A Message to Providers on Autism: 

When I entered this world of Autism, I had no clue that there were subtle signs I was missing. There are a lot more kids with autism than we realized and if we help them earlier, they are going to have so much more success in life.

In my humble opinion, there are three reasons kids don’t get diagnosed early enough:

1. There are not enough developmental pediatricians
2. Parents don’t understand how their child should be developing and/or they are in denial about their child’s delay in development
3. Pediatricians aren’t trained to look for the early, subtle signs of developmental delay

During residency, the primary focus is on a child’s gross motor, fine motor, and overall communication. ( Link to video)

However, there is little to no focus on nonverbal communication as well as social and emotional development. There is no developmental rotation, so a lot of kids are overlooked because of the lack of education on these topics. These kids are being failed by pediatricians missing early diagnoses of Autism.

Regarding Autism, I know that pediatricians want to identify these early signs and provide parents with the appropriate next steps. As we know a child’s brain is 90% developed by 5 years old. Sadly, in Arizona specifically, there are a significant number of missed or delayed diagnoses. Many kids are not receiving diagnoses until they are 8 years old. One of my goals is for providers to have easy access to the resources I use in my practice along with the resources I have learned about outside of residency. Working together with Baby 101, we can improve early diagnosis and start getting kids the help they need.