How does mild Asperger’s Syndrome present in females under 3

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Thanks to everyone who has responded. From what has been said, I’m wondering if maybe the reason the psychologist is interested in this particular period is to distinguish between a possible diagnosis of High Functioning Autism and a possible diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome. I didn’t realise there doesn’t have to be speech delay for an Asperger’s diagnosis and I was worried I’m wasting his time as I didn’t have any speech delays. I thought this meant I couldn’t possibly be on the spectrum and there was no point going ahead with the rest of the assessment. However, after reading people’s answers, I feel slightly more at ease about continuing with it.

i'm a female, and when my father went away for six days and came back with a beard he hadnt shaved, i didnt recognize him. i was a year old.
i was told i didnt talk in kindergarten, not to teachers or other kids. i didnt play with them, either. i stayed close to my brother at all times. even when other kids picked on me i didnt tell. when i wanted/needed something, i didnt say anything and you'd have to guess. and i was absolutely fascinated by animals and extremely shy. i had no friends (still dont...)
hope that helps. it's not easy to diagnose someone at such a young age. but perhaps repetitive behavoir can provide a clue. i dont remember that far, most people dont.

The psych is looking for signs of traits to confirm that you have a lifelong history which confirms the developmental requirement of the diagnosis. If the traits develop later with no trace of early ASC behaviours then the diagnosis will not be an ASC because it is likely that there is some other cause for the behaviours - my neighbour's son has a PDD-NOS diagnosis even though his traits were clear from about a year old because she had been on a medication known to interfere with development and got pregnant while it was still in her system and it is highly likely that this is the cause of his autism-like condition.

You can see possible traits in all young children but the traits in ASC children persist over time and it's this persistence that a clinician needs to check on.

Your love of pandas becoming a long term obsession may well be an indicator - all children have a favourite teddy or blanket or toy but most of them move on to other things and new interests even if they keep the object into adulthood.

Delayed speech would be an indicator of an ASC but not AS, precocious speech is a more likely indicator of AS - my son didn't speak particularly early but had sentences by 18 months; the developmental target for children at that age is 6 words, he had several hundred. I spoke my first 2 word phrase at 6 months and apparently brought the local post office to a complete halt by asking "what's that?" Not the usual 6 month old's vocabulary which is why it is part of family history so I know precisely when, where and what for that particular part of my development. My NT brother didn't bother to speak till he was 3! And he didn't walk till almost 2 - my mum was really, really worried about him and never even considered that I might be the one with issues.

Was the pattern of speech you used unusual? Did you sound oddly grown up, mix up pronouns longer than most children did, misname common objects a bit too regularly? Did you use technical words beyond your years, talk about things nobody had an inkling you knew anything about or have tantrums when someone mispronounced a word or told a different variant on a nursery rhyme?

Other little things are - did you play alongside others or did you actually play with them? We took my son to play with other children every day, especially after, at about 2, I realised he wasn't really connecting with them - we have loads of pictures of him apparently playing happily with them but I know he was really doing his own thing most of the time. It's the sort of thing only a mum would remember when looking at baby photos, even you will probably only see the smiles.

Did you read early without being taught? Children who read before they are 4 are unusual, children who read without being taught are even more unusual, children who do both are usually hyperlexic - hyperlexia is associated with ASCs.

Did you hate to be held and sleep better in a cot than in your mum's arms? Or did you have to be held all the time and scream blue murder if you even thought your mother was going to put you down? Both can indicate proprioceptor differences - if you can't feel your body properly or every touch is hyper sensitive then you would either need constant physical contact as a baby or be an extremely difficult baby to cuddle - either can drive a parent to despair and your mum is the one who would remember just how bad things might have been; everyone else forgets those bits.

Did you have feeding difficulties as a tiny baby? Extended difficulty latching on if breast fed, difficulty changing to a bottle when weaned (neither of my kids would take a bottle and I tried with my second child from the day she was born - now I know they couldn't learn the 2 different mechanisms for drawing the milk out because of their comorbid motor control difficulties). Did you have difficulties learning to hold a spoon or coping with solids or refuse certain textures when you got a bit older?

These are just examples of things that can indicate difficulties - they aren't significant if they occur in isolation, and even if lots occur together they aren't significant if the behaviours associated with the same type of sensory processing don't persist (not necessarily the exact same behaviours - my daughter screamed non-stop unless I held her and often even if I did, I now know she couldn't feel where she was in space properly and needed constant pressure to get any sensation. Later she used to lie under her mattress and get her big brother to lie on top, she would fall asleep like that, now she is a teenager and wears tight layers next to her skin - 3 different behaviours but all for the same reason and all can be traced back to the same root at birth providing a pretty significant indicator that she was born with a developmental condition).