Many toddlers have speech delays, and sometimes
a speech delay is a symptom of something bigger like autism. I know from experience that it's often confusing
and overwhelming to parents who are on waiting lists for autism evaluations when these waiting
lists are growing longer and longer each day. So today, I'm going to break down what I look
for to possibly tell if it's autism or a speech delay and what to do no matter if it's just
a speech delay or early warning signs of autism. Hi, I'm Dr. Mary Barbera, autism mom, behavior
analyst, registered nurse, and best selling author. Each week, I provide you with some of my ideas
about turning autism around. So, if you haven't subscribed to my YouTube
channel, you can do that now. Like many children with autism, my son Lucas
who got started with just a speech and language delay. He went to a typical two year old preschool
and didn't cry or fuss mch. He also went to weekly speech therapy when
he was two and initially, the SOP seemed optimistic that he would improve and everything would
be fine. As a first time mom with a nursing background,
I didn't know much about typical milestones and I knew nothing about the early warning
signs of autism. But in my defense, it was the late 1990s before
Google searches or Facebook and the rate of autism back then was 1 in 500, not 1 in 50
like it is today. Once Lucas was diagnosed with autism one day
before he turned three, I made it my mission to learn the early warning signs and to train
pediatricians around the state of Pennsylvania through an early detection grant from First
Signs. I can't diagnose autism, but as a nurse, as
a behavior analyst with a strong background in autism, I do look for early warning signs
of autism with a child, an 18 month old or two year old who's not talking much or at
all. These are the things I look for, and if your
child is having these early warning signs of autism, please know not to panic, I'm going
to tell you, no matter what it is, I'm going to tell you some things that you can do today
to start helping turn things around. So, I assess an 18 month old or a two year
old by looking first at pointing. I never realized how important pointing is,
but it's very important and by 18 months, or at least by two, a child should be pointing. Not just once a month pointing, but like pointing
a decent amount. They should be pointing for things that they
want like juice or a toy. But they should also be pointing to get your
attention, for joint attention is what we call it, by pointing things to show you things,
like pointing to an airplane that's flying up above, even if they don't have the language
to say airplane, if they're pointing with their index finger to show you the airplane,
like, "oh, oh," that's a good sign that it might not be autism because that pointing
is such a critical red flag for autism. The lack of pointing is. In addition to pointing, I also look for a
child, even a child that's not talking to understand some language. I remember when my boys were two years old
and six months old, I had a photographer come to the house to try to get some pictures. This is back in the late 1990s, I remember
the photography giving Lucas a film canister and saying, "Here buddy, throw this away,"
and he had no idea what the guy was talking about. The guy looked at him like you should know
this, you're old enough. I just kind of brushed it off and thought,
you know, I didn't know if he should or shouldn't know it, but he didn't understand language. It wasn't just an expressive language delay,
it was also a receptive language delay, which doesn't have to be autism. A child can have both and not have autism. But Lucas has a very severe expressive and
receptive language delay. So in addition to looking at pointing and
language, I also wanna look for things like playing. Does the child play with some toys, sore than
just one toy? Or is he super focused on one object, or needs
to carry it around all the time? Or plays with things over and over again,
like stacking blocks, not just for a couple minutes while you do something quick, but
like hours and hours they can be content not using language, but like spinning things or
living things up. These are all red flags for autism. And finally, a child of 18 months or two,
should be naturally starting to imitate some things, like waving or making an airplane
fly. So, it's not just if they're talking or not,
we also really need to look at things like play, imitation, and whether or not the child
understands language. It he doesn't have any imitation play, and
he doesn't understand language, it may be more than a speech delay. But, I have some good news. After working with hundreds, if not thousands
of children, as a behavior analyst, I learned that no matter if it is autism or just something
like speech delay, putting the same proven ABA strategies in place can help increase
talking and decrease tantrums. I've also worked with kids where I know we've
prevented the diagnosis of autism, or turned it around so quickly that they caught up before
kindergarten. So, here are the three things I'd recommend
you do if you're concerned about your young child, who is either speech delayed, showing
some signs of autism, maybe they already have a diagnosis of autism, but are waiting for
treatment, or they could be waiting for an autism evaluation. And even if it is just a speech delay, learning
these three things can help you and your child get started today. Step number one, I want you to learn typical
milestones and compare them to your child's development. The CDC has a great index of milestones on
their website that are expected at every age. So if your child's 4 months old, 8 months
old, 18 months old, 2 years old, you should be able to look and see what the child should
be doing physically, cognitively, language-wise, when should they be putting two words together
for instance, when should they be pointing, when should they be feeding themselves. And it's important not just to look at the
language milestones, we wanna look at self care, when can they feed themselves? Drink out of an open cup? Self regulation skills, do they get so upset
that they can't calm themselves down? Are they having frequent tantrums and problem
behaviors because they don't understand the world around them? You'll also wanna compare the milestones of
typically developing two year olds, and there's gonna be a range. It's not gonna be like, every two year needs
to be doing this. But if you look at the two year old milestones
and your child is not doing any of them, but you look back at the 18 month milestones and
they're doing all of them, then it may just be a little bit of a delay. Either way, if there are delays between what
your child is doing and the milestones, I'd go on to step number two, which is make a
sick appointment with your child's pediatrician. This is something that I never thought of. There was no well visits between two and three,
and I had some concerns. My husband had some concerns, and we just
never thought about going to the doctor specifically to discuss those concerns, and I would recommend
that. You want to get screening done by a professional
and because as a parent, you just want everything to be okay, but get a professional to help
you screen the child, see if we can start early intervention. Also, in addition to contacting your pediatrician,
if your child goes to daycare or preschool, you may wanna talk to your child's teacher
too, to see if they're falling behind in the classroom. She can give you input potentially on how
he's doing with group responding, is he waiting in line, is he getting into trouble at preschool? And this can also give you an idea of what
if happening. Step number three is you need to learn all
you can about the science of applied behavior analysis, or ABA for short. Because with intensive ABA therapy, when a
child is very young, even some with severe autism already diagnosed, children can recover
from autism and lead normal lives. But you have to get on it, and even if it's
just speech delay, ABA is always gonna help the situation, never hurt the situation. Especially if you learn proactive strategies
that you can do with your child right in your own home. ABA can help kids with any kind of disorder
and speech delays, they can learn language a lot more quickly. So, in summary, if you are concerned about
your child or any toddler that you know and you can't tell if it's autism or just a speech
delay, number one, learn typical milestones. Google the CDC act early website, learn the
milestones, compare them to what the child is doing. Step two, talk to your child's pediatrician
and their preschool teacher, and get screening done, and early intervention started as soon
as possible. And step number three is you need to learn
about ABA and one of the best places to start is by going to marybarbera.com/toddler, click
the link right below to get more information today. And if you like this video blog, I would love
it if you would leave me a comment, give me a thumbs up, and share the video with others
who might benefit. Don't forget, you can download my free toddler
guide called, "Is It Autism, ADHD, or Typical Toddler Tantrums? 3 Steps You Can Take Today Instead of Worrying"
at marybarbera.com/toddler, and I hope to see you right here next week.
