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Original poster

Do autistic traits fade and return in children?

31 replies

Marcellos · 23/01/2025 13:29

DS is on the waiting list for an autism assessment. At 3,4,5 I thought there were some noticeable traits - very routine focussed, e.g. had to go the same way home every day, lots of massive meltdowns, we couldnt go shopping as he'd get really upset, couldn't have food touching, found transitions between activities very difficult.

So the GP referred him and we're on the lengthy waiting list, probably another 18 months to go.

But he's now 6 and has really chilled out the last 6 months or so, he's still quirky and has odd mannerisms but he has friendships which he is appropriate in, he's more flexible. He can still get a little anxious about what's happening and timings and might occasionally find transitioning from one activity he's focused on difficult. He's really bright and is being challenged appropriately at school. I don't know if an assessor would spot any signs. School say he's fine.

I wouldn't have asked for a referral based on his current behaviour.

So from people's experience, might this be a patch of calm, will everything resurface at some point, or did I jump too quickly to my suspicions of autism?

OP posts:
redandpinkandwhite · 23/01/2025 18:21

I’d be cautious.

I do think sometimes there can be a bit of a seek and ye shall find with ND traits.

TheDisillusionedAnarchist · 23/01/2025 18:39

I feel the same about my 6yo daughter. Referral made about six months ago but at the moment I'd question it more. The huge meltdowns have gone mostly. She is coping better with life. I really am not sure about her.

My 8yo son is very autistic, it's obvious to random people who meet him for 10 mins. He needs 1:1 support in most settings but he still has got easier. I don't question whether he's autistic or not but many things that were huge challenges such as leaving the house are now non issues. So even in definitely autistic children traits change, some things get easier (and some harder, the developmental gap is growing now)

Lekinco · 23/01/2025 18:51

Hi OP,

I do ASD assessments, anyone qualified and doing these in the nhs has a pretty good idea about how things can ebb and flow and also in the differences between home and school and subtle presentations. It is our bread and butter. Sometimes there just isn’t enough there to reach diagnostic threshold, and those children are not considered to have autism. We do expect to see some consistency between both but the thing is that schools would only notice very obvious ‘signs’, and only in young people who are impacting on the classroom or stalling behind academically. So we take all of that in to consideration.

it’s extremely uncommon (and not advised) to assess for ADHD under 5, but for ASD you can assess under 5’s, I think I saw a poster say it was uncommon, but it’s not. I fact I work in a team specifically for assessing under 5’s. We do expect to see it somewhat more obviously if someone is under 5 because no 5 year old could have the ability to ‘mask’ , as the level of sophistication with development needed to mask goes beyond what you would expect any 5 yo to be able to do.

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mummyof2boys30 · 23/01/2025 18:56

Yes 100%. My son got diagnosed at 10, we thought he had ASD from before he was two. He had settled well between 7-9 then it all came crashing down again. Last year of primary school was horrendous. Then he has been well regulated in high school until Christmas, we thought he was learning to manage things better and then bang, we feel like we are back to the beginning again

mummyof2boys30 · 23/01/2025 18:57

2 months ago he was being signed off from creative therapy. Now we are trying to schedule emergency extra appointments, so yes can change fast

Original poster
Marcellos · 23/01/2025 19:34

Lekinco · 23/01/2025 18:51

Hi OP,

I do ASD assessments, anyone qualified and doing these in the nhs has a pretty good idea about how things can ebb and flow and also in the differences between home and school and subtle presentations. It is our bread and butter. Sometimes there just isn’t enough there to reach diagnostic threshold, and those children are not considered to have autism. We do expect to see some consistency between both but the thing is that schools would only notice very obvious ‘signs’, and only in young people who are impacting on the classroom or stalling behind academically. So we take all of that in to consideration.

it’s extremely uncommon (and not advised) to assess for ADHD under 5, but for ASD you can assess under 5’s, I think I saw a poster say it was uncommon, but it’s not. I fact I work in a team specifically for assessing under 5’s. We do expect to see it somewhat more obviously if someone is under 5 because no 5 year old could have the ability to ‘mask’ , as the level of sophistication with development needed to mask goes beyond what you would expect any 5 yo to be able to do.

That's really interesting to hear from an assessors point of view.
I feel there was so much when he was young and everything behavioural quirk of his that I googled seemed to be a sign of autism. I know that if you Google anything can be a sign but it felt there were so many things that added up. Things like that he used to whisper repeat the end of sentences which progressed to an odd stuttering of the final syllables. I did see speech therapy about this but he didn't have any one to one sessions.

It's good to know that you take into account that school might not notice, he is very much a non-disruptive kid, sometimes it all kicks off at home though.
But now, other than doing Lego for 12 hours straight if allowed he seems to be coping well with day to day life 😁

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