Sunday, February 14, 2010

Autism Medication: For Co-occuring Disorders

Funny thing happened along the way to getting my child help for her Autism. Hang on to that thought.

My daughter was six years old and basically non-verbal. She did make sounds that sounded like gibberish, with an occasional word. She was also a very busy little person. The business was not a problem as I had two children before her. They were also a little on the busy side.

I knew as a parent of three children that my child with Autism was on the slow side. Even though she was six, I figured that the busyness of toddlerhood was lasting longer with her.

Sometime around six we found a really good doctor for both of the children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. The relationship was a good fit for our family. I did not have to spend a whole lot of time convincing him that there was some type of problem or another. He seemed to understand Autism. The doctor really paid attention to what I was saying.

One day while in for a regular visit he watched the daughter with Autism and suggested medication for ADHD. Although I was aware ADHD ran in our family, I had resisted medication in the past. Since this doctor had really worked to understand what was going on in our family, I was willing to try.

Low and behold I started noticing more words. Within about a month I noticed a lot of words. She still at twenty one has an odd turn to the way she uses language, but you do understand what words she it using.

At some point I asked the doctor about it. The explanation I got was the ADHD medication sped up certain parts of her brain so that executive functions could come out. One of those was clear speech. She probably had words for quite awhile. I don’t know. It sounds good to me. It works wonderful for her.

That is the funny thing that happened to me along the way of getting help for the Autism. I got help for the ADHD and the speech.

Related Post
Autism Communication: Why Do Parents Need to Stimulate Speech?

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