Is it autism or something else?

-Aliyah Muhammad

It took him awhile. He was nearly 3 years old before he’d spoken words we could understand, or at least something other than Mama. By then he’d seen all kinds of specialists; neurologists, ear nose and throat doctors, audiologists. He’d had MRIs and all kinds of tests run to find out what was wrong and what was right. All the tests came out normal, yet there we were, still going to speech therapy waiting on his tongue to loosen.

All we knew was that we were so grateful that the neurologist’s conclusion was NO AUTISM! By the grace of God, we’d escaped the large spectrum of the disorder, characterized mainly by lack of social interaction and communication. They say that childhood vaccinations are a possible cause, but we didn’t fall under that category either. None of our children had received vaccinations. We researched everything! If he wasn’t autistic, and his brain activity was regular, what was holding our beautiful little boy by his tongue…literally?

I was always taught to go with my first mind. Before we began the awesome journey of specialists and doctors, the first thing we’d found while researching our son’s symptoms was the word apraxia, a disorder of acquired or developmental motor planning inabilities. We read up on the disorder and all of the symptoms. It sounded just like our baby, but for some reason the specialists and doctors never used those words. They were so quick to suspect autism. It left me in total denial. How could everyone who went through those doctor’s office doors have some aspect of autism?

It wasn’t until speaking with the fourth speech therapist to try her hand at diagnosing his situation that the same words we had first researched came onto the scene. I took that monumental conversation back to the therapist we saw on a weekly basis and she bore witness to the possibility that we had hit the nail on the head.

Well its been a little more than a year now since we first started this journey. Our little one whose future at one point seemed unsure is now doing so well, talking and communicating all the time, working and trying so hard to make his tongue keep up with his brain. Through prayer, perseverance, and constant therapy we are coping with this situation. The path I not all clear, but the road that we are on seems to be promising.

My point? Well, doctors are quick to diagnose without even having all of the pieces. As a parent, it is our obligation to our children and to God who gave us the responsibility for caring for His children to go that extra mile. Don’t stop researching just because you’ve been given a supposed diagnosis. Take the extra steps of getting a second opinion. If your gut tells you differently, get a third and a fourth if need be. We owe it to your children. We owe to ourselves. We owe it to God.

About the author…

Aliyah Muhammad is a 27 year old wife and mother of 3 boys. Her writings on this specific topic are genuine. These are her person views about her family’s situation.