can someone please explain Autism to me please.

[fairydust]

dd is 3 1/3 yrs old and goes to a mainstream nursery she has CP and is mentally about 1 yr behind but is doing fantsticlly.

She's struck up a friendship with a little boy who has Autism - "A" seems to be totally hooked with our dd and his parents have invited dd for a playdate over the xmas holiday - of course we've said yes

with out sounding too ignorant can anyone please expalin to me what Autism is i've looked on the net and like most things it all seems gooblie gook to me and seeing as his parents made the effort to find out about dd's condition (was told thid by a good friend) it seems only right i do the same.

Playdates are a hole new experience dd has a few friends we meet regualrly but they've know her from date dot.

I hsvn't wrote this thread to offend anyone i generally want to know.

What would you make of a child who seems reasonably NT but who stims a lot? My dd1 has a number of items round the house which she likes to flick back and forth repeatedly for ages (if allowed) eg parts of toys, books. It seems to be a comfort thing that she does when tired or bored. I try to distract her from it, but sometimes let her do it for a while as it seems to be a form of relaxation for her after a long day at school. Do you think I should be worried about this?

Socci's right- it's the pointing to share interest that is particularly lacking in ASD. IN ds1's case all pointing was AWOL, but according to the literature pointing to request often is present.

TOM develops over several years. And in fact it's now thought that a lot of people with ASD do understand aspects of TOM. DS1 for example can tease us (pretends he's going to do something that he knows he's not allowed to, fave at the moment is to stand on a chair with one leg hovering over the dining table), and he knows to hide things that he likes from his brothers (he puts them in the cellar, or in high places).

DS1 has problems with fine motor skills (and his vision they supect at school), but he can point now. If I tell him to use his reading finger he will, quite well, but it's still more natural to him to plonk my finger on whatever it is he's pointing at. DOn't know why, never even seen that aspect mentioned at all.

Personally I'd let her do it Caroline, unless it got all consuming, or was making her hyper (sometimes ds1's stimming gets him really stressed). I allow some, stop some, depends on the time, place, whether it interferes with anyone else, etc etc

jimjams, is that you?

I have always assumed that the using your hand was because of the problem of distinguishing themselves as a separate entity. But I have never heard any explanation either?

I am going to some of a 6-week course run by our CDC about autism. I am dubious about most of it and have managed to get out of the session run by Ds2's recent SALT who was hopeless but I am hoping it's worth it because the first session is given by Simon Baron-Cohen. I will ask him about pointing with someone else's hand.

That's reassuring jj/idaax! I think it could become a bit obsessive though - she needs lots of encouragement with ideas of things to play with, otherwise tends to just veg out!

....Blossomgoodwill

Looking back... daughter had this thing about texures of food, she didn't do lumps.. In fact she probably lived on sandwiches for a couple of years... and still hates food too crispy/crunchy although her eating on the whole is much better now..
She can have the most amazing wobblers/meltdowns.. over ... nothing!!..
again these are getting better..

But HEY.. you know.. she is lovely and I wouldn't change her for the world..

yep BK it is.

WOuld be interested to hear what SBC says. He's big on TOM, but never seen him say much about sensory stuff (which personally having read accounts written by adults with autism I think could be at the root of problems with things like the physical side of pointing).

hi there i wondered whether you had left mn - glad to see you are still here

I keep changing my name BK Jimjams has gone (head exploded on a vax thread ) but have been various other things since then. It's interesting posting under different names, you get different responses.

rummum - I wouldn't change my dd for the world as I love her quirkiness . However the one thing that really saddens me is that even though she is sociable and other children like her she doesn't have any friends as such. Now dd isn't bothered so why am I?
I think the fact dd had quite a significant language disorder made people sit up and notice very early on which IMO was a good thing.
Glad to hear the meltdowns are getting better. Dd hasn't actually had meltdowns as such but does scream and make a lot of noise if things aren't going her way (little madam )

dont you JJ, lol. i am loving this name atm as i dont get the same respeonses lol.

BIBIC reckon sensory stuff can be behind poor motor skills as well thinking about it, so I guess it all kind of ties in.

FT- it;s interesting!

can you help me on my thread on SN? not sure if anything to be concerned about.

Dd has just been referred to an opthomolagist by our gp as Bibic picked up about her midway line and her having difficulties crossing it. Apparently this can cause all sorts of problems with everyday things and they were so surprised that dd could read or write. Although she does put her hand over 1 eye from time to time which apparently helps.

dd2 recently had an eye check, she could do the hard 3d type pics, but not the easy ones, and couldnt see the smaller letters, so needs to be rechecked in a few months time.

Yes Ds2 doesn't cross his midline. I think he has a lot of difficulties processing visual info. It was really interesting the other day, the SALT showed him a number of pictures of everyday things and I was shocked how many names he got wrong. Quite often he said something quite unconnected with the picture - for example he called a piece of cheese a house . Then she picked up the pictures and described them to him and he got them mostly right. And in fact I know he knows the names of all those objects normally.

Although in terms of the midline you ought to see a OT BH. I know you have tried in the past, have you managed to get to see anyone yet?

Saker - unfortunately there is an 18 month waiting list that has closed. There is another waiting list for the bl**dy waiting list .
I am going to wait and see how Camhs goes (re. dd's self harming) and the opthamologist. Hopefully they may refer on.
Just so fed up of fighting for everything!

Thats interesting about her eyes...Blossomgoodwills, My DD looks at close things, sort of sideways, out of the corner of her eye, with her head looking the other way! Do you know why your DD does this?

It is a sensory thing rummum. I think it's called peripheal vision. Dd hasn't done it for ages but she goes through phases of it.

My ds definitely has problems with depth perception and figure/ground stuff. he can't find stuff that's right in front of him! Drives me mad. Also, absolutely hopeless with jigsaws - he just can't see how the picture comes together. He can also point in a disordered way - ie with a different finger - at times. Hates crossing his midline as well.
Intellectually he is so all there - adores words and numbers - but the other stuff scares me sometimes.

it means moving your hand across the centre of your body - with ds if you give him something standing on his right, he will take it with his right hand, but if you stand on his left he will take it with his left. If he is drawing, he would find it hard to do a big circle that went from his right to left side - he would stick to drawing on one side only. He would find it hard to touch his left knee with right hand also.