At what age..

[violetcuriosity]

Hi,

I'm hoping some people will be happy to share, and if so, thank you in advance.

I'm a leader in a communication and interaction school and so many parents ask if I have stories of when other children with ASC started showing signs. As much as we try to encourage the parents to interact and build relationships with each other, at coffee mornings etc, it doesn't always happen organically. So, for those that find these situations challenging could I ask-

At what age did you start suspecting your child had ASC and why?

It would be great to have some real life experiences to share, rather than just the 'stats'.

Thank you :)

Ds1 was 2 years old, ds2 was 11 (although I suspected he had sensory issues aged 3) and ds5 was 2 months.

Sorry, I just realised you asked for why as well as when. Ds1 had delayed speech. He mostly ignored other children at toddler groups etc. Ds2 was much more sociable and by the age of 2 had lots of little friends who he played with so I didn't think he could be autistic. But he hated noises like hand dryers and crunchy food so we suspected he had sensory issues. He started having meltdowns aged 5 and I started getting sympathy and "my child is the same" type comments from other mums of autistic children. As he grew up the meltdowns stayed and then he had a really bad one at secondary school in year 7. That's when we first thought he could be autistic too. Ds5 wouldn't look at me or smile. If people talked to him or made baby noises at him he would just ignore them. At 4 months the paediatrician put in an urgent referral to the eye clinic because she thought he couldn't see. Ds1 was diagnosed aged 9, ds2 is 15 and still waiting and ds5 was diagnosed aged 6.

DD1 will be 5 soon and is waiting ADOS assessment but her paed (who is one of the assessors for our Trust) is confident she has ASD, as do the school and us.

I always had my concerns about asd right from the start. DD was born 4 weeks early. She was only 4.5lb and was tiny. She didn’t smile until 11 weeks - hv said it was normal as she was early but I couldn’t stop the niggling thought. She was late to meet all physical milestones- didn’t walk until 21 months. Once she started to walk the thoughts disappeared for a little while. This was during covid when we weren’t seeing anyone else or going to groups/play dates. When the world opened up again and I brought her to toddler groups/soft play she ignored the other kids and played with the same thing over and over again. Wouldn’t climb on anything. She hated going new places, hated lifts, hand dryers, the vacuum. Cried in any new social situation and clung to me, wouldn’t play with other kids (but loves her older cousins.)

it became apparent when she started preschool in September and really struggled at the beginning. She struggled with transitions, with her fine and gross motor skills but particularly socially - she’s very different from her peers. As the year has gone on she’s developed more stereotypical asd traits like routines and rituals, repetitive speech and behaviour etc.