Could my son have Asperger's?

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There are several things that my son does that make me think that he might have Asperger's syndrome. I didn't even know what it was until a few months ago I saw the cover of a book called "Look Me in the Eye." The past couple of years I've noticed that my son will not look at strangers like wait people at restaurants, doctors, hair stylists. Yet, he will look at the people he knows and are comfortable with. When he was a baby he would take a hot wheel car and move it back and forth and just watch it. He could do that for extended periods of time. He could also color in a coloring book for an hour maybe more which I thought was unusual for a one-year-old. He is very honest with people sometimes to the point of hurting their feelings. He can't ride a bike (however he can ride a scooter just fine) and it's very difficult for him to tie his shoes. His writing is so bad that the school is letting him use a laptop in class and at home for his assignments. Sometimes when I call his name, he is so focused on what ever he is doing that he can't even hear me even when I'm yelling his name. The volume of his voice can get very loud and his teacher says it gets inappropriate at times in class. He is an extremely good reader, a few grades levels over what he is now. He's always been a bit clumsy and running seems awkward. Also, it seems as if he has no fear like when jumping off of things that, to me, seem to be much too high to be safe. The kids at school pick on him which causes him a lot of frustration. In the past year he has started banging his head on things when frustrated. Especially because of homework or when I tell him that he can't play video games. Is it possible for someone who has Asperger's to not do these things until they are older? I have heard that they usually start doing the head banging when they are very young. He also talks for long periods of time and he doesn't seem too interested in what others have to say. His grandmother told me that he just walked away when she was talking to him once. The school has evaluated him and has said that even though his scores were low that they weren't low enough for it to be Asperger's, but it's something that we should keep in the back of our minds. I have made an appointment with a neurologist to get his opinion. I hope someone can tell me if I'm right in thinking that it could be Asperger's. He does have these issues that he has to deal with, but I love his intelligence, bravery, creativity, and honesty. Not to mention that he is the funniest person I know.

I've never heard of a neurologist being able to make any kind of evaluation for autism... Huh.
You best bet is to find a psychiatrist that has some kind of expertise with children and autism- most fair to large cities have one somewhere and you may have to be very specific when you ask about certain qualifications.
I would hope no one on this forum would give you more than a hap-hazard guess based on your OP- autism (especially HFA) is complex and can take several weeks to get an offiicial-on-the-paper diagnosis.

my son started head-banging around 8, along with punching himself, but only under extreme stress, and the frequency grew as his frustrations with school increased. he was a non-verbal, solitary kid who didn't engage in imaginary play, but could converse with adults and make complex arguments when he was 5. when he was 10 he was dx'd NLD, which is based on his IQ scores and some other things, but at that time his sensory issues were masked by extreme stress and he ended up with a dx of bipolar which I'm currently challenging. his behavior fits AS better than NLD+BD.

in my area the people who dx PDD are generally psychologists or neuropsychologists who specialize in spectrum disorders, and I've heard of people having their kids referred to neurologists as well to suss out the sensory issues. generally school psychologists cannot make a dx, so I think you're on the right track.

This statement puzzles me. Low in what? 'Not low enough to be AS' - this does not compute.

Language and OT scores.




Thanks, bhetti, for your response. Someone told me that my son's head banging couldn't be due to autism because it started when he was 9. They said it would have shown up much earlier. Perhaps, I should find a more appropriate professional to seek a diagnosis. The website for the neurologist I made the appointment with said they work with children with autism and ADHD so I thought it might be a good route.