We have our long awaited assessment next week- Me,Husband,ds1,2,and 3. Hoping ds2's 'behaviour' will be recognised as autistic and that we will get some kind of referal out of this-so........
over the next few days i will post anything i need to clarify here so that when i'm in that meeting i am 'speaking the right language'
For me- forgeting the crying and hate of milk that ds1 and 2 did fom day one...there are a few things which are 'unique' to ds2.
from very early on i used to leave him in front of the t.v watching 'pingu'- he would stare motionless at the screen- only crying when the tape finished. (meanwhile i tidied up etc) People critised me for not interacting with him - but i REALLY believed he was HAPPIER watching pingu.
??? My view then was he liked the black/white image of pingu and the noises the penquins made-
NOW...i believe it showed his lack of need to be talked to/cuddled/played with- and love of sameness....though different episodes...the screen was full of penguins....and the same noises.
As he grew and could sit up he would sit for hours with a 'smash potatoe' tin - puting things in taking them out- over and over again.
???Then- saw this as early counting
NOW....as it 'developed' into taking the tin everywhere- i see it as both repetitive play and routine
At some time around 12-18 months- he had a 2 month cluster of fits- these would come 'out of the blue' and were not 'febrile convoltions' he would be walking along - then just drop down- his lips would go blue and he'd go cold- he'd lie motionless- it was frightning- he was seen by a paed- and without 'testing ' he said it was to do with his brain developing faster than his body could accomodate- so it caused some kind of overload of ' signals'- that was my understanding anyway- and sure enough soon after he had a major growth spurt- and has not had a fit since- so feel the paed was right to not look into epilepsy (which is what i worried was wrong)
From birth he was prone to severe constipation- and once weane di was worried as his nappies contained undigested food,and would often resemble exactly what he'd ate the last meal- so i felt food was passing through him too fast- my nan had crohns disease- so i then started to think he had that- he again was seen by another paed- and again no further action taken- his weight and height were fine- TODAY he still gets bowel problems- he is constipated ...and i realise there is the 'link' between diet and Autism...so i look back on ds1 and 2 hating milk with interest (caesin) and even more so when i found that DH was fed orange juice (!!!! .... 45 years ago!!!!!!)DS2 has such a restricted diet that it scares me to remove whole food groups- and as mentioned before he now LOVES his extremely milky cups of tea...and i'm also aware that its likely he 'craves' the things that he is allergic to.
Around 2 he began to play soley with brio trains- then Thomas the Tank hit us with force- he is now 7 and refuses to watch it etc- but up to 5 he was 100% fixed on it. Too much to mention again here....but playwise he would appear to 'interact' with nursey peers- however he knew every truck/train in some amazing way so that if he ended up with what appeared to be an identical truck but it was the 'wrong' one then he would scream- this caused many probs at nursey as to them he was 'quarelling over 2 identical things' - but looking back i can see that somehow he knew the difference.
Then from 4- counted everything,very 'exact' about time and colours, hated people 'braking promises' ....really this was hating routines being changed or activities being ended- had to have hoody jumpers as he had to wear a hood at all time- and the 'food' difficulties became bad enough for me to realise that he was not just a faddy eater as others thought .
i know the list of memories is endless -but one last one is that wen they dug up our town to lay t.v cables- he used to follow the exact routet they took along paths- anyone in his way had to move- he would scare me to death as sometimes they dug right to a corner of a road- and he would follow it right to the kerb then take the turning and follow it round the corner.