No Wait For Upstate Autism Diagnosis

Therapy is critical to a child's development when they have autism, but often parents have to wait 6 months or more for a diagnosis. Now one agency in our area has no wait.

By: | News Channel 7
Published: April 22, 2009

5 year old Carter Summers has always been a little different than his peers. His parent just didn't know why.

His mother Heather Summers says, "Carter was having speech delays he was three and a half and not really speaking. No sentences and he was obsessed with shapes and letters, colors, numbers."

She says, at three years old, she brought him to the The Speech, Hearing and Learning Center to find out what could be wrong.

She adds, "I thought he might have OCD because he would wake up in the middle of the night and couldn't find a number he wanted and he would start screaming for it."

Turns out he has autism. Dr. Ben Rigby says in order for a child to be diagnosed with autism they have to show three things. Trouble communicating, problems playing with their peers and any stereotyped behaviors, as well as a number of symptoms.

He says, "For example with carter he had little objects he carried around with him."

According to Dr. Rigby, the diagnosis can be difficult because any one of those issues can indicate another disorder. That's why he says they have an Autism Spectrum Evaluation Team assembled to try and make the diagnosis as fast as possible since early intervention is crucial to the child's development.

Dr. Rigby says, "The child comes in with their family and they see an audiologist , speech language pathologist and two psychologist and the idea is to get multiple players together all in one day to help make the diagnosis."

Heather says she wishes she had brought her son in earlier when she first noticed signs of trouble.

She says, "You don't want them to have autism and I was trying to find any other explanation for it."

Now that she knows, she says her family feels relief and, through therapy, her son is talking without any problems.

The Speech, Hearing and Learning Center in Greenville currently has no wait list to test for autism.

They accept children from all over the Upstate and will work with you if you are on a fixed budget. To contact them you can call 864-331-1400 or click on this link.

If you would like more information on autism click here.

For information on the upcoming autism walk in the Upstate, Strides For Autism, click here.