Asd symptoms worse some days

[Jennylee]

My toddler is two and some days the way he acts seen really odd autistic and other days I can convince myself I'm imagining the whole thing. Does anyone else have this like sometimes he does not spin for ages then has a few days where he is very spinny strange sounds and expressions and very sensitive tearful

My son is 11 and his behaviour seems to go in cycles. Sometimes it is great, other times - Oh dear. He is AS but I think that the same things apply to a large extent.
It can be that at the times when the behaviour seems most normal he is happy relaxed and in control of what is happening around him.
When unexpected changes happen, when something doesn't go his way, when he is worrying about something, he is like a shaken champagne bottle ready to go off.

So I would perhaps look at what has happened on the days where he is sensitive and spinning, so see what has changed, or what he has been frustrated about, to see if you can spot a pattern, or work out what it is that particularly seems to have upset him. Difficult enough with and NT 2 year old let alone an autistic one, but you may get some clues.

Is he less spinny etc at home without guests when there's less sensory interference and less social pressure?
My 3yr old with PDA can be lovely on lazy weekends and school holidays but starts to get nutty when we try to do things/ get places/ be on time.

Hi jennylee
Yup yup and yup. Dd has ASD, and we have days where we think she's not, and others where it is blindingly obvious even to complete strangers.
We haven't figured out quite what triggers her yet.

The spinny days this week were after going to play with five older cousins taken to shop park with them and running around and they are ages 8 to 15 actually sounds pretty stressful but he loves them he still a bit funny and tired today.
He has been more fixated on his cars and sensitive to noise being told no or his aspergers older brother shouting. I think I just know he has it. But some days he is happy and relaxed and acts ordinary and content . His brother is not a good comparison as did not do stereotyped movements or act like toddler d's, apart from climbing no sense of danger and escape artistry. And general grumpiness. His brother was more difficult and constant demanding attention than climbing and strange movements. Now I think about it they both similar sensory wise . Thanks for everyone's input

Ds has AS but is just the same. We can go sometimes for a whole week thinking he has got magically 'better' then he is grim again for a few days. He is unbearably controlling at the moment which could be due to lots of transition to new school stuff going on or it could be because he had a particularly sugar loaded weekend or because he can't get to sleep til 8ish. Who knows? I just have to keep on keeping on when he's like this.

All the spinny stimmy stuff is just a self-soothing exercise, their brains will have been working flat out to keep up with the social and sensory overload so it's good to shut them down for a little while and recharge. They know what they're doing.
We were 50/50 about DS right up to diagnosis, we even worried we'd made him sound too normal in the ADI interview! He has Aspergers.

Yep, same here, Dd3 usually shows more autisitic traits when she is stressed or tired.

At school she holds a lot in and then she has to let it out at home.

She always shows more traits when she is in an unfamiliar or uncomfortable place. such as my mothers house!!

DS1 (9) shows some traits all the time - lack of expression, lack of eye contact etc, but when he is anxious about something I see a lot more autistic behaviour from him, and all the taught behaviours he has for coping strategies that work when he is calm go straight out the window.

DS2 (5) again gets worse when he is tired or scared. In a place with new people/crowded shops etc he is terrible and reverts to being a cat with no language whatsoever, yet at school where it is quite structured and calm he is getting on really well. He is considered gifted in literacy and maths and they can't believe he didn't talk until he was 3!