At 20 months, Taj had a good selection of words, yet was still running into walls.  Then, one day, he just stopped talking. There was nothing, only the screeching, whinning, moaning and screaming that comes with a non-verbal child.  This was the big warning for me. I was straight on the phone, demanding that Taj be assessed.

And assessed he was! For a little boy who was nearly two years old, Taj did alot better than expected during a 3 hour assessment. Considering he was running around nearly the whole time, Taj had heaps of energy left.  After a period of deliberation (about 1 month) the results came in………………

Taj wasn’t autistic like Tyson, it was decided that Taj has PDD-NOS (pervasive development disorder – not otherwise specified).  Like I was at the time, you are probably thinking “Huh?”.  PDD-NOS is at the complete opposite end of the autism spectrum to ASD. Where Tyson is over sensitive, Taj is under-sensitive.  Essentially what this means is that Taj is always on a mission to seek out things that stimulate his senses. The assessors also concluded that Taj would probably be non-verbal. 

Now, I don’t take non-verbal as an answer.  Every child can communicate, some do it through speaking whilst others have their own quirky way.  But every child CAN communicate.  For Taj, we started with the basics – the vowels – and went from there.  Everytime he mastered a letter, we heavily praised him.  After awhile, Taj started to say words.  Admittidly, the words were totally out of context but at least they were words.

PECS, SIT (Sensory Integration Therapy) and EI (Early Intervention) have played a big role in Taj’s communication goal.  It took Taj about a year to master PECS stage 1 – his brain processes took about that long to slow down and for him to realise that the pictures actually meant something (and that Mummy wasn’t just being annoying).  The Autism Association of WA (inc) have been wonderful with the level of EI that they provide – I just can’t praise them enough! 

Today, Taj still has endless amounts of energy, he just never stops.  Extremely competitive, Taj is always trying to do the things that Tyson does.  As a result, Taj knows his ABC’s and can count from 1 through to 20 with very little problems.  He does have obsessions but this is just what makes him Taj.

Thanks for reading about my little boy. Naturally, this isn’t all of Taj’s story and I shall write more when time permits.  If you would like any information regarding PDD-NOS (or ASD), please feel free to comment.

Thanks again!

Roxy