The A Word

Anyone who has spent even a little time with Taylor notices that she's...quirky.  She's has little oddities that sometimes make me go "hmmm, do all 3 year olds do that?"  I think a lot has to do with her language.  She still doesn't sound like a three-year old.  Well, not a three-year old who will be four in a few months.  I mean this is expected because she hasn't received any speech therapy the last 9 months.  Don't get me wrong, Taylor has definitely improved but she clearly is still very delayed.  But every once in a while, I'd think "well, is it just speech delays?  Is there something else going on?"  And I'm not the only one to have thought this.  Of course it can be hard to tell another person you think there is something wrong with their child.  I mean how do you do that without making the person think you're attacking their parenting? 
I'm digressing....at the prompting of my sister, I started doing some research on autism.  Ugh...even typing that word...please don't misunderstand me.  I know having a kid with autism is not the end of the world, but for whatever reason I've always been SO afraid of having a kid with autism.  I'm not really sure why- it just did.  Geez, digressing again.  Okay so like I said, I started doing some research.  Most of it was done on Autism Speaks' website.  Just reading different things and after filling out the M-CHAT, I decided to go ahead and see a developmental pediatrician. 
We went this past week and met with the developmental ped. at Christie Clinic (FYI, the developmental ped. for Carle Clinic books appointments at least 8 months out).  The appointment went well.  The ped. did some different things with Taylor, some quick assessments of her visual motor skills, her receptive speech.  After the assessments the ped. said the words I was wanting to hear "I wouldn't say she has autism." Phew! BUT, like I suspected there are things going on.  He said she has some hyperactivity (uh yeah, she's a wild-child!) but there was no need for medication yet.  She also has some sensory processing issues, meaning she can get overly stimulated by her environment.  And lastly, while he won't label her as autistic, he is saying she has a "social disability."  Basically, he thinks Taylor has trouble reading nonverbal cues.  We see this too and we have been trying to work on it with her but we're not experts obviously.  He also added that perhaps she struggles with her speech because she is so over-stimulated.  It makes sense but is over-stimulation the sole reason for her delay?  I just don't know enough about the link between the two.
So now our next steps are to give the report to her school and hopefully they can add on to her IEP to provide additional services.  The ped. thinks some occupational therapy would be good for the sensory processing (like deep massage and brushing), and maybe she could get some social work too.
But labels or not, Taylor is still Taylor, quirks and all :)