They do work. My dd came so far with those therapies! She's fully verbal, and overcame her motor skills delays. She is a person diagnosed with ASD (not saying your dc is) and speech and OT are the best therapies she's had. And she enjoyed them! |
| Oh my goodness of COURSE!!! |
| They can fully resolve. Nearly always they at least improve a lot. Worth trying. |
Age 5 isn’t early intervention. |
You’re getting too hung up on semantics here. In the SN world we understand EI means under 3 but colloquially, people use EI to mean “intervention when they’re little.” |
Will if you want to see anything close to a “cure” (which there isn’t regardless) you need to start very very early, like 12-18 months with intensive intervention (20-40 hrs per week). Labeling school age intervention as early intervention doesn’t help anyone. |
Many, perhaps most, kids aren't diagnosed with delays or asd by 12-18 months. My own dc (pp 18:28) wasn't dx with language delays until closer to 2 and asd at age 4.5 . The point is to START the intervention as soon as the need is identified. |
| Yes, all my kids did speech therapy. 2 went onto be great public speakers-involved with debate and speech type competitions. My daughter did both and is still a little slow with handwriting but does well with typing (she’s 11). I truly believe in early intervention especially with speech. It made a world of difference for my kids. |
The only time there is a so called cure for autism is when the child was misdiagnosed |
Actually it’s most prominently referred to as “cure “ when the child improves so much that the diagnosis is no longer given. So for example if at 2 yo a child had a PDD-NOS or ASD diagnosis, but received intensive EI and school aged interventions and supports, then by age 10 no longer showed any signs of ASD and were closely aligned to peers in all developmental and academic areas then parents might say they were “cured”. The child actually just lost the ASD diagnosis and won’t need any more support than children that were NT from birth. |
| I don't know as much about OT, but I teach kids with dyslexia/dysgraphia to read and spell (Kids Up Reading Coaches) and I work with a lot of kids who are in or have done speech therapy. That's often very effective! Just be on the lookout for trouble with reading and spelling, and if you notice any issues start the intervention early. A disproportionate number of kids who were once in speech therapy have trouble with reading and spelling. |
| I think you should focus on a diagnosis, if there's one potentially there. |