Oh BrendaC, May God give her the strength she needs during this difficult time.

BrendaC - my love and prayers for your daughter and her family. My oldest son is bi-polar and I can only imagine how much harder all this is for her. (and for her mom also)

BrendaC...Prayers going up to the Throne of Heaven for them! And for you too! I am so very sorry to hear this! Please keep us posted on the outcome! We are here for you... (((hugs)))

You are all in my thoughts, Brenda!

Thoughts and prayers Brenda...please keep us posted.

Thank you all so very much. I know that God is going to honor your prayers and take care of them. I'm going to just sit back and watch Him at work!

I didn't want to say anything earlier because I didn't want you to worry too much, but this is exactly the way my Godson was diagnosed with autism. He just never started talking and when he was finally screened they got the diagnosis.

Please remember that autism is not a death sentence. It's certainly not an easy road to travel, but kids with autism are all different and can still have meaningful relationships with people, just in their own special way.

You and your family are certainly in my thoughts and prayers.

My prayers go out to your family. God bless.

Autism was actually my first thought, but her pediatrician said she interacts with us too much for that to be the case. I would suspect, though, that there are significantly different levels that could manifest themselves in very different ways. Does your Godson initiate interactions with others?

There is a broad spectrum of autism from the mildest cases (Asperberger's Syndrome) to the most severe (Rain Main types). Josh interacts with certain people and seems oblivious to others. He always initiates interactions with me as soon as I walk in the door, but he knows and trusts me. He rarely speaks and when he does it's usually a quote from a Disney movie (although the quote makes sense and fits the situation). He's 14 now and his verbal isn't much different now than when he was a toddler.

My 2 year old son is just now expanding his vocabulary and it's still not crystal clear. But, he also had multiple ear infections and has had 2 sets of tubes. Our ear doctor said that while they have fluid in their ears and if scar tissue develops in their ears that everything they hear sounds muffled like their hearing it through a pillow. That broke my heart. So while they may "hear" you talking behind their back, they may not be able to clearly understand what you are saying. Once we got tubes in my sons ears his speech has increased a lot, but it's taken time (almost a year).

My son was the same way, frustrated by not being able to communicate he would grunt, scream, cry and act out. Since the tubes he can now hear clearly, is learning to use his words, and his behavior is much improved.

That's just my experience, but I thought I'd share.

My little K will be 2 next month and we are starting to see some expansion in her vocabulary. She is still very limited in what she will say and most people probably couldn't understand her, but she is trying. We usually have to prompt her several times, but she will try to say new words for those close to her. Right now, I would say her vocabulary is equivalent to her 15-mo cousin.

She is still trying to point and grunt but we are all being vigilent to remind her that she has to tell us what she wants. We are still hoping and praying for some significant improvement during the summer.

Great!

Try using the phrase 'use your words, K'...that is what I hear all of the time from the speech pathologists that have worked with my kids and who I now work with.

My DD was slow to talk - despite showing normal signs of development. She would babble - but we couldn't understand what she was saying. She also had many ear infections. Our doctor recommended tubes when she was about 2 years old - but we held off because she wouldn't let us touch her ears and we felt we would not be able to put the plugs in whenever she was swimming/bathing. At around 3, it was evident that she really needed tubes because she had constant ear infections and she was so hard to understand. She actually thanked us when she woke up from surgery because she could hear. It took her until she was 6 years old before her speech was age appropriate. She would get so frustrated because she couldn't say the K sound and her name was Kim. Had we known the struggles she would have and the hard time she had making friends due to her speech and hearing problems, we would definitely had put the tubes in when she was 2.

Glad to hear she is improving. My son is now almost 3 and has only recently began to speak in small sentences. Be patient, give it time. Also, I totally agree with Countess, say in a calm voice, "use your words and tell me". Plus, I do a lot of prompting if he starts getting frustrated. I'll say, "It sounds like your frustrated (or mad, or whatever), can you use your words to tell me what you want?" That usually helps calm him down because he knows I understand what he's trying to do.

I also read books to him and have him repeat the words after me. I speak very clearly and make sure to enunciate properly and distinctly. Sometimes we have to repeat a word two or three time before he says it properly, then I praise him big-time. I think just working with them, being supportive, and knowing that over time we'll never know that there was a problem helps get you through it.

Hey Brenda, any updates on your little K?