Advice from some parents experienced in Autism.

[poppybuns]

Just wondering for those of you whose children have been diagnosed with autism, how old were they when you starting noticing and what behaviours led you to suspect there was something else at play.

My son is 2 and it's definitely a character!
He has some odd and stubborn behaviours but I'd say, whilst they could be argued as autistic traits, they are also pretty standard toddler behaviour.

Some examples,
Very picky with food, will only eat the same meal every single day.
Set in his ways with doing certain things, he will only drink milk from a bottle, but won't drink from a bottle as bottles are for babies, won't drink milk from a cup because that's for juice.. huge huge meltdown when given milk in his juice cup!
Won't allow any food to touch each other on a plate and has a meltdown if it does.
Will only eat a specific food on his own terms, if he asks for an apple and there isn't one then the world ends, he won't be pacified with a banana or other type of snack, only an apple with do.
Obsessed with dinosaurs, must wear his dinosaur wellies and hat everywhere, if strangers speak to him he won't say hello, he'll roar and stomp like a dinosaur.

I've picked these behaviours in particular as we saw a dietitian today about his eating as it's a concern. The dietician asked me if I had considered that he has autism. I was a little taken back, she said his over fussy behaviours and his lack of social skills would suggest there is more than just picky eating. She mentioned social skills as when she tried to speak to him he wouldn't respond with words, just roars. He can speak perfectly well, but for some reason with strangers he does turn into a dinosaur!

I can't decide if the dietician has a valid point or if she's overstepped the Mark. I work with special needs so I'm not clueless with things like this. But no matter what knowledge I have I'm not qualified to suggest specific diagnosis. If I notice behaviours or patterns that I believe fit a certain profile, I wouldn't label what they may be to a parent, I'd discuss what behaviours caught my attention and signpost or make referrals to where to find more help to explore those.

So just wondering what you experienced and knowledgable people think about this situation?

Children this small often communicate in weird ways...as for the eating...that sounds like OCD.

From the families I have worked with, it really varies. Many will report fussiness from birth, which when they look back on starts to make sense with sensory differences. There is also some really interesting work looking at early eye gaze patterns (where the baby looks) and the differences in autistic children vs 'neurotypical'.

You are describing some common signs of ASD and the dietician would have reviewed all of this information before mentioning autism, however I know this is a very unexpected term to hear when you were going to have their diet reviewed. The next step would be a referral to a paediatrician but the dietician has probably mentioned that.

Speech is not a indication that the child doesn't have autism, the challenge for autistic children is social communication rather than speech. They are two different skills, I have worked with children who have scores in the 99th percentile on formal language tests, but can't hold a basic conversation with a stranger as they struggle with social communication. So, where dinosaurs is the interest they might start telling me all about the different dinosaurs, but not say hello or greet me or check that I am interested in dinosaurs before starting their conversation. The paediatric and speech and language assessments, and may occupational therapist's will be able to advise further.