I am concerned that my three year old daughter is displaying signs of autism or ADHD. I have two older children, a 15 year old girl and a 12 year old boy - they both have autism and ADHD. They are both ‘high-functioning’, Asperger’s types and weren’t diagnosed until late childhood / teenagers. They have the same dad but my youngest has a different dad.
I have done online autism screenings but they come back as low chance of autism, however I have noticed the following;
- Tip-toe walking, not all the time but enough to be noticeable
- Very friendly with strangers, will just go up to people and chat, no stranger danger at all
- Covers ears to loud sounds such as motorbikes
- Doesn’t like to hold hands or be in pram - would much rather be free and skipping ahead or wandering around. Can be quite hard to contain whilst out! (Though she does listen when told off…!)
- Repeats phrases she has heard on the TV, for example has adopted the phrase and tone ‘Idea!’ From a TV show she watches. Ditto will repeat what I have said, usually to her siblings, for example if I’ve told them to put their coat on she will also tell them to put their coat on.
- Can be quite bossy and controlling, again usually around siblings, telling them what to do.
However, she does have good speech, eye contact, body language, pointing, loves to chat and play, is very engaged. She does imaginary play, for example she will use her toy kitchen to make pretend meals and drinks to feed to people, will pretend to phone people and chat to them on her toy phone. She doesn’t have any classic signs like speech delay or gross motor delays or regression, but to be fair, neither did my other two children!
Am I being unreasonable or should I request an assessment from my GP? I’ve never had a neurotypical child so I don’t know what ‘normal’ toddler behaviour is, and I don’t want to leave it late like my older two.