if a child only shows 2 of the 3 main areas to define ASD does that mean they definitely do not have ASD?

[deaconblue]

Ds has difficulties with social interaction with his peers and lots of sensory issues (2 of the 3 when I looked on the National Autism website) but has no language delay or communication issues. Does this mean he doesn't have ASD? Have looked at the aspergers bit of the site too but he doesn't fit all those criteria either
(am awaiting a SENCO assessment and a paediactric appointment to come through and have been googling to see what they may come up with)

maybe its not that obvious, my DS showed clear visable sins of the 2 areas you described but in language and communication i thought he didnt really fit. we had the ADOS and ADI-R done which recommended further testing by a SALT and said DS had ASD. When SALT assessed we found that whilst DS verbal and written communication was above average his understanding of words and body language etc was about 4 years below his actual age!

interesting. Ds' voacb is huge and he understands books way beyond his actual age but probably doesn't communicate about his own feelings and similar things all that well. I'm told he'll see the paed and then have a week long set of meetings with OT, SALT and others before they meet to discuss all their findings. We're hoping by setting the ball rolling now we may have a diagnosis and an action plan before he starts school next Sept. how long did it take for you to get a diagnosis after the initial referral?

from initial referral to dx was 11 months BUT we had to fight to get the ADOS and ADI-R as DS wasnt obviously meeting all 3 triads! his initial assessment was 3 months after referral and came back as nothing wrong with him! then he got DXed with ODD and eventually after further tests they diagnosed ASD, ODD and anxiety!
If you feel there is a problem you need to keep pushing and insist on the ADOS as this is the only test i know of to pick up the hidden issues!

thanks, what is ODD?

have just googled ADOS and ODD. Am going to need to get clued up about all this before we get an assessment I think. I guess the ADOS is what the health visitor meant when she was talking about hte week long set of meetings

It seems to me that ds is on the edge of what I saw as a spectrum but when I read up about ASD it seemed to suggest that all children with ASD must have the triad of issues, which seemed much more fixed rather than spectrum-like iyswim

i was told by the psych who did the ADOS that some children with ASD learn to mask their issues when they have good parents who give support....this is certainly true of my son, he knew he had to act in a certain way which was more to do with him mimicking correct behaviour rather than understanding riles IYSWIM

that makes sense, the pre-school teacher has already commented that I must have worked hard to give him so many coping strategies. I sometimes think the reason he gets so tired is from trying to conform, poor little fella

Aspergers Syndrome can be difficult to recognise in Adults as well as children. It is only recently that Aspergers has been recognised in Adults. I think many very successful scientists, musicians, composers, authors, inventors etc etc have probably had Aspergers syndrome. Turing for example, I guess had aspergers.