If your child is on the ASD spectrum

[crispyporkbelly]

When did you suspect it and why?

Thank you

18 months. Loss of acquired speech, no eye contact, no pointing, repetitive play. Wouldn't share experience eg, show me a toy. He was diagnosed with severe classical autism at 23 months

Btw good luck to you - I know how awful the worrying time is...

crispy, I knew about 8 months in. He would sit playing with a toy but not respond at all to my voice.

I suspected something was wrong from about a month old. He was very difficult to feed, hardly slept and cried almost constantly until he was able to sit up and do some things to entertain himself. it was a difficult first few months.

But he's growing up well, the only difficulty he has now is making friends as his social ways are a bit quirky. I'm pretty optimistic for his future now.

This was my first thread showing concerns.

In hindsight there were lots of earlier signs. He slept excessively - up to 19 hours a day. He went 5/6/7 hours between bottles. He wasn't interested in solids til 9 months. He didn't sit up until 9/10 months. He tensed his face when frustrated or excited. He hummed and arm flapped. He would happily sit alone in a room for hours whilst I did chores.

I told myself I would wait until 18 months and go to the GP. He seemed to progress loads so I left it but then he failed his 2 year check. I wish I had still gone at 18 months because I struggled with his behaviour from around 20 months and wish I had been able to explain his violence rather than feel like a lepor with a demon child.

Have you had his hearing tested?

Massive regression at 14 months - after walking / talking at 10 months.

Very anxious, ruled by routine, didn't play with toys or other children only wanted to interact with and do adult things.

Speech then developed late and he caught up with and overtook his peers by miles but then spoke in a very formal monotone.

No hearing test since his newborn one in hospital.

I'm taking him to the gp/hv tomorrow x

About 14 months...no pointing, waving bye bye, no 'chatting', no turning round to his name, lots of self spinning, fascination with the buggy wheels ie leaning down to watch them when strapped in. Plus he was dxd with epilepsy at 10 months (started after vaccines and chicken pox...am convinced they are all interlinked). No autism anywhere else in family.

My DS was dxd with severe classic autism at 28 months xx hope all goes ok for you xx he is now 10 my boy, doing well but still (as expected) very severely learning disabled. Good luck OP xxx

The dragging you to stuff... Yes my DS did this too xxxx

I just read the CHAT test is for 18 month olds so I did it a little early. Maybe he will come along in a couple of months.

My dn got epilepsy from a febrile fever during chickenpox stille thanks for the well wishes

Mchat is 16 month +. Pretty sure. Will dig out the link

www.m-chat.org/index.php

Oh, this ones says it's done at the 18 month check link

The nursery had suspected it when he was 3 and we were putting in school applications - they advised against big intake schools with small environments. There were questions raised a few times in his reception year which were quashed until his end of foundation stage report came back and he had excelled at everything academically but was at the level of a three-four year old for anything social. This was a month before he turned five. He had an appointment that December to set the ball rolling, with a social communication disorder diagnosis and after specialist speech and language and the ados assessment was diagnosed ASD in November 2012 when he was six.

Holey, your story sounds so similar to mine!

What was the diagnosis in the end? My son was just diagnosed "autistic spectrum disorder" which seems a bit of a catchall and covers such very different behaviours

Hmm... I always thought it was 16 months. Maybe the tests are slightly different...

Have you tried the one I linked? If it shows up anything I
Would take it to the GP (even though some pages say 18m).

Who diagnoses your doc and why does it take so long?

Does HFA stand for high functioning autism?

Ds is very smiley if I peep round a corner for example but wouldn't just look at me and smile, never kisses. He'll ask to be picked up by grappling my legs if I'm standing up usually if he's tired or hungry, not for hugs, is it too early for cuddles?

Dc not doc!

It takes so long because it's a collection of caregivers to build up one picture and it's long and painful because the wheels do not move quickly.

I probably would ask for a hearing test though first and foremost.

I was going to start my own thread today on this subject. I'm worried about my son, he's 2.4 years and as time goes on he seems to be different from his peers. He doesn't really talk (has said probably 30 unclear words in his life, but only 4 of those are said consistently). Because of this we've had early contact with the health visiting team and a couple of months ago he had a hearing test that showed he has glue ear (getting completely flat reading from both ears). He's currently under the care of ENT and they are 'watching & waiting' to see if it improves (much to my annoyance). Initially I felt relieved as I thought it provided a reason for some of his behaviour issues but now I'm not so convinced.

Some of the things he does that make him seem a bit different are;

• he runs and runs. At nursery, some days all he does is run manically around the room.
• He needs to fiddle with something all the time
• he's difficult to get him to concentrate on an activity, he wants to be on the go all the time (although he will play nicely with his toy cars and will watch TV)
• No sense of caution or danger for example, if I let go of him in public he will run as fast as he can away from me with not a glance over his shoulder and doesn't stop (The other day in a local country park he got away from me and was well out of eye shot, just about to leap into a river when i caught up with him!)
• He has no interest in other adults other than me, his Dad and his grandpa. He like to watch other children through, particularly older children and will run around after them.
• He doesn't point to something he wants. Instead he'll lead me by the hand to it.
• He used to be a nightmare a groups as he would either run non stop round the room the whole time or go over to smaller children and push them over (I've stopped taking him to them now). He rarely engages in group activities or sit down activities at nursery or home (he might for a minute or so)

Does this sound familiar to any of you? I wonder if he has ADHD or ASD as he just seems to respond differently to other children his age. He also scored at moderate risk on M-Chat assessment.

However on the other hand he was such a happy sociable baby, who smiled and giggled in response to anyone who interacted with him. He's still very smiley now and seems to have a good, if not mischievous, sense of humour. He's adaptable, not bothered by routine changes at all, in fact seems to love new places. All of which make me think maybe he's not on the spectrum and is just a busy boy??

Sorry for the essay, my head swims with all this constantly!