Could my 7 year old daughter be on the spectrum?

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I know that most if not all here are not trained medical professionals, but I am just looking for some guidance and knowledgeable opinions...

A little background, my wife and I have 2 daughters, a 7 year old (first grader), and a 4 year old preschooler. My wife has a nephew who was diagnosed with Asperger's/ASD about 2-3 years ago. He functions pretty well, but definitely has some social struggles that he deals with. My question deals with my 7 year old daughter. There are some issues that we deal with with her that make me think she too could be on the spectrum, but in other ways I don't think so. The following are some things I see in her that lend me to think she could be on the spectrum:

- Strong willed/difficulty dealing with change - She has expectations in her mind of how things should be and if there are deviations from those expectations a very long meltdown/tantrum will ensue. This can be as simple as what she eats for breakfast (the same thing everyday) to which seat is hers in the living room, to the order in which she gets ready in the morning, and a number of other things.

- Desire to wear the same clothes - She regularly, I mean 4 to 5 days a week wants to wear a specific pair of pants, specific pajamas, over and over again.

- Directs the play of others - specifically with her younger but to a lesser degree with friends at school sister she will often control play and decides how everything should be done. I honestly don't see the way she acts as "spoiled, always needs her way" as much as she really has an expectation in her mind of how things should work and expects the play to go a certain way.

- Serious rule follower - rules are very important to her. She doesn't break a rule, generally (basically ever), but if there is one broken she will point it out. At school one day recently her entire class got in trouble for talking too loud, when the class was asked who all was talking, she was the only one to raise her hand. She really respects the rules and will be honest and admit when they are broken.

- Only has a few interest - basically her time at home is taken up with art and mindcraft/electronics. her art is generally the same (very nice, but not varied much) mostly its rainbows, unicorns, and family members. There will be a few breaks from these for other things like riding her bike for about 5-10 minutes or so, then it will be back to art/ipad.

-Some small speech issues - she is in speech therapy for a few small speech issues, but I am told the issues she has are common for her age range.

-Doesn't show affection in physical ways often - if asked to she will give a hug, and she will come up in my lap if she feels sick, but otherwise she generally doesn't show affection physically. She will respond to an "I love you" with one of her own, but doesn't offer one on her own.

-Repetitive movements - She doesn't have many repetitive gestures, but she does squeeze her bottom lip together repetitively (she pinches it), especially when she has finished something that requires a lot of focus (i.e. a gymnastics routine, working on a puzzle, deciding on colors for a drawing, etc.).

-Watching her think through things sometimes just makes me think something is off. It is hard to put into words.

-She will often bounce between talking in an age appropriate manner and reverting to either baby talk or remove the "to be" verbs/articles from her speech in an unusual manner. I.e. "I smart" instead of "I am smart" or something similar.

Some things that make me think that she isn't on the spectrum is that she does really well in school all around. Top grades in her class in math, reading (2nd grade reading level instead of 1st grade which is the grade she is in), good handwriting, etc. She has a number of friends, although I don't really know what type of connection she really has with them. She will tell you that a number of kids in her class are her friends.

Anyway, I know this was a really long post, but I just wanted to see if I could get some thoughts from knowledgeable people on whether or not this is something I should even be concerned with.

Thanks for any input!
Chris

You wrote:
Some things that make me think that she isn't on the spectrum is that she does really well in school all around

So did many of us. That is quite common amongst HFA and the Asperger's Syndrome part of the spectrum. What made you think that AS people can't achieve at school, where did you source that idea? (I am genuinely curious).

Just like neurotypical people, there is a great deal of variation in school achievement in AS people, for a variety of reasons, and I am glad your daughter is doing well.

PS Did she teach herself to read? Read very early?

^ Also with regard to acquiring friends, this is considerably easier in the single-digit years when social demands are lower. As well, girls tend to be much better at observing and replicating their peers' peculiarities which can work their advantage in social situations.

It's very easy to make friends at young age. Just wait until she reaches her preteens.

The choice of clothes and the lack of physical touch may be down to a sensory issue. Does she have other sensory issues?

http://www.autism.org.uk/about/behaviou ... world.aspx

Sorry for the delay in my reply to you all, and thank each of you for your reply.

I didn't mean in my original post that I thought that ASD couldn't perform well in school, just that I know from reading a lot that often times there are issues in the school setting that are difficult for those with ASD. No offense to anyone was meant by that.

I do understand that social interactions as a 7 year old are more basic than later as they age. You may be right that I may need to see how she does as those interactions get more complex. I ask her all the time what her and her friends talk about and she says they don't talk about anything, they just play, and that seems typical for first graders.

My biggest concern really is the big need she has for routine and aversion to deviations from her expectations. She wants everything in order, from the colors in her color box to the fact that when we were on vacation last week she had to reset the table before we could leave from breakfast.

I don't know, maybe there is nothing there, but I am convinced it is something. I guess it could be actual OCD or something similar, but I just see several similarities to her cousin who has ASD, I just see these things in her to a milder degree.

Try the The Childhood Autism Spectrum Test (CAST) here:
https://autismcanada.org/about-autism/d ... ols/child/

Note that this isn't a formal diagnostic tool; it just lets you know whether she has traits commonly associated with ASD. It's entire possible to have these traits and not be on the spectrum, and also possible to not have these traits but still be on the spectrum.