Diagnosis - traits of ASD, but not ASD

[cjn27b]

After almost a year, 2 paediatrician assessments and 2 SLT assessments we have been told DS, aged 3 and two months, has traits of autism but isn't on the spectrum. He has speech and langauge delay, but is making good progress and the gap between him and his peers is gradually closing. He does however have a lot of difficulty with social interaction - converstation style talking (it's more random comments, observations, yes/no answers, or talking on his chosen subjects). He makes good eye contact and is sociable with adults he is close to. Two weeks ago he started nursery, and two months ago had grommets (which have made a difference to his pronounciation and the amount of talking he does). He has not sensory or behavioural difficulties (and no repetitive behaviour or stimming).

Has anyone else every had a diagnosis of traits of ASD, but not ASD?

Anyone else got a child who was like this at 3, and have any idea how things might work out and what sort of help is best?

Many thanks for any thoughts, guidance, ideas or anything that could help.

Yep.

Ds1 is 8.5

Please feel free to PM me x

Yup Ds scored at the cut off point on ados and has "social communication disorder with autistic traits". What it's meant in real terms is not being able to access any of the help he'd automatically be entitled to if he had asd and so the gap between him and his NT peers has widened considerably as he's got older. I'm not sure the gap would be as wide as it now is if he had had the right expert help at the right time. Noone has known wth to do with him.

He's now 7 and in year 3 at his 4th educational institution so it's off to Tribunal I go to get autism outreach, trained TA etc.

If I had my time again I wouldn't have allowed the professionals to fob me off at every opportunity and ould have got REALLY pushy about SALT etc when he was much younger (he's still never had any direct SALT, despite tongue tie).

cjn27b

An ASD diagnosis is based on the subjectively observed behaviors of an individual needed to match the defined specific sets of behavior Traits that meet the current definitions of ASD. There are a minimum of 6 defined Traits from a possible 12 traits, from three specified types of issues. Some will not meet all of the specified issues, but still demonstrate some of the traits, but not enough of the required traits for an ASD diagnosis. More Information detailed information is included in my Autism ASD Links List.

So this really asks the questions which so many do not want to ask, such as "What are the underlying cognitive issues that cause the observed Autistic Traits?"
"When does a single or multiple set of disabilities cease being individual disabilities, and become part of the as yet undefined Autistic Spectrum diagnosis?"
"How should the individual disabilities which can combine with other disabilities to create ASD issues be remediate when an ASD diagnosis is made, or if the traits are not severe enough for an ASD diagnosis?"

Scientific Research is advancing away from the old behavioristic approaches to understanding the more complex invisible disabilities, using new technologies, and developing even newer technologies to help understand and identify the real causes of these problems, and how to accommodate those who have these types of differences.

So if your DS does not have the specific severity of disabilities required for an ASD diagnosis, then you need to identify in more detail the individual underlying disabilities he may have. AGE is all important here, the combination of severe disability issues which can indicate ASD at the age of 3, are just that a severe degree of issues which can be detected and identified at that very young age and early stages of human development. However the single disabilities and or less severe sets or combinations of disabilities are not so recognisable from normal or natural development, as we all develop different skills and abilities until the age of maturation 7 - 8 years of age, when children stop growing out of the various developmental delays they may demonstrate, and after the age of maturation the remaining issues can become specific clinically diagnosable disabilities. Research has not as yet provided all of the answers, and there is still much more to discover and understand about how the human brain works, or more importantly why it may not work in the same way for all.