The earlier you start therapy the better ,birth to 5 years are crucial for brain/skills development ,although autism sometimes is diagnosed around 3 -4 years (sometimes what are deemed autistic traits might be developmental delays although there is a strong correlation between the two ,and some children do "grow out of it" . By all means that's NOT autism . ) Occupational therapy ,speech and language therapy are essential for autistic children ,they re often times visual therefore will learn by associating words with images ,if your relatives insist on teaching him things the "mainstream " way he won't learn much if anything at all (this depends on the severity of the autism ).
How old is your nephew ? Autism is very common nowadays ,and there are a lot of infrastructures that offer help ,by not accepting the child has a problem they only risk for him to be completely inept growing up . Developing social /communication skills is one of the biggest challenges he needs to start getting help asap.
Thank you for the reply.
My nephew is 22 months old. The grandparents have him in speech therapy. He attends twice a week for 30 minutes each session.
Most family members are hoping that nephew is simply experiencing developmental delays. That might be. Here's what I'm observing:
- The only word he says is "no."
- He engages in baby talk/babbling.
- He says his ABCs from A to I, but he pronounces "gee" as "dee."
- He does not respond to his name.
- It is virtually impossible to startle him! He can be sitting in his high chair for 10 minutes, drinking juice and enjoying a phonics video. One can then come up quietly behind him and snap in his ear, and it's like no one has approached him at all. He's had hearing tests and they showed no hearing problems at all.
- He makes eye contact only very sporadically.
I plan to attend the speech session with him this Monday and try to talk with the doctor alone without the grandparents overhearing (so they won't get upset and interject). I'm about to order the book "Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew."