Autism? - Carthage,MO

although i do not have a child with ASD I work closely with many families that have children with autism. here are some of there comments:
* looking back always noticed something was off - even as an infant he did not make eye contact
* every thing was normal up to ~18 months of age then he regressed - played by himself, lined up toys, etc
* after vaccinations at 18 months he did not recognize his sister any more, spun in circles (esp. around other children), stimmed off of toys (shaking them). (FYI i know there is not evidence that vaccines cause autism - this child was given EIGHT vaccines in one day and was sick prior to going in (*FYI - AAP states NOT to give vaccines if you r child is sick even though many doctors do anyway )
* will play with the same toy for hours (repetitive toy – e.g. drop a ball into ball maze; spin wheels on toy cars)

Autism comes in many froms and levels. it ranges from mild to severe and has many layers to it. usually they say, a child developes normally and then around 2 years old ethier stops developing or regresses to an earlier phase of development. Social behaviors include, not wanting to be touched, very little eye contact and retreating into their own world. some froms of autism include high intelleigence but a single focus on one thing and that could be any thing from dinosauers to butterfly collecting. social behaviors can range from easily frustrated to downright anger, also wanting to be alone or not being able to show appropriate feelings in any given situation. Other mental handicaps can show such as Obsessive compulsive disorder or depression. I know this sounds like alot, but the only way to know for sure is to seek out a doctors advice. I hope this helps.

When our daughter was around two years old, she started "losing" words she'd been saying. Words that had been in her usual vocabulary were gone. And, they weren't being replaced by new ones. She also started lining up small object, plastic chess pieces in her case, into long very straight lines. It seemed to be her favorite thing to do. She started flapping her hands like a little bird trying to fly when she was excited.

Because of the the speech problems, we had one doctor insistent that she have her hearing tested. But we knew she could hear, and hear very well.When she turned four, she was diagnosed with autism.

I don't know if this will help you but the book that doctors use the criteria from to diagnose autism is called the DSM-IV. In it, it lists all the possible diagnostic criteria and how many of the criteria the child must have in order to be diagnosed with autism. You probably can find an online copy if you google it or check with your local hospital. A lot of them have medical libraries.

I don't have a child on the spectrum, but have many friends that do. Hope you don't mind my responding. Best advice: If you have a mommy-gut-concern, speak to your pediatrician asap and at least have him evaluated. These kids can't be lumped into a category--it is too wide a spectrum. A professional can determine if there IS something. Then--the good news--the sooner he gets therapy, etc, the better! Good luck to you!

My son was diagnosed at 19 months old. Symptoms included: Significant speech delays, lack of responsiveness to his name and loud noises, lining up toys, spinning wheels, food aversions, sensory sensativities.....

The pediatrician's recommendation for evaluation was based on the results of an M-Chat at the 18 month checkup. You can download the questionaire and scoring sheet. It comes with a warning that laypersons should not attempt to use it for diagnositc purposes, but it can certainly help point you in the right direction or help you discern the things to look for.

A year and change later, my son has a fairly intensive schedule of therapies and it making slow, but steady progress. We have good hopes for the future. Best of luck to you and your child.

Please give me a call at 800-444-0821--my name is J. and I am with the Missouri Developmental Disabilities Resource Center, which is located at the Institute for Human Development at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. We have quite a few experienced "Mentor Mom's" through our "Sharing Our Strengths" parent-to-parent mentoring network. Free of charge, we can find you an experienced parent to speak with that could talk to you about what their experiences were when they first thought their child might have autism.
Please feel free to give me a call--
Sincerely,
J. Hatfield-Callen

Argh! I hate when people throw out the vaccines, not even close! Immunize your kids for pete's sake.

Here is the issue with symptoms, there is this spectrum. On one end you have ADD and on the other you have full out Autism. The symptoms people like to throw out there carry across the whole spectrum. I am ADD, I don't naturally make eye contact, I taught myself that habit so as to not make people uncomfortable. I don't understand expressions and reactions like a normal person, so I learned psychology to understand these things as a system. I can tell when people are lying to me. Haha it is good to be a freak. :)

Three of my four kids have ADD, the fourth, my younger son, has PDD. The only difference between any of us is the severity of the symptoms. If you really want to know what is going on you must seek professional help.

My son is on the high functioning end of the spectrum , he was diagnosed when he was 4 , to be honest now looking back we noticed things when he was younger , but being out first and having nothing to compare it to we just thought these were his little ways. If he has been sat for a period of time (for example at school) he get's a build up of tension and needs to unwind , during school he will flap his hands by his face (teachers observasion) , at home he will hop up and down or do a kind of hop/skip around the room. He also repeats things that he has heard during the day over and over to himself , can be something as simple as me asking him to put something away , he doesn't say it loud, but loud enough for you to hear and it is in a flat one level tone. He also goes through stages of being obsessed with something , he used to love Thomas the tank engine and would play with the same engine over and over , but wouldn't play with it on the tracks , he had to hold it and manipulate it and drive it up his torso. As he has gotten older his obsessions have moved away from toys , and are now watching music video's on th computer (again the same song all the time). BTW he is now 7. He does ok in school , his reading his really good , handwriting he struggles with and also drawing is immature for his age , he also acts younger that kids his age and doesn't know how to play with them , and can play with younger kids easier (4/5 yr olds).

If you have any concerns with your own child , I would speak to the Dr about early intervention that is available in your area , most of the time it is a free assesment.

My daughter was diagnosed with Autism at 27 months old. Her language never developed normally. She started babbling, and said a few words, and then she lost most of them. The biggest thing with her is that she stopped responding to most sounds. She wouldn't respond to her name, she didn't startle at loud noises, and she wouldn't turn her head to look for a bell ringing. We had her hearing check multiple times, and it was always fine. She would respond to TV, radio, or any sound amplified by electronic means. She started avoiding eye contact. She would rock and make noises like she was rolling an "r". She would line things up by color or category. She was very fascinated with holding toys up next to her eyes and opening and closing lego windows over and over. She also liked to climb behind us and pull her back to squish her.
Symptoms of autism can vary widely, but they usually involve a communication delay and problems relating to other people. My daughter was diagnosed as severely autistic and given a pretty bleak prognosis by the doctors who diagnosed her at Children's Mercy. She received very intensive early intervention, and she has made wonderful progress. She still has a few quirks, but now at 4 years old, you would never know she is autistic just by look at her. Good luck.

My son has Aspergers so he is on the very mild end of the spectrum. He wasn't diagnosed until after age 4 when he started preschool and we could see him side by side compared to many other children his age. He didn't play with the other children, he always seemed a few steps behind. He was "shy" but to an extreme. He didn't answer questions for the teacher or volunteer for anything.

In hindsight, here are some signs we missed at home when he was younger. He loved Blues Clues and used to play this game at the bottom of our stairs where he would throw a ball up the steps, yell "Blue Scadoo You Can To" and then catch the ball as it came down the steps. He would do this for long periods of time over and over again and if someone else came into the area and touched the ball he would have a tantrum. When he would get excited about something he would jump up and flap his hands. Sometimes it appears like any other little kid getting excited about something, but my son would get up and do this even if he had been sitting in a chair or on the floor. Even now at age 8 if he's playing a board game and gets excited about something (or even if it's nothing too exciting) he'll suddenly jump out of his seat, go hopping half way across the room and then just come back and sit down. My son also does not like to get help with anything. Trying to teach him to catch a ball, write, shoot baskets, play video games, he doesn't want any instruction and throws a tantrum if he's not able to do it perfectly right from the start. He's better about this now, but when he was younger it was frustrating.

With Aspergers the flip side is that they are usually highly intelligent. My son memorized all of the names of the dinosaurs and the trucks in his "My Big Truck Book" and "My First Dinosaur Book" at age 2 1/2. You could flip through to any page and point to the truck or dinosaur and he could name it. My son was reading at age 4 just from my husband and I reading to him. He had not gone to school and we had not specifically sat down and taught him to read, he just knew what to do from having books read to him.

My son also gets "obsessed" with certain topics or TV shows. When he was younger it was the Backyardigans or dinosaurs. Now that he's older it's baseball (my husband is thrilled :-)) and the gameshow "Lingo". He DVR's it and watches them back over and over again. He also plays the game on my iPod Touch.

Good luck,
K.