Autism and 2 year old

The there is some support for children going through school with ASD but when these young people are ready to leave school much of this support goes. Particularly for those with high functioning autism.
Support for this group is very patchy over the country.
The local authority I live in did not offer support for a young person with Asperger's syndrome if they went to a normal secondary school. This system shows a total disregard of the sort of social difficulties even "high achieving" people with Aspergers can face as adults.

Thanks for this update Grannyactivist. I was wondering how things had gone with this family. You seem to have benefitted greatly from Izabella's advice. Isn't GN wonderful for this? Just highlighting a benefit for those miserable naysayers questioning the role of GN!

Update:
The parents did take their little girl for assessment and I received a copy of the paediatrician's report today. It confirms she has been diagnosed with Global Developmental Delay (GDD), further referrals for specialist help are in the pipeline. I think my tentative diagnosis of ADS will eventually be confirmed as the report highlights her ASD tendencies as requiring further assessment. Mum is pregnant with a second child and both parents are in the early stages of coming to terms with the reality they now face.
Thanks Izabella for your offer, I'm assuming this is an area of work you're familar with, so may well come back to pick your brains as things progress. It's actually because I have been assertive that help has come through so quickly. The local health professionals have been brilliant and have accepted, and even welcomed, my professional expertise without hesitation; with the parents' permission I've been accorded Family Support Worker status. I had already completed a genogram to show how isolated mum is and it was on file already. They're not so well used in primary care health settings here as they are in social work.

Yes a referral to a child development centre and assessment by speech and language, hearing test, clinical psychologist, play specialist, nursery teacher/childminder/ OP and observation of mother child interaction under the umbrella of a paediatrician. A genogram would be useful to take with you drawing a simple bubble type map of parents, siblings, aunts and uncles highlighting any speech and language, social integration problems or special needs you may know of. THE HV should assist you in this and also attend the multi disciplinary case conference when all information is to hand. The HV will also be expected to submit a written report. You may also do this yourself if you wish.

You will need to be pushy. Feel free to PM me if you need help or feel lost in the system at any time.

Kittycat under normal circumstances I would take your advice and suggest someone else goes with them, but I think the family would be very reluctant as it's taken me a lot of time and a great deal of effort to get them to trust me. I will catch up with the assessment team when I get back from my holiday. I'm hopeful that after diagnosis the attendance allowance can be used to pay a lovely, experienced carer I've identified who can implement an intervention programme.

Could you contact someone in your local National Autistic Society group or other local Autistic group to go with them? Having been in this situation ourselves it helps so much to have someone who knows 'what's what' with you. Not only that if they do get a diagnosis at this appointment having someone knowledgeable with them will save them days of worrying until you get back from holiday. It's just typical it would be then isn't it?

Well - good news. In spite of getting a letter warning of an 18 week waiting time for the full assessment the appointment has come through for next Tuesday. Mum and dad are very apprehensive as I shall be on holiday and can't go with them - they wanted to postpone!! I've persuaded them to go anyway and they're going to ask for all the paperwork to be copied to me so that I can catch up when I get back. Top marks to the professionals who have obviously looked at the evidence and listened to mine and others' concerns and acted quickly.

Thank goodness they have someone like you to help them. It sounds as though they are on the right track and caught at such an early age hopefully the little one will get the care and support needed.

UPDATE
I went with the family to the Audiology appointment today, and as with other appointments the tests were unable to be completed because the little girl was not responsive to auditory stimulus. She cannot be discharged because although the audiologist agrees with the family's view that the little one most likely doesn't have a hearing problem it was unable to be proven. In a perverse way I felt rather glad as it all adds to the weight of evidence that she has very complex needs. A referral for a multi-agency ASD assessment has been made and a deadline of 6.6.2016 has been given for the paperwork to be in. I'm hoping that the assessment will be made shortly after that date - the sooner the better. In the meantime I'm slightly concerned that the mum, already very slightly built, has lost a lot of weight and is now looking very thin. Her husband said, only half-jokingly, that he thinks she's getting a bit anorexic. I really do hope not.

Very pleased to know you're getting help from the professionals. Hopefully an early diagnosis,if appropriate , will lead to support for the family.

Oh, well done and so glad some action is being taken (and fairly quickly too) so that a diagnosis can be made and appropriate referrals made.

I'm delighted to say that the Health Visitor was brilliant; she agrees that there are textbook indicators of ASD and so is making an urgent paediatric referral. I can't sing her praises highly enough as not only was she not precious about her own role, but was very vocal in crediting me with spotting the difficulties and pushing to get something done. Between us we filled out copious forms and the little one now has an audiology appointment for May 25th, and a speech and language referral has been made and she will try to get us an appointment within two weeks. I have agreed to act as official family support worker and go with them to appointments so my contact details are now on all the forms and I should be copied in to all further correspondence.

As it's impossible to get the little one's attention and engage with her there were no tasks that she could attempt to carry out and so many of the forms the HV was supposed to complete remained blank. The little girl was completely oblivious and pootled around in her own little world, humming to herself and without a care.

I'm greatly relieved that the ball is now rolling and the HV is fully on board. Thanks for your support everyone - no doubt I shall be coming back and picking your brains again in the future.

It may have been mentioned previously, but I assume that the HV has carried out hearing tests and referred her for more extensive hearing tests if she found a problem.

Thanks everyone - we're off to see the Health Visitor tomorrow so I shall report back. I had a long conversation with dad this morning; he's worried sick and was asking me questions that I can't answer until we have a paediatric assessment. He knows that something is really wrong and as he's in his 60's I think he's concerned at not being around in the future to help her. Mum, on the other hand, seems to accept that something is wrong, but just delights in the child anyway and urges dad not to worry as the little one will be okay. I think she means that whatever the problems may be they'll manage.

Amazingly I took them to a children's centre 'stay and play' session this morning and heard the little one laugh for the first time when I played a game of 'boo' with her. She was at her absolute best today and even made eye contact with me a couple of times - it was like the sun coming out.

Around 2 is often the age when possible Autistic traits begin to show after what appears to be 'Normal' development. Diagnosis can be difficult to obtain ,but is always better sooner rather than later, a lot depends on location, unfortunately. as services vary from area to area.

I would be worried about a child who didn't make eye contact or answer to their name by 9 months to 1 year, whether they were developing normally in other ways or not. Since this little girl is 2 and has stopped developing in other ways, as well, I'm sorry to say, it doesn't look good to me either. But with all the care, concern and love she's receiving - including from you, GA - I think she has a good chance of doing as well as possible. It may seem "hopeless," but those professionals who have experience with autism will probably know how to help her/help you people help her.

I agree - early normal development , then apparently losing abilities does sound worrying.
Like others, I admire you for the support of this family and hope the worries are unfounded, but it doesn't sound good.

grannyactivist what you mention is typical of autism, developing normally or appearing to until a year old and then losing any babbling or even language they may have.Because we moved house, we didn't see little DGS from almost eleven months until his birthday a month later, and were shocked at the change.

GA I do admire you for the support you are giving this family. Given that the little girl appeared to be developing normally to start with I would agree that the likely eventual diagnosis is autism. ( I studied autism as part of a masters degree and have taught many autistic children.) The family sound lovely and it sounds like mum is doing brilliantly persevering with stimulating her. I do hope the process is swift for this little one as mum desperately needs help for her daughter. She does sound to have considerable disability.

For others with autistic grandchildren, it is really difficult now to get support for children with possible autism in school, they have to be really severe to get what used to be a Statement. They have been replaced with something called an EHC plan. (Education and Health Care plan.)
You have to go through the statutory process to get one and I would say they are only given to children with really severe need. Schools get given a budget for special needs and it is up to them to support the rest of the children from it.
Some schools are really good at this, some not so!

Thinking it through, perhaps because his parents were aware from the start that he has his 'oddities' and have managed it with well through their own professional expertise with children, then he is functioning as well as could be expected.

Roses both his parents are teachers and, in fact, his father has worked with autistic children in the past. Far from being angry or mixed up he in quite happy in his own little world and appears to think he is fine and it's everyone else who's out of step!!

Yes, your post puts a different light on it.
It would appear there is a problem and I hope you can help them.

I am pleased to hear that the child is a loved child given lots of attention so, sadly, it appears there is a problem.
Well done grannyactivist for your support of mother and child

Good luck with it GA. The sleep and food issues and the normal babbling stopping do make it sound as if AS might be a likely diagnosis.
Can I just mention again (I started a thread in books) the Sam Silberman "Neurotribes" book. It isn't a diagnostic book, but a fascinating history of the "discovery" of autism, theories about causes and the various treatments that have been tried. Fascinating, painful to read in parts, but ultimately hopeful, I thought.
It is £6 on Kindle.

Thanks everyone for taking time to respond - I'm very concerned for this little girl and feel really upset about this. Because autism affects people in so very many ways it's incredibly helpful to hear from others about their knowledge and understanding of the condition.