But Then There Was A Diagnosis...

The doctor felt Chandni and Soham should meet a child psychologist, to iron out Ria's remaining hyperactivity before schools reopened after COVID.

Chandni's mother-in-law went to Benares for five weeks when the twins were nearly three years old. Chandni had to cook more, and Soham and she used YouTube as a nanny, after the nanny left for the day. Ria would have tantrums.

Dr Kadam built a bridge from blocks, asking Ria to imitate her. Ria was not able to, and later when Chandni looked up online tests for autism, this was one item in a test. Ria lunged for the doctor's pen, forcing her to write with a pencil. Ria was her usual hyperactive self, running around the doctor’s chamber, but did show interest in the toys the doctor used to get her to talk.

The doctor felt she was mildly autistic. She told us to start speech and occupational therapy. She recommended therapists near our home. Chandni was shocked and depressed for a week after the diagnosis. She felt numb. Why me? she asked God. She used to complain about having twins, and now she has a special kid, she thought.

Chandni joined a Whatsapp group of parents with autistic children that she read a news article about online. The doctor would review Ria's progress after three months. The therapy center was bright, with a slide, swing, climbing wall and many developmental toys. Ria was keen on the equipment, paying scant attention to the occupational therapist.

The speech therapist assessed that Ria had the vocabulary of a one and a half year old. She estimated Ria needed a year of therapy to progress. The initial few weeks Ria threw tantrums in sessions of both the therapists.

Chandni was taking Ria thrice a week to the therapy center, twice for occupational therapy and once for speech. Although the occupational therapist wouldn’t let her sit in the sessions, claiming she needed to establish a rapport with Ria, the speech therapist told Chandni her session was more of a check-in. She got homework – the therapist told her what to do with Ria at home, such as imitation exercises. Thumbs up, close the door and so on.

The occupational therapist told Chandni to give Ria things to do, such as fetch your hat from your cupboard. Later, we made it more complex by issuing two step commands, such as fetch your red hat from the cupboard.

The common thread the therapists followed was reinforcing positive behaviour. When Ria did what she was told to do, she got to play with something she liked. For instance, if she did a puzzle, she could play a game on the speech therapist’s phone.

Chandni followed the same process at home. Although the speech therapist said to spend twenty minutes on such activities evey two hours, with housework and Ria's twin, she could only do it once a day. Chandni would even skip it when Ria was doing well in her sessions and she was busy.

Initially Chandni was at a loss for what to do in these sessions, and got repetitive.

To be continued...

This post is a part of Blogchatter A2Z.