Early diagnosis of HFA/aspergers

[Namelessonsie]

I recently had some specialist intervention for my Dd1's sleep (nearly 3) because she was waking every 2 hours and had since birth- and with dd2 now waking as well (4 mob the sleep regression) I was losing the plot. Big time.

Anyway, this specialist is also a child health psychologist and suggested that my daughter may be on the autistic spectrum.

I'm not surprised, in fact I had suspected she was not "typical" pretty my ch since birth! But..... How early can it be diagnosed really? And what advantages are there for early diagnoses?

I already know what she can't deal with (noisy busy places, surprises, transitions, some sensory stuff, other children etc), so am fully prepared to home educate for at least a few years as I can't ever see her coping with school!

Her speech has always been advanced though. And she's an expert on pace exploration and the solar system already....

My DS was diagnosed with ASD soon after 3rd birthday and I know another family where the 2 year old was diagnosed. My DS is, i guess, at the "milder" end, eg he is happy at his mainstream nursery and actually a lot of the characteristics of ASD eg hand flapping and resistence to change, have really faded since we got the diagnosis.

That said the diagnosis has been helpful to understand him better and it's opened the door to various support- namely DLA (which we use for speech therapy, DS also has verbal dysprqxia), extra support at nursery to help him socialise with his peers, lovely local SN charity which does music sessions and playground...

The only downside really is us having to come to terms with it, but that's far outweighed by the benefits!

Very very helpful thread! Thank you

She spins, or likes to be spun around and jumps constantly, has pronoun reversal - didnt even know this was a thing!

When are children supposed to play together?

And often often calls DP Mummy - we are interchangeable it would seem...

The constant moving was described as sensory seeking - craving vestibular input. We have good days and bad days! She is 3.7 ans today apart from a nap has been outdoors bee hunting and stalking a lion (apparently) result she is now calmer than usual.

Our dd isn't on the spectrum but mimics many traits due to a brain injury.

Ds2 had his multi-disciplinary assessment just after his 2nd birthday and was given a provisional dx of AS. This was made official a year later.

The early dx meant that he had access to help and therapies when he was still very young. He started SALT and had some OT sessions not long after the dx.

My ds1 already had a dx of HFA, which is why ds2 was assessed at such a young age.

DS1 was diagnosed with "autism with associated hyperactivity" when he was 3.5 (referred just after his 3rd birthday). One of his tricks, at that age, was running in circles, counting the circles. To make it more interesting for us, as well as exercising his obvious brainpower, we got him counting in 2s, in all odd numbers, then in 3s, and even got as far as getting him to count in 7s, by the time he was 4 - it kept him interested and cooperative on the long walks home from nursery!

He reversed his pronouns until he was about 5. He still, at 10, gets confused, sometimes, when I address him as "you". Interestingly, even though DS2 is mostly non verbal, he's had the odd word or phrase, not all copied, and was using "I" correctly to refer to himself at 4.