Looking for some experianced opinions about my son

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Yes they are indeed, thank for all the replies

I had a short word with his playgroup leader today, he has been there 1 week now, and she said he was giving her lots of eye contact and so far has been happy and well behaved albeit a bit of a loner and a bit shy. That at least sounds positive to me.

Jen

I can't draw any conclusion from what you've described. In retrospect, the distinctive things about my AS daughter are:

- extreme clinginess
- obsessive interest on paper. Even at 3-4 months old, She was like a cat, when she saw a page turn her hand would jab out to catch it. She obsessively chewed books and cardboard boxes. Come to think of it, it's a "phase" that never ended since "origami" has become an enduring special interest.
- she loved stacking blocks, cylinders, boxes, anything.
- Thomas the Tank Engine ^ 2

Her early experience in Montessori school was mostly positive. It was environment that encouraged kids to sit in a place and focus on a repetitive activity. She was great at that.

Ear;y diagnosis is great, but early misdiagnosis is harmful. Therefore, I suggest early awareness may be appropriate in this case. This child may be AS and may not be AS. If the child is eventually diagnosed with AS then by that time it will probably feel pretty familiar to you.

Your son sounds almost exactly like my daughter, who is 2yr4mo.

I am pretty sure my daughter is not aspie/autie. This is because of an early learning research project she was a subject in. They were showing her a video of two people talking and manipulating objects, and measuring her eye dwell times. The researcher mentioned while explaining the test that "if she were aspie, she wouldn't look at the speakers at all, but only at the objects being discussed and manipulated." I then realized that I didn't remember what the speakers looked like, and had probably been looking at the objects instead myself, consistent with what the researcher said aspies would do.

That said, I don't agree with the poster that said the behavior is "pretty normal". The standoffishness is significantly atypical, which became obvious in my daughter's ballet class where the other girls obviously felt enough social pressure to conform while my daughter preferred to avoid participation.

As an aspie, I don't fault her for nonconformity, but I do worry that it might make it more difficult for her to learn in school systems designed for kids who naturally try to conform.

Oh, and on this - just keep in mind, as your son, he's not the one who is different from the others; it's the others who are different from him.

The boy described in this thread sounds completely normal to me. If your worried, run through the MCHAT test, its a pretty reliable guideline.

My apologies for a very old thread bump, but I thought it interesting to re-read what I had written on here years ago, as my son who is now 7 got a diagnosis of HFA/Aspergers last week.

I am still processing this even though it was not unexpected.

I'm not sure this is true for everyone, but at 2.5 though I would not have said anything was wrong, if you'd asked me if my child was a bit different, I would have said yes. Actually it was obvious much younger.

Do you feel your child is typical and just looks a little different occasionally (all kids do) or do you feel a bit confused by other childens behavior in unfamiliar situations? Not saying it's diagnostic, but looking at other kids confused me, they seemed different somehow very early.

I think a lot of parents know something is different like I did very early. We just don't always know what.

Truthfully looking back I had missed much or had not wanted to see it, even when he was a baby he had some sensory issues. The saying is, that hindsight is a wonderful thing, personally I find it painful at the moment.

The gap between him and his peers socially widened quite obviously when he started school. His language is different (pragmatic I believe its called) and has an accent different to anyone else around him. All of which (combined with other things) make him quite different from others his own age - and sadly leading to him being bullied and excluded at school.

I feel this very odd mix of relief at the diagnosis and the knowledge he will get help in school now, and a crushing feeling of shock and nervousness at what the future will hold.

No apologies, needed. This is one of the times when it makes sense to bump up an old thread because the information is already there in one place, and makes it easier to reference.

Seven is a very common time for kids who blend fairly well at younger years because of the increase in school and social demands that will start to outpace the development of less-impaired aspies.

My son was much more impaired in the younger years than yours, and even with him much of what was going on was hard to distinguish from toddler behavior.

The best thing I can say at this point, is to continue to try not to panic. Your child is not any different than he was a day before being diagnosed. The key thing as with all kids, is to focus on the individual strengths and weaknesses of your kid. Not all the general advice for aspies will apply. They are all different in what works and what does not. There is a lot of trial and error; and no one thing is "the thing" to do, if you know what I mean.

I didn't catch the dates and this post wasn't up, but it pulled up as posts since my last visit without showing this post.

I'm sorry your son is being bullied, and that it took so long to get answers. Hope things improve, quickly.