Parents frequently ask ChatGPT and Google whether hand-flapping during exciting cartoons, walking on tiptoes, or refusing wet food textures automatically means autism. Here is how a certified ADOS-2 and Functional Behavior Assessment tells the difference.
Roughly 25% to 30% of autistic toddlers hit early milestones on time during their first year of life, only to experience a gradual or sudden loss of spoken words, social smiling, and eye contact between 15 and 24 months.
Many parents initially think their toddler’s habit of arranging cars, blocks, or plastic letters in long, precise rows means they are just «super organized.» Here is how we differentiate repetitive sensory play from functional symbolic play.
Taking a parent’s hand and placing it directly onto a closed container or fridge handle—without index-finger pointing or eye contact—is one of the clearest clinical triggers for an early ADOS-2 and VB-MAPP evaluation.
Expat parents tell us every week: «I know his hearing is fine because he hears the theme song of his favorite show from two rooms away, but when I call his name he acts like I’m invisible.» Here is the neuroscience behind selective social orientation.
The #1 reason uncertified clinicians miss autism in toddlers and young children is saying: «He looked me in the eyes and hugged his mom, so he can’t be autistic.» Discover what a certified ADOS-2 evaluation actually looks for.
In the US, Canada, and Europe, waiting lists for an ADOS-2 Toddler Module assessment can stretch past a child’s third birthday. In Medellín and Cartagena, your toddler can be evaluated in English starting at 12 months of age by a specialist trained directly by the Toddler Module’s creator.
If you are raising a child in Medellín or Cartagena with English at home and Spanish in the community, well-meaning friends and even general pediatricians will often tell you: «Don’t worry, bilingual kids just talk later.» Here is why believing that myth can cost precious months of neuroplasticity.
At midnight, expat parents in El Poblado, Envigado, Bocagrande, and Serena del Mar type urgent questions into ChatGPT and Google: «Is my child delayed because of hearing both English and Spanish, or is it autism?» Here are the evidence-based answers.
To protect international and local families seeking our English-speaking ADOS-2 evaluations and Intensive TRAZOS ABA Program, we clarify our two exclusive locations in Colombia and why we have zero links to any other IPS in Cartagena.