Autism referral

[Milsandmyls]

Hi everyone,

My DS1 who is 2and 1/2 is currently going through the process of getting an autism diagnosis. It was flagged at his 2 year review and since then 2 further health care professionals have escalated it.
He currently goes to a childminder who says she has no concerns, he’s just stubborn and slow with speech. She’s confident he’ll catch up eventually. We’ve noticed some traits such as lining up toys, tiptoeing, playing alone and obviously the delayed speech but there are many other things that seem “normal” but are inconsistent, such as responding to his name, eye contact, and his sense of danger is very hit or miss. We’ve been in many situations where his routine has broken and he seemed to cope fine, he also sleeps well and doesn’t seem bothered by noisy environments. I don’t think my post has any particular purpose other than to hear your experiences of autism diagnoses and if you have older children, how much of an impact has it has on their life? Is there such thing as being “mildly” autistic? I am very new to this and obviously want to support my son in the best way possible. It has caused a lot of tension in my marriage as my husband doesn’t really understand what autism is and thinks our son won’t be able to function in the real world. TIA for reading this far 🤣.

It's a huge spectrum from
People not being abject to talk to people working and driving and having kids.

I was diagnosed at 35. Dd12 had been waiting for an assessment gif 3 years.

Mildly autistic isn't a term that's used as you can't be alittle bit autistic. Similarly High / Low functioning ist used either. High or low support needs is used more often. A high support needs child is likely to be non-verbal, non- toilet trained, not managed in mainstream and need a specialist school and overall need a lot more support

DD is low support needs ie needs minimal help and support, is high achieving, early speaker, no issue with toilet training etc.

Her struggles are mostly around noise sensitivity, and needing lots of downtime.

She does not show challenging behaviour and shuts down rather than melts down. She gets 'more' autistic ie she struggles to cope with her autistic traits more when she's under the weather so will tic more, or get overwhelmed more quickly.

She has a small group of friends and they are all 'odd bods' in their own ways but are fantastically supportive of eachother.

She was diagnosed as a teen and it was massively helpful in her knowing herself, she is learning to budget her energy levels and time, she is getting to know her limits and (hopefully) should live a content life going to uni and working. She just might have to work PT to manage her levels etc but that's in the future.

I was in a similar position two years ago (my husband also didn’t understand/agree initially) as nursery raised concerns about DD1 around her second birthday. DD2 was a newborn and so there was lots going on.

She was non-verbal then but I had no concerns about eye contact. Response to her name was inconsistent and I now realise she was engaging in sensory-seeking behaviours but didn’t know this at the time.

I spoke to a private speech and language therapist a few weeks after nursery raised their concerns and she explained how and why those concerns could be autistic traits. I remember crying when I put DD to bed that night as I was just so worried and scared for her future.

Not all autistic children are the same, my DD is significantly impacted (to put it lightly) but she is making lots of progress in her own way. She is still largely non-verbal (has a few non-functional words) but is good at communicating her needs by taking us by the hand to what she wants.

She is now just turned 4 and received her autism diagnosis a couple of months ago as we went via Right to Choose once she was placed on the NHS waiting list. She copes well in a mainstream nursery, for now at least. She has significant sensory processing difficulties but we have a lot of things in place for her both at home and nursery.

DD tip-toes, lines up toys, likes playing alone but she also loves books, nursery rhymes, knows her numbers and alphabet and can arrange them in order.

Aged 0-2, DD seemed to cope well with changes to routine and there were no real concerns around her eating and sleeping but this changed a few months before she turned 3 when she largely stopped eating most foods and was awake for hours in the night. But for us at least, even the hardest bits are phases and there are good days and bad days and good weeks and bad weeks.

Hi

My son had all that following quoting you ( lining up toys, tiptoeing, playing alone and obviously the delayed speech but there are many other things that seem “normal” but are inconsistent, such as responding to his name, eye contact, and his sense of danger is very hit or miss)

His first words was around 32month old

I was worrying alot

we went tru SALT and OT for 2 years

Skip to nowadays:

He is at kindy doing great been nominated to do speech in behalf of his whole kindy parallel of our school, (his english is way better then mine seriously) :)

speaking,writing,math and alot of friends and no asd traits anymore

I have 2 children who are autistic, my eldest dd 14, was diagnosed at 10, goes to mainstream school, although she was in a nurture class for the first 2 years and still has access to nurture class when she needs it, she struggles socially but has managed to make a few friends in her nurture group, and struggles with busy, loud environments, for example she had a meltdown yesterday because her science class was busier and louder than usual, my youngest ds 9 was diagnosed at 3, he goes to a special school, he is non verbal, still needs help with toileting, getting dressed, most daily tasks, either end of the spectrum has its struggles, there isn’t really a ‘mildly autistic’ my son needs more help physically, but is mostly in his own world, he has no understanding that he is different, no understanding of making friends and being lonely from not having friends etc my daughter on the other hand is aware she is different, feels upset when she can’t make friends and struggles with anxiety, so either end of the spectrum is difficult for different reasons xx