things, but those are the main ones. We have suspected that he was a little "different" for a long time, but now it's becoming more obvious and it's time to do something about it. After two hellish weeks of fending off C.'s constant, obsessive worry, we finally got an appointment with E.'s ped., who confirmed that there do seem to be some signs. Now we're making rounds of phone calls to various special doctors and therapists. I'm feeling sad and stressed about the whole thing. I'm still trying to process all of this. C. has done a ton of research already, and he keeps telling me that many of the symptoms E. exhibits can be overcome by therapy of various sorts. I hope he's right. I feel a little better already. I just needed to get this out. |