ASD/High-functioning autism. Early clues?

[JennieLee]

Can I ask what - looking back - first gave parents a sense their child might not be neurotypical?

Thanks so much.

Thank you so much for your reply .. was it the speech delay that prompted a diagnosis? I am only asking because I know it is a long process ☺️

speech delay, yes. He is still non-verbal at six now. But it was a myriad of things, he fit pretty much all of the criteria that they were looking for across behaviour and communication. We were fortunate to get diagnosis but we have pushed hard for everything he needs

We didn't consider it until she started school and had a lot of difficulty regulating her emotions, despite me working with autistic children! She met all her milestones on time or early and never stopped talking!

She was diagnosed aged 8. Before the developmental history appointment I looked back at posts I'd made when she was a toddler and there were signs I'd ignored. I actually posted on a forum that she didn't ever respond to her name and "what other than autism or hearing loss could it be? Because I was certain she wasn't autistic! 🤦🏼‍♀️"

She has always had unusual obsessions. She made a lot of random loud noises when excited. She twiddled and pulled her hair until it fell out. She spoke like a little adult and told me to leave nursery when we went to look round before her first day "why are you still here? Parents don't stay at nursery" and toddled off! She screamed and had huge meltdowns when she felt she'd been "told off" even if the "telling off" was a gentle "please come down from there, you could get hurt". She was fearless and regarded as sassy as anything because she spoke her truth but had no idea why what she'd said was funny. She just says it like she sees it!

hi
do you remember how she was around 2?x

Yeah, at 2 she was very verbal and very strong willed!

She had a list of fears/things she didn't like that she would reel off in a long list all the time and repeat, "I didn't like the cow, I didn't like the gorilla in the father Christmas costume, I didn't like the goats' cheese, I don't like my elephant curtains they're looking at me" always the same list but sometimes she'd add something onto the end.

She had what I now think was maybe a form of regression, insisting she was a baby and weeing on the floor, crawling, talking in a baby voice and insisting on using a highchair she'd outgrown. She was dry at night 90% of the time but since we tried to transition her into a bed around 2 has not been dry at night since then despite medication and a bladder scan showing no issues.

She still often talks in a baby voice now although her vocabulary is incredible!

I guess it made it really difficult back then to identify what was going on . Has the nursery ever had any concerns ? Was she a GLP or the language developed normally ☺️

Nursery were always impressed by her language skills. I'd say she developed language typically at first but quite early and fast. She learnt mostly single words but once she spoke in sentences she also had phrases she'd parrot. She over generalised e.g. all animals were "duck" but that's common in child language acquisition.

When we looked back nursery did "score" her emotional and social development as behind all other areas but not noticeably behind expected for her age.

Thank you so much for your answer . I am sorry for all these questions but I am trying to understand my little one .
in the end did she get a diagnosis with a level ? Any behavioural issues growing up ?

Hi do you mind me asking how’s your DD is doing ? ☺️

No problem. They didn't give a level when she was diagnosed but she's academically very able in mainstream school, and she has a good group of friends.

Behaviourally, she has meltdowns which can be very loud and I know she cries easily at school. Sometimes she'll scratch or bite us when really distressed. But emotional literacy support at school has been really positive for her and she's come a long way.

Very high needs baby, had to be held, struggled to feed, cried the instant he woke. Once he could sit up he became much calmer and just sat on his mat playing. Delayed walking and talking. Never tried anything risky. No babbling, pointing or waving. Understanding of language was good but very few words for a long time. The most placid toddler ever. Literally no tantrums! Once he could talk questioned everything and pushed every boundary. Could never accept and answer and always had to push 'why why why'. Restricted diet literally would eat sausage or fish fingers with ketchup for years. We had concerns from about 2 but mainly for language for a good while. Was diagnosed AuDHD at age 7 (now 9). Excelling academically but struggles socially. Typical Asperger's although this term is no longer used.

I know this is a fairly old post but I’ll add what I recognised with my son incase it helps someone one day.

I honestly knew from about 3 weeks old. He constantly smiled at the corner of the room or at ceiling lights, I googled it and autism came up immediately (although I do know some babies do this and it not be autism but of course my son had more signs), he was a TERRIBLE sleeper like I’d never ever in my life heard of a baby/toddler sleep so awfully. When I told people he woke 30+ times a night they thought I was exaggerating but I wasn’t.

When he was 1.5/2 he started to have real bad sleep issues. Would wake some nights at 3/4am for 3-4 hours and then sleep from 7/8 until 11am. I remember one bad night he woke at 1am and we were so desperate to get him back to sleep we tried everything including a walk in his pram and driving. Nothing worked that night and he went back to sleep around 10/11am. I remember thinking this just can’t be normal. He’s been through stages of not going to bed until 1/2am too and it was hellish. We all felt nocturnal.

When he was a baby too he just was engrossed by the tv. He is nearly 6 now and he still is. He started to say words when he was 18 months old and I was so amazed but looking back (especially now I’ve seen how speech develops normally with my neurotypical second boy) everything he said was learnt from the tv, he never copied anything we said at all.

He would learn to wave and clap and then just stop. He never pointed, still hasn’t really if I’m honest. Again comparing to my second who points at everything imaginable to share interest. He never gave us toys to play with, never did imaginative play etc. he would enjoy emptying drawers more than playing with a pretend kitchen. He would love things like shampoo bottles to line up more than he would toy cars.

He was OBSESSED with the alphabet and numbers from about 18 months of age. Could count to 20 and knew the alphabet, order of the planets including dwarf planets, named all sorts of animals and random things way before he turned 2.

As he’s gotten older we have found he loves routine, doesn’t like when things are out of place. If a candle or ornament from the window ledge or fireplace has gone he MUST have it put back there. If he played with a toy for the first time whilst sat in front of the fireplace that’s the only place he will play with it for every time. I do suspect he has some OCD.

He is coming up to 6 now and has an EHCP in place at school, full time 1-1, still in nappies (but will do number 2s on the toilet now, just doesn’t tell you when he needs one) and we have FINALLY won the battle with the local authority to allow him a place at a specialist school where I truly believe he needs to be. He cannot follow a regular school curriculum for his year at all. He can now speak to get his needs and wants met for the most part, can follow very basic instructions but doesn’t understand how to answer questions or how to have a conversation.

Of course! She's now 10, doing well. Very into football and violin. Small group of friends (she's not in the main girl cliques at school but has a couple of good girl friends in school and a couple outside, and plays or chats football with the boys the rest of the time).

She can still get anxious, and still doesn't like having her photo taken (even by us now). She can be quite rigid about e.g. wanting to do violin practice and football training every day. She's slowly learning a bit of flexibility but I'm still a bit worried this kind of perfectionist/completest streak may cause problems later. But then I have it myself and know it's both a blessing and a curse in different ways.

She likes school and finds it generally quite easy to learn and remember things - though she can be stubborn about things she doesn't think matter (e.g. capital letters and full stops!) so her academic profile is what they call "spiky".

I'm very happy with where we are and I think she has a nice life with different rather than greater problems compared to an average/neurotypical kid her age.

I’ve got three autistic children (all girls). Two of them would be considered HF even though I personally don’t like the term. They had no language delay, and in the case of dd4, she was speaking in sentences by 15 months. They all have very different presentations. Two are very anxious with PDA presentation. One is much less anxious but struggles with physical tasks and has quite intense special interests.

hi 👋
thank you for your answer …. I am curious was their language developed as expected ? Xx

Yes pretty much. But autistic people can use their language differently. Both of them (considered hf) pointed quite early and were able to express themselves. The 5 year old probably has what I would call idiosyncratic speech. She uses quite unusually adult ways of phrasing things. And both of them sound quite formal when they speak.

I don’t have anything to add to this but think it’s such a helpful thread. The signs I knew to look for (delayed walking and speech) were nothing like my son, but he did show a lot of the same patterns as others on this thread. I wish I had known that these were also signs as an earlier diagnosis really would have helped him.