Q: My three-year-old son does not talk. So far he can spell out only "Amma" and "Appa", and that too when he feels like it. At the age of 1.5 years, we felt something was wrong and went to a doctor. After conducting an audiogram, he was diagnosed not deaf. At the age of 2.5 years, we put him in play school. But within one and half months, they refused to have my child in their school because of his attitude like restlessness, not speaking and not responding to commands when children of the same age group did all the activities. He has been diagnosed with ASD by two leading child psychiatrists. They advised us to give speech stimulation and prescribed syrup Narmabrain. They asked us to bring him back after four months for further treatment/diagnosing. As three months have passed with medication and speech therapy, we didn't find much improvement. We consulted a paediatrician who says that my child has ADHD and advised us to go for its treatment. My child is becoming adamant and uses only signs to communicate his needs. His speech therapist tells us that he is not concentrating for more than 5 minutes in the class of 45 minutes. We have also been suggested occupational therapy and behavioural therapy. Kindly advise us or direct us to the correct/right treatment for our child to lead a normal life like other children. We are very worried about his future.

A:The child could be developing the way he is due to a variety of reasons. Whatever terminology or labels are used like ADHD or ASD, etc., everything you have reported points out to some kind of cerebral or brain aberration. Your best option is to stick with the neurologist's advice until the time the child settles down, which might mean a period of six months or longer.