ASD Traits In Layman's Terms

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Hi all. A family member is being assessed for ASD. He's only young still so it's great that he's not been left to flounder and if anything turns up will get more support. I understand that parents can be completely in the dark with regards to their own LO's. I looked at the traits online but I was wondering if someone could kind of translate them into everyday examples of what it would actually look like in an everyday situation? hope this makes sense. Thanks

haha me too but better than it used to be we had yu gi oh and pokemon nows starwars i have shutters that come down and a permant grin and nod lol and it so rings true as long as im smiling ds is happy to tell me every inticate detail and word for word of all his favorite films

omg maps please spare me god lol so we should be happy mines starwars, captain underpants books and diary of a wimpy kid

"shutters that come down"

DS1 who has AS could recite all parts of the digestive system by the time he was 18months and wouldn't eat a food if he didn't know what it was being broken down into in and what use that was to his body.
By 2 he had got into the Tudors and Romans (I am now an 'expert') and his obsession is starting to wane, Starwars his latest obsession for the last couple of years or so seems positively blissful !

Regarding traits in everyday life, I'm guessing your DN is quite young, so say at 12months he would throw a tantrum if we drove home by a different route from toddler group because we needed petrol, at 18months take him by foot to an unfamiliar place and he would know the route back better than me. At 8 he still throws a tantrum if we walk home from school a different route unfortunately his younger brother possibly also ASD likes to walk a different route so every day I have a tantrum from one or the other and have to drag them kicking, screaming, biting etc.

At 4 he would have a panic attack if we touched a pattern he made with blocks on the floor, he had collections of sticks and stones that couldn't be moved, he had panic attacks that he couldn't remember what words meant eg 'drink', if you started talking to him when his back was to you he would continue talking with his back to you. If we got say the play food out, he would order it all up by colour on the right colour plates, but wouldn't actually try and eat it. He likes licking puddles, metal, ate daisys (as they taste like chocolate ).

ahhh pica ive been lucky i guess on that one note only thing he doesnt do lol but everything else is familiar as one of ds first obsessions was toy cars i wonder if he will go back to that one as an adult id rather that than start train spotting as he used to be obsessed with thomas the tank we had a huge playroom with it layed out permanently (as we were not allowed to put it away) for 3 years kinda hard cleaning round it lol

I'm starting to appreciate Starwars more and more . I especially like the way he says "Boba" (as in Fett). It makes me smile.

Your son would probably like my toilet wall in the next couple of weeks then, Mists... I'm about to paper it with old maps!

"we do not easily see things from others perspectives, that we are very egocentric." That would be my partner, Bullet, who I strongly suspect has AS after reading a few of the books available to try and understand DS, but ended up recognising DP!

the very fact that it varys so much is what makes it hard to diagnose.
most the common traits have been expressed here but there are others rarer and such.

so true wraith far too many to mention and even then everyone has their own personal excentricities/ foibols if you like all seem pretty ordinary when youve lived with them for a time ive actually found when talking to other mums im thinking their offsprings are strange that they dont do these or is that just me lol

I get the reverse, Bailey - other mum's say "oh, DS does that too" but they don't realise the extent to which my Ds does it and I feel that can undermine the problems we can have, especially when they prefix it with "I know exactly how you feel". Oh no you don't!!!

oh no they certainly dont lol oh they do say that to me too well used to when he was in pre then middle school now none of the mums talk to me as they have labled him the "naughty boy" im sure their peers hear the teachers saying this sometimes but ive a few friends with children with adhd and learning difficulties so they are much more tollerant thank goodness but your right people think they know how you feel but they couldnt possibly understand untill they have spent a day in our shoes(knowing my luck they'd run away with me shoes lol)

oops i ment pre and first doh DS is in middle now (i am so blonde )

Ahh, that's pants, Bailey

There was a funny quote I read today though about walking a mile in someone elses shoes; as then you'd be a mile away and have their shoes

This may just be my son, but this is another one in my book... he is uber-sensitive to touch.... therefore, another everyday example of what AS looks like is a haircut which looks like someone keeps sneaking up and hacking a lump off

Hi. My eldest is 11 and was only diagnosed march 08 after years of fighting for help. To cut a long story short look up the 3 triads of impairment. Hope this helps.

LOL at haircuts. DS at almost four is just manageable. Well. Wrestle able really.

When I go to the centre for children with disabilities I see many adorable older boys looking as you have described MotherJack.

Wearing vastly outgrown and obviously beloved clothing is another one. With NO LABELS.

I haven't had a look at the FB group for a while and really enjoyed browsing the pictures yesterday. My favourite is the lovely little boy watching the fountains from a chair with all his pigs lined up on the wall. Wonderful

oh it's so lovely to know you're not alone :)

I've just got my 9 year old to bed - despite 9 years of practice he still needs going to bed instructions one at a time. Clean your teeth - then he comes back for next instruction - wash your face - then he comes back - take your clothes off etc etc. Everything is a plan or a routine. Last time we went on holiday it took me nearly a year to prepare him so he wouldn't be too disruptive due to the changes in routine. And we had a great holiday!

Sometimes I am desperate for a night off (our last was in November 2009) but I wouldn't swap my 2 for the world.

Going to look at the Facebook page next.

Real life examples from my now 11 year old DS2 with ASD, include a long list of obsessions, which usually happen one at a time and last from several weeks to several months.

When he was 3 he had to run around the car 3 times before getting in which was fine when parked in the drive...

At 4 he knew the birthday of every child in his MS class, but couldn't recognise their faces.

At 6 he knew all the doctors (Who) and their companions for every story since 1963. God bless BBC website for that.

He knew the length of every David Bowie track
on every album when he was 8. Has forgotten them all now.

Hannah and the Pirate Caves game on Neopets lasted 2 years and included him joining a website for other addicts! How he found it I've no idea.

Now he just plays Final Fantasy 1 (not 2 of course!?) on his Ipod touch which I have long regretted buying. He prefers it to PC, the Wii or the TV. Has lasted 4 months so far.

As I've seen written before, just nod and smile and say "Oh, really! That's great."

He had a high pain threshold, which sounds like we were torturing him. He has sensory issues, loves loud noises, firm cuddles, but cannot eat food unless it is nearly cold. He's either laughing and happy, passive and unresponsive or completely devastated and can go from one state to the next in about 5 seconds. Life has not been dull since we had him!

what were your AS kids like at 29 months, does anyone remember?

ooh long time ago my DS is nearly 11 now but i had to keep repeating instructions he was very fidgety all the time lining toys up crying at bed time wouldnt sleep long had more what i though were temper tantrums wouldnt play with anyone except mummy he didnt like anyone else touching anything fussy eater slow learning to speak all at the time i though he was just hard work and just so different to his older NT siblings but i didnt know anything about ASD only what i saw on TV extreme Autism as in Rainman with Tom Cruise i though that was what all Autistic people were like anything you want to know more specific as a lot of traits ive not mentiond?

I had no real concerns about DS1 (severe AS, but also very high functioning) at that age, I just thought him very bright and hence a little different to other children.
He knew loads about the Romans (18months - 2years was his food obssession, then he saw a road sign with a Roman helmet on...), obsessed with them until he moved to the Tudors at age 4-5 when saw picture of Henry VIII.
Photographic memory - could guide me home if we went somewhere new.
Collected sticks and stones and tantrums if anybody touched his piles of them.
Needed every toy to be put away in the right boxes.
Loved me to make him trainsets, but, had to use every piece, never ran his trains around them.
Always lined up his action men. Found him bidding on ebay for more action men after leaving my computer logged on one day!
Knew all his letters, desperate to read - threw a tantrum if you told him to "read a book" as knew he couldn't read, fine if said "go and look at a book", ie literal language.
Threw a tantrum if tried to go home by different routes, eg if had to go via petrol station.
Food couldn't touch on the plate.

I knew my son was autistic from very early on..
He preferred his own company a lot and would often toddle off on his own and sit in a the bookcorner to look at books on his own and didnt like sitting on my lap to read them together,

if we went to a supermarket and an item had fallen off the shelf he would scream until it was placed back on a shelf in line with other items..

would notice if something was missing / in a room that had changed

obsessive regarding play

sensory issues as in noise touch smell..hated sitting with you [and still does at the age of 12 ] while anyone was eating
has severe food restrictions ,self inflicted

doesnt understand when someone doesnt want to hear him droning on about ICT

flaps hands

has immmature behaviour fo rhis age

still will often think out aloud a lot /running commentary

dislikes change of routine

Basically list could go on and on

This is great . thankyou every1 .people who might understand!
Because i have an idea how you guys feel. DS 2.8 poss ASD
await assessment. soooo hard (nearly always)
and all people say is He'll catch up / oh yeah thats normal mine did that etc etc and its like HELLO look at him ...spend some time with him.
We have just had a great family hol and im actually dreading having to be on my own with DS again.
Nice to know i can come back here.
Good luck peeps with your LOs x

This thread has been very helpful to me too, in a OMG Yes! sort of way.

Love the quote about walking a mile in someone else's shoes!

I'm another mum who's on the autism spectrum herself and has brought up a ds on the autism spectrum. Oh, and dh is autistic too. We're definitely all a bit different from each other.

Maps, did someone say? Brilliant! That's my favourite thing in the world (well, apart from dh, ds and my family and friends of course!) but I used that amazing autism persistence to get a really good job involving use of maps. Sometimes those 'obsessions' are what make a brilliant living for us.

Yes, the comments about "oh they all do that" miss the point entirely. We do stuff...but we do it to extremes, and those extremes are often what cause the problems (for us and for others).