Aspergers in 3yo or just playing?

[MarvellousYou]

I was wondering if anyone can come and talk to me about the signs of Aspergers as I think DS is displaying some of the behaviours e.g stacking things, tidying things into a pile, putting things in order of size, loves wheels, anything that spins like washing machine, spins round and round. He is speech delayed as well. But he does all of this to be social, laughs when he's spinning, comes and shows me his new tower or 'traffic jam' of cars and just generally likes to see how things work.

Is this just average 3yo (just) behaviour or should I be looking out for anything else, I'm a bit confused and obviously want to do what's best for him re referral to paediatric development people thingys. Any advice appreciated thank you!

Its hard to say, what you describe could be normal 3 year old behaviour, it could be a sign of AS.

You should speak to your gp about your concerns.

Like claw says it is hard to tell. DS(nearly 8) did all of those things and I have niggling worries about him, but to everybody outside of family he appears NT (apart from dyslexic issues)

As claw says, it's hard for anyone here to say - and we shouldn't be attempting to. Lining things up, on it's own, isn't necessarily a sign of AS/ASD. My ds (high functioning ASD) never did it, though he did spin things. (I made excuses that it couldn't be ASD because he'd want me to do it with him)

My dd (nt 2.6) spins herself round and laughs - pretty much all toddlers/young children do that. She also does things like stacking cups in their size.

The thing to look for is impaired interaction, communication, and play skills (eg does he have any imaginative play, pretend play, play with little figures, pretend cooking etc), how he interacts with other children.

If you've got concerns, I would talk to GP/HV.

Staking and linning up isn't enough for Asd. You need to look at how this play is working. Is it alone play or does he involve you in it, is there a story behide it for him eg his monsters are sorting all the bad cars from good ones ect. How is he with people? What would happen if you messed up the pile of cars?

It's an age that's hard because some children do this at about 2-3 years.
I know that's not much help, maybe try keeping a diary for a few weeks of concerning behaviours and go from there

Our Ds has a dx of high functioning autism and at age 3 was very hard work. Some speech but significantly delayed, he didnt line things up or spin things but he didnt really play with toys. He had things he was obsessive about messing with and had to have and he had no imaginative play. If u have any concerns ask your GP for a referral-they will probably say come back in 6 months as he is still very young. Good luck