Dr. Stephanie Ellen Eischen-Lee, PhD

My then 3 year old was barely putting two words together and I was extremely concerned. After being denied speech therapy from Kaiser I asked for a referral to the John Richards development center. They were nice and all, easy to schedule with but during my preliminary phone interview with this doctor she gave me her honest opinion. Severe to moderate autism. Over the phone. It sent me into a month of anxiety. I feel like I don't even remember my other son at that special age of 6 months because I was so busy trying to figure out how we were going o support such a severe diagnosis. The doctor that saw him in person didn't really see autism. After talking with his preschool teacher, his therapists and the school district I realized the only person suggesting autism was this woman and it was over the phone! It's been a year and a half. My son is social, almost caught up from his speech delay (that may or may not have had some motor planning element like apraxia). He is… extremely intelligent, popular, imaginative and creative has so many friends it's hard to keep up. He's mature and does chores around the house, takes care or his brother etc. Amazing kid. I get so angry thinking about that time in my life where I believed she might be right because of her degree. If you want a diagnosis and can't get one this is great but if you're a mom trying to figure out why your child isn't talking this is not helpful. This all said, I've done a lot of reading about autism and I understand people that are autistic can be amazing, brilliant, caring, imaginative, all the things I just said, but hearing severe to moderate before meeting them just seems so extreme.

My four year old son was brought to her for Autism testing. I was hoping he didn't have Autism, but within five minutes of observing my son, she said, "I am comfortable giving you a diagnosis of Autism." She pointed out several Autistic traits that at that time I was unaware of, but have since come to understand. She continued her testing, told me we could have more days of testing with other doctors, or get started getting him treatment. She got us hooked up that day with ABA therapy and she contacted the school district to get an IEP set up for him right away. Every now and then you run into someone that knows their stuff. She obviously does.