What was your child who has aspergers like at 2?

[boo64]

Thinking of a good friend's dd whose mum is concerned....if you have a child who was diagnosed with Aspergers later on, waht were they like at 2?

DS was very placid, slept well, was fascinated by trees, and learning the alphabet, he could recognise and say the alpahbet, both upper and lower case by the time he was 2, and could use a pc competently, he was quite a fussy eater, and he would rock alot (still does)

Quite hard trying to remember 4 years ago, theres probably loads more I could say.

What was the rocking like?

And how was he around other kids?

Yes it all blurrs a bit after a few years doesn't it - I can barely remember last week these days so can empathise with not remembering 4 years ago!

Needed routine, hated change. IE must walk a certain route to and from shops. Once toy of the day chosen, would not put it down all day and if it went missing would completely freak out. Balance not very good, tottered on tip toes. Not much interaction with adults.

She is very good with adults, cautious round children.

Don't all kids do some of these things to a lesser extent e.g. like routines, have favourites and little obsessions at age 2....what puzzles me is were does the line between 'normal' behaviour and say Aspergers typical behaviour stop and start (assuming this is quite hard to say as it is a spectrum)

He would play along side other children, but rarly with them, unless it was only one child, he would rock on all fours as soon as he could get into position, so from about 7 months, he would rock himself to sleep each night, the rocking then went on to, swaying backwards and farwards while in the sitting position, he hums at the same time too.

He hated large enclosed places, and he does'nt like loud noise and too much going on arounf him, for example fetes, fairs.

Neuro typical children can usually accept a change in routine, or for example be distracted with a new toy in place of a popuar one, and any obsessions are normally very short fased before moving onto the next, however a child with aspergers is very likely to become very anxious when things are done differently, and thier obsessions often take over at inappropiate times, say for example, they might resort to thier obsession half way through a meal, like an impulse.

DS is currentl obsessed with matchbox cars, he has to have 2 in his drawer at school, and several times through the day, whether its in the middle of story time, halfway through a writing task, he will get up, walk to the drawer, hold the cars i his hands for about 20 seconds, then put them back and go back to what he was doing.

Aspergers is often not dx before the age of 7 in many places.

Ok that makes sense now - I think what we're talking about with my friend's dd is very mild or just 'standard' toddler stuff.

Thank you for all your replies - much appreciated.

my dd1 is 18 and has aspergers. at two she seemed fine. i didnt notice anything unusual until she was 3, when she became distant, didnt interact with people. she became obsessed with bart simpson and copied his voice and walk. she knew all the words to every episode. diagnosis was at 6.

Yes, aspergers bacomes clearer as they get older, as demands of social and interaction skills become more.