does ds sound autistic to you?

[horriblemonday]

I am asking this because a few people have hinted that ds might be mildly autistic. he is only 2yrs 10m, so i think it is a bit early to tell. i don't have any other experience of kids, so i don't know what's normal toddler stuff and what isn't.

Ds is very very affectionate to me and a couple of other people in the family. But he HATES strangers talking to him, always has, and he will either shout 'away', try to hit them or growl and spit to scare them away (usually works, lol). He will tolerate some people that we see everyday, but he ignores them other than maybe saying bye. His eye contact with non family members is normally limited to a defiant stare.

His speech is a bit behind, but he has recently started to speak in sentences. He will pretend play with animals, but the play is a bit rigid, it's the same scenarios over and over again, usually a mother animal looking for its baby or one animal getting stuck and the other one helping. He will grab my hands to make me do this with him.

He has tantrums quite often, especially in crowded places and has recently taken to hiding when we're somewhere busy. Oh, and he's aggressive with other kids, really boistrous and usually tries to knock them over or poke their eyes.

There are a few other things that i'm a bit worried about, but he is very affectionate to me and loves cuddles. I'm hoping that he's maybe just a bit anti-social, iyswim? So, i'm just wondering if some toddlers act like this, or if there could be something else going on.

Hi,

I'm not an expert by any means - but from our experience (DS 2.1 years, dx of autism), it's definitely not too early, if you're concerned, start pushing for experts to look at your DS now - you don't want to find yourself with a huge wait for services when you become really concerned (not saying you will - but you see what I mean).

Secondly, don't be thrown by the cuddles and affections towards you and other family members - most people on here will probably tell you similar stories about their DC's. Certainly we were thrown off pushing because we thought DS was simply too affectionate to us to be autistic.

I'm not saying I think he is - I'm not knowledeable to give an opinion - but it's not too early, and the cuddles don't mean that he isn't... iyswim.

It's a bit of a fraught issue.

But one thing I've figured out is that it's worth learning what works for autistic children with similar behaviours and seeing if the same techniques work for your lad too. I don't think my lad's autistic but I read autism/language delay books and they're full of fab ideas, some of which apply to my DS and work for him.

If your boy's behind with his understanding of language (can he answer yes and no questions? choice questions?) then other people will seem scary to him.........

that's a good idea lingle, i'll try and get some books on autism, do you know any good ones? he does seem to understand language quite well and will carry out simple requests.

jemmmm, i get your point about the affection. in a way, he is almost too affectionate to me, very clingy. it took him a whole year (between ages 1 and 2) to show any affection to his granny, but now he really likes her and will let her hold him and touch him.

Hello...welcome to the board

Reading your post could have been me exactly a year ago. My DS (now just turend 4) was exactly like yours.

When he would meet a stranger he would shout GO AWAY to them and cover up one eye. He would have no/limited eye contact with people outside the house. He is very affectionate to me, his dad & grandparents but was very wary of anyone else. His play scenarios were rigid usually involving wrapping a bandage round things and somersaulting things. His speech was full of delayed echolaia (copying things off the TV etc) and his receptive language was behind. His tantrums were flipping awful. Really bad in Sainsurys or busy places and would lie down refusing to budge. He has always been boistrous and a 'pusher' and often gets into trouble for doing that.

This was probaly up til about January this year when he was 3.7 years old. 7 months on and he's loads and loads better. We still have our moments and I have accepted that he is never going to sit nicely in a quiet place but he is almost a different kid.

I took him to the paed in Feb and she said he has a touch of ASD but nothing that should stand in his way at school etc. Obviously we will have to wait and see on that but I can already tell with age that he is improving immensely. It helps that he is going to a very supportive school with a wonderful SENCO.

I hope that has helped you a bit, all I can say is if you have any doubts go to see your GP and he can refer you just in case. Good luck