Range in Ds abilities.

[staryeyed]

My Ds 2.9 ASD. has such a huge range in his abilities. By that I mean, he cant climb equipment in the playground or know how to manoeuvre himself so he can sit at the top of a slide of make a see saw work etc but he can do a roly poly and headstand(against the sofa) He never had trouble chewing and has been able to repeat words but cant blow or suck. I dont think its motivation based because he really likes playing at the park, bubbles etc. Anyone got any ideas?

I think these sort of imbalances are very common in ASD. Some of them may be a case of gross motor skills being better than fine motor skills - i.e. there be an obvious explanation for.

Growing Minds talked a lot about this. (DS1 does/did the same sort of stuff. They talked in terms of dyspraxia (US sense which is a bit broader than UK sense) and executive function. They also made the point that children can be good at stuff they do a lot of (say stair walking) but not good at stuff they don't practice much (slides).

I think it's a motor planning problem. DS1 has got a lot better recently.

Can your ds imitate. So if you say 'do this' or show him 'like this' can he copy you? That can help with teaching these skills. Ds1 couldn't until he was 7 so everything had to be taught hand over hand.

my dd (3.6) is the same. she has no trouble chewing, but can't blow (but can also accurately name a dozen dinosaur types, so no problem with articulation). She did recently learn to suck, and is now good at drinking htrough a straw.

She can pick up raisins and cheerios, but can't pick up puzzle pieces without "raking" them, or pens either.

It is the same across her whole range of skills too. We were recently at BIBIC, and at the end of the assessment, there was not a single category on the score sheet where you could say she was proficient, but in each category her skills also outstripped her age (eg for language, she has a range of elements right up to 6+ years, but cannot ask for a drink). As mentioned before, she can name a whole range of dinosaurs, or sea creatures (angel fish, walrus, lobster, dragonfish) but could not name a hairbrush or shoes when asked.

She stunned her portage worker yesterday, as dd does not normally engage very well with her, and then she turned round, started rooting through the bag of tos, bringing out box after box and saying "what's this? what's inside? let's have a look" and I swear if she hadn't known that dd is ASD (and had it proved repeatedly over the last year lol) then she would never hve believed it on yesterday's performance.

It is really fascinating. It's as though dd can, at times, pull enough together to do a reasonable facsimile of normal,l but most other times she just can't pull it off.

Yurt1-Ds is still at early imitation stages- he can imitate with some objects and sometimes with out. Dyspraxia comes to mind when I think of Ds difficulties but he doesn't fit the criteria.

Silverforg- that's great about your DD with the portage worker. I read something about a lowing programme for teaching how to blow with graded whistles. I found some info if you would like me to share.

I know our children are all different logically, but I cant help myself looking for children who have similar symptoms to DS. Does anyone else do that?

He does sound similar to ds1 at his age. Also had some dyspraxia but not quite the criteria- Growing Minds said that dyspraxia in the UK is quite specific, it's meant more generally in the US.

It's good that he's imitating with objects a bit aged 2.9. Ds1 couldn't do that at all until 5 and then only in his therapy room. "Proper" imitation followed aged 7 and it's really helped a lot.

I remember when I read the book Lucy's Story by Lucy Blackman hwne ds1 was just short of 6. it was the first time I'd read anything that described someone just like ds1. it was riveting and such an insight. It's still a desert island book for me. So I know exactly what you mean.