To ask parents of autistic children...?

[AlmostAWife]

*Name changed for this
When did you start to think they might be on the spectrum, and why?
What were your signs?

Thank you

ZZZZ you cannot suggest that there are no physical differences, you don't know, so cannot be dismissed.

Just a quick comment on the discussion above about physical markers, if it's neurological or not. In my opinion and what I have read, and I am no expert, autism and other conditions on the autistic spectrum are due to a neurological 'issue'. Even if someone was to say it's hormonal, hormones are controlled by the brain. If it's not neurological, then what is it? Not so long ago, and still believed in some countries, autism could be treated with psychoanalysis...

In terms of any regression, there are two forms of Autism. Some children develop more slowly than their peers, which can then lead to a diagnosis. Others will develop neurotypically and then at around the 18 month mark will stop development and regress- losing skills and language they once had. Hence why the MMR wrongly came into question those years ago.

Losing language ability is a huge red flag in terms of an ASD diagnosis but it's worth baring in mind that by a long way, not all ASD involves a regression.

My ds walked on time (around 13m?).
His eye contact was / is good.
His first word was around 8m.
By 14m he was speaking in complex sentences, really 'little professor' and asking about life and death and God etc by age 2.5. Everyone commented how unusual it was. He seemed superintelligent (to us, parents of a PFB!).

BUT - he was hugely clingy, didn't sleep at all really, screamed a lot, couldn't cope with 'outside' and had a lot of sensory issues going on. He didn't point, he didn't want to interact with other children. He was rigid in his thinking and couldn't bear change, esp last minute.
Playgroup was awful, nursery was awful. Y1-3 awful.
Introverted, sleepwalking, spinning, hitting himself.

He is now 10.
He still finds social interaction very very tricky.
He still has trouble sleeping.
He is still very advanced verbally.

My DD developed early speech and late motor skills. Then regressed and lost speech.

I don't give a stuff what the 'highly politicised autism community' think. None of them speak for my son, and often their claims that we should 'respect' autism and not work to 'change' those with the condition make me incredibly angry.

As a child at the moderate-severe end of the spectrum, respecting his autism in the way they advocate would lead, not to international platforms to opine about what's best for others, but lifelong institutionalisation.

I didn't mean to detail the thread, which is why I clearly said I was only giving my own personal opinion about my own personal son!!!

As an aside why should we say 'autistic child' when 'Down's child' has become largely unacceptable? Is it because there's no 'highly political' community of those with Down's Syndrome?

Yes everyone has their different opinion. I agree rocketjam neurological differences do have their origins in the brain. If there were no differences in the structures if tge brain between Autistic and non Autistic children, I understand there would be no difficulties. My dd was the first type tgat theiringnome highlighted. She was Autistic from when she was a very young baby, she still displays traits tgat she displayed as a baby. Frustration, inability to wait, high anxiety.

There clearly are differences in the brain of people with autism and people without. Or there wouldn't be a problem. Why do people get so offended over nothing?

Exactly bottle, if there wansen't a difference, there woulen't be a problem.

"There clearly are differences in the brain of people with autism and people without. Or there wouldn't be a problem. Why do people get so offended over nothing?"

It's not getting offended over nothing. It's being offended or concerned that some people appear to be suggesting there's a physical difference in brains which makes those people with that particular difference autistic.

By extrapolation, that would mean that some form of brain image or scan or examination could determine if that person had autism.

It is not so. If it was we'd all be forming a disorderly queue outside every appropriate diagnostic centre in the country, screaming for that test for our kids.

Agreed Rumba

Zzzz the brain controls our emotions, our perceptions, behaviour,it us responsible for social behaviour. If there was nothing wrong than my chikd would nit have Autism.

Blank my dd paed offered to scan dd and test her genetically but we refused as she has Autism, we cannot do anything about it, and we don't want to put dd through that unless absolutely necessary.

From day one. At age 2, there was no interest in general things,like looking at trains or unwrapping presents.DC was hugely articulate and developed off beat interests.They are all very different .My GP said DC was no real,I knew otherwise.

Aeroflot could you ask the paed specifically what sort of scan he was going to have done and what he was hoping to see? I'm seriously interested.

I've read research that's suggested differences in a particular part of the brain could indicate autism, yet in other articles people with those brain areas perfectly formed were autistic too.

It's all could and may be and perhaps in the literature, I've ploughed through medical studies when they've been openly accessible.

There is no definitive single brain imagery that we can look at and say definitively, 'That area of the brain shows this type of difference therefore that person is autistic'.

I truly wish there was.

I am not sure, think it was MRI, but only if we wanted. We have been discharged from the paed now as there is nothing more they can do for her.

Yes zzz we will agree to disagree. There is no one cause of Autism, nobody knows what definitely causes it I found.

I see that there is a strong leaning towards genetic causes. It woukd be interesting to look at in a study.

dD had an MRi which showed no abnormalities at all.

Yet she has quite severe ASD and some physical issues.

In our case it is definitely genetic as there are other children on the spectrum in my husbands family. My son is the one affected most severely, others are HF but one of my nieces daughters has what I would call global developmental disorder.

There is also BPD and Schizophrenia, and my own mother had BPD.

Are there physical differences in the brain of those who are on the spectrum? In some cases there are, and in some there is no visible difference.

My niece is autistic and it was noticeable from birth tbh. She never needed anything outside of herself. She never looked at anything, asked for food or cried. To the outside eye she looked utterly content and placid. She was locked in her own world really. When she started to branch out, it was atypical. She had sensory issues, massive problems with food textures, was obsessive with certain items, she stimmed and flapped, put anything smaller than her mouth in her mouth and instead of speaking to you, developed echolalia. No response to her name, no eye contact, no pointing, no shared interest. Meltdowns over change. She was diagnosed at 2 which is v early.

Oh there is definitely autism in my family. I'd put money on my brother having Aspergers. The way I see it is my niece has autism, it's just a fact of her. I have dreams where she speaks to me and they're just...weird. You love the person for who they are and that is who she is. I wouldn't want a magic wand waving and making her not autistic any more. She wouldn't be herself.

But she is different from NT kids. I see nothing offensive in that fact