Time lost is just that...lost.

Every time I share the blog information with someone I get a story of a friend, relative, co-worker who has a child with xxx. The Autism number is now 1 in 150 and that’s just for those who have Autism. Who knows what the number is for people along the spectrum?

It’s worrying that so many parents, prefer to do nothing rather than ask questions, research, or get a professional assessment. Time lost is just that…lost. The longer you take to get help, the steeper the hill your child has to climb.

We were diagnosed at 3. As it turns out, you can be diagnosed as early as 18 months. At that age, you should be able to respond to some simple instructions. Certainly, we want to hope for the best, but if the results suggest that there is a developmental delay or gap, waste no time. Get other professional opinions if you have doubts, but don’t waste time hoping that it will go away or that the child will outgrow the problem.

When I think back on the things we learned as a result of the speech therapy – all of the early learning concepts that come easily to others but were difficult for us to grasp – inside/outside; more; asking and answering questions. Can you imagine what kindergarten would have been like if she didn’t have a handle on these things?

Discovery – when they give you the package (baby) to take home, they don’t provide explicit instructions on how the brain will develop and your role in supporting it.  Fortunately, there are more organizations, websites, and groups on the internet that can provide information. The challenge is separating the facts from the fiction.

I remember pre-school spent lots of time on the alphabet – there are still only 26 letters. I kept asking myself how many ways and times could they possibly do these letters? The truth is, knowing the alphabet is so fundamental to the fundamentals that you need to be versed in it going forward, backwards, and skipping every two letters. When I look at the worksheets she got in kindergarten, I realized that they use familiar things to help with learning addition. So, for example, they would add and the answer would be a certain letter. Sometimes, you’d have to find it in the alphabet; sometimes it would be the letter between two given letters; other times you’d have to figure out what the missing letter was. At that point, I realized, it’s not just about knowing the 26 letters.  It’s about being so familiar with them, the sounds they make, and words that start with these letters that WHEN (not if) you get instructions, puzzles, games to reinforce other concepts you’ll know the 26 inside out.  Reading isn't just fun, it's the FUN in fundamental!

So, perhaps it’s just older parents who are anxious about the seen and unseen developmental progress that their children are making. Truth is, for older parents, younger parents, seasoned parents and first-time parents, time lost is just that…lost.  You can’t go back and reclaim it. What you can do is be aware, be curious, be proactive. Ask questions, seek out resources and answers. In the end, you might just avoid losing too much time. The more time you have to work on skills, the greater the likelihood of positive outcomes. Every word, phrase, expression is a sign of the time invested in different kinds of experiences. These experiences provide a rich source of input. She will make use of them the best way she can as she grows. While there are no guarantees in life, of this I am still sure: time lost is just that…lost.