Garrett's Story

At Garrett's 18 month well child visit, his pediatrician was concerned about his speech delay. She referred him to audiology and told us to contact our county's early intervention program. It was shortly after this visit, that my husband and I started noticing that he didn't do a lot of things that other children his age were doing. It wasn't simply the fact that he didn't talk. He had no communication at all. He didn't gesture. He didn't sign. He didn't even pull you in the direction of something that he wanted.

He still doesn't.

As I was blogging some things that he was or wasn't doing on our family blog, I had a few friends and family members mention autism. The more I thought about and researched characteristics of a child on the autism spectrum, the more overwhelmed I became.

At the end of June, he has his intake evaluation with the county early intervention program. He was now 20 months old. That was the first time that I had ever seen him stack 4 blocks and draw a line with a crayon. Both of those took some prodding and a lot of reminders to not put them in his mouth. The results from that evaluation were not surprising.

Communication - 0
Gross Motor - above cut-off
Fine Motor - cut-off is 40, Garrett scored 30
Problem Solving - cut-off is 30, Garrett scored 10
Personal/Social - 0

Garrett has also had two hearing tests. His first test was not valid because he was throwing a fit. We went in again at the beginning of July and he tested within a normal hearing range. They have now ruled out a hearing deficit as the cause of his speech delay.

He has been referred to a Developmental Pediatrician. He also has another evaluation to see which early intervention programs and therapies he qualifies for.

Welcome to Garrett's Journey.