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

Post Reply New Topic

Hello, I’ve just set up this account though I have been reading the forums for some time now. I apologise in advance for how long this post is going to be. If anyone wants to answer but can’t be bothered to read it all, please just see the title of the thread.

My main question is fairly straight-forward. More and more adults are getting diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome which presumably means in some cases signs and symptoms are being missed in early childhood. I’m wondering what these signs and symptoms could be in their mildest/subtlest forms, particularly in female children. Can anyone help me with this? I’ve read so many times that Asperger’s Syndrome is commonly missed in children who go on to be diagnosed later in life but there is never an adequate explanation of how this could happen. I also get confused because I repeatedly read that everyone on the spectrum is different and there is a wide variation in how people are affected but again, there is never an adequate explanation or helpful examples to demonstrate how this is true in higher functioning individuals.

I am in the process of being assessed for an autism spectrum condition. I was totally convinced that I have one but now, after researching my childhood a bit, I’m not so sure. I’m hampered in that I do not want my mum to know about any of this (at the moment) so am having to rely on my old baby book for information of early childhood and my memory of later childhood (I’m now 25). It seems I didn’t have any delays in speech/language. I also used to enjoy playing imaginative pretend games with other children, but I don’t know what age I began doing this. In my baby book there is a section on “favourite toy” and my mum wrote “panda, panda and panda!” This is a cuddly toy which I still have today and triggered my intense obsession/interest in pandas. Could this possibly be indicative of an early intense, narrow interest?

Thank you to anyone who has read all of this!

EDIT:

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 also still interested in any further input to this topic.

Last edited by Moonranch on 15 Jan 2013, 4:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think its more indicative of comfort seeking. Almost all kids have a fav toy like you described. I did.

A baby book is a poor source of information really. Is there any video?

Personally I'm unsure why you are focused on that period. However I would say my top three were

Crying like mad
Not sticking tongue out when parents did - instead looking at them like they are stupid
Defiance during the 2nd year

Aspergers presents itself differently for different people of either gender. I don't like the "girls are different" on the spectrum theory. I am a girl, and I have the so-called masculine autism traits. I think it is just a matter of everyone being individuals.

Btw, when I was 3, I was obsessed with a stuffed, purple cow I received for my 3rd birthday. I do not, however, think this is because I have autism. From all the younger people I've met, it seems that most children get some kind of attachment to a toy or stuffed animal during their childhood.

A baby book often misses a LOT of information, btw. Or it can be biased because parents are expecting their children to be perfect even if they are not. For example, my Mom has my first word written down in August of 1984. I was four months old. I actually didn't speak until I was 3, and then I regressed and needed speech therapy until age 5 to relearn how to speak. No, I was not speaking at age 4 months at all, but my Mom was HOPING I would, so heard some grunt and thought it was a word. She acknowledges that, and says exactly what I said: parents often hope their kids are little genuises, and can do everything perfectly.

Unless you have a REALLY good reason, I would suggest connecting with your mom and asking her about it. She might be able to remember things that she didn't think of before. My psych who evaluated me said no one should be diagnosed officially without childhood information from someone who was there.

Thanks for the replies.

I agree with the comfort thing and understand that most children have a favourite toy but I brought this up because my obsession with pandas began at a very early age and still exists now as a special interest.



There are videos of me as a child but I'm not sure what kind of behaviour I should be looking out for, especially things that my parents may have missed. I'm focused on this period because the clinical psychologist I saw said he needs to interview my mum to get information of what I was like under the age of 3.



The psychologist I saw said he would probably only be able to give his "clinical opinion" and not a full diagnosis if he wasn't able to interview my mum or other family member.

Thanks again for the responses.

All I can tell you OP, is how my two children presented before that age as I don't know much about myself. Here is a list of things which is an amalgamation of all the symptoms from both of them that I remember.

Strong reactions to sounds, odd phobias and lots of fears, clingy, throwing up at the first attempt at solids (food texture issues), screaming when passing a hard motion, separation anxiety, tantrums/meltdowns, speech regression.

For Asperger's there is no speech delay/regression, this was for my youngest daughter who is DXd HFA. There might be more things but this is what springs to mind.

Speak to your psychologist again, he should be able to give you a DX of PDD-NOS because of lacking childhood info not just a clinical opinion. Can you not access your school reports or is there anyone else who knew you as a child that could offer information? Also, there is at least one member on WP who was diagnosed (it might be YellowBanana) without childhood information because the evidence of her traits was so overwhelming.

http://www.aspergerstestsite.com/411/pd ... PSqdvJZ-So

I know I was extremely fussy and I had terrible separation anxiety.

I spoke abnormally early - 5 1/2 months, two words - don't know if that was a 'clue' to anything.

Babies like black and white images - contrasting colors and patterns. Thus, maybe the start of your Panda interest - maybe that's where and how it 'stuck'. Mom's, I think, would think you were all lovey with the Panda versus fascinated? Just a hypothesis.

Honestly, i think that 3 years old is way to young. For Aspergers it's best between ages 7-8 as most kids have started developing
social skills at that point. 3 years old is just so young

At the age of 3yrs, there's no way that my daughter would have gotten a diagnosis of Aspergers, or anything else, for that matter. There were no social skills issues to speak of, before she was almost 5yrs, and she was and still is a very friendly girl, with no shyness or confidence issues. She got her diagnosis at 6 1/2, which is very young for a girl.

However, that's not to say that there were no problems when she was younger. The issues were huge, but would not have made many people think she might have an ASD. She has been very different from her peers, from the day she was born. She screamed when we changed her first nappy (diaper), wanted to suckle 24/7 and never wanted to be laid down. She was ahead of her peers on most of her milestones, so my health visitor was not at all concerned. She started talking a very early age (around 6 months), crawled and cruised very early, walked at an average age and was toilet trained without diffculty and dry at night by her 3rd birthday, which is very early. As soon as she could talk, she made demands for specific cutlery and dishes (always the blue ones). As soon as she could walk, she would no longer sit in her pram (stroller), refused to take hands or allow any sort of restraint and would have tantrums and lie on the ground, if we tried. She would not dress either and refused to allow anyone to dress her. Getting ready in the morning was very stressful. If we were anywhere she liked being, e.g. a park, nursery, a friend's house, she would not leave readily. We were last to leave everywhere we went. Other parents just had to put their hand out and their child would come long, not mine. Most of her early traits were sensory related, I'm pretty clear on that now, but wasn't at the time. There were a lot more issues besides, this just gives a flavour.

That's my daughter and I'm in contact on-line with Mums of girls with similar traits. However, not all girls with Aspergers are 'difficult'. Some are particularly complaint and could be described as 'dream babies'. If I'm on the spectrum (and I suspect so), I was one of the ultra-compliant kids.

you've just reminded me of more things my eldest daughter did, she also would never leave the park etc., plus she used to bang her head on the floor in her rages, and she also never used to want to go back in her pushchair.

I don't think the difference between boys and girls would be that great before the age of three.

Personally, I don't know if I have Asperger's or not, but according to my mother I was unusual when I was a child.
Some things she mentioned:

As a baby I cried a lot and always wanted to be fed
Later, I always wanted to eat.
Walking on tip toes
Having massive screaming tantrums which would only stop if my mother put me under a lukewarm shower
My first morning at playschool I screamed like a banshee ALL morning and the nursery workers asked my mother to not bring me again.
My parents and our housekeeper were allowed to touch me, but nobody else and I'd try to bite people if they tried to touch me.
Could play for hours on my own
Was not potty trained until four and didn't care about walking around in dirty nappies (diapers)

Okay, I'm not Aspergers, I'm HFA and I'm not a "regular girl", but a female to male transgender.
But besides that my time I was most noticable was around that age of age 2-5 years I would say.

When I got older, it even outgrew in some areas.

ASD is a big spectrum. It's also a question what autism actually is and where you make the "cut off".
It is harder to notice in girls, but there are also boys who are hard to catch and many girls who were very typical as children.
So this question isn't that easy to answer.

My daughter was diagnosed at 8, but looking back there were some signs from when she was younger. She hated the feeling of water in any form, whether baths or washcloths. She would scream until she was completely dry. Even when she was just a few months old, she would stare at certain toys for over 3 hours if we let her. Supposedly babies aren't supposed to have attention spans that long. She would only tolerate certain clothes and she would not tolerate disposable diapers of any type until she was around 2 years old. We had to use cloth diapers. She refused to touch any food that had any type of moisture in it with her fingers. She hated grass and sand and would not touch them at all.

Those are just some of the examples I can think of right now.

1) Aspergers does not 'present' in ANY one under three.
When they are that young you cant tell. Alhough high functioning autism (or any autism) might manifest because of delays in learning speech.

2) The reason so many "adults are getting diagnosed nowadays" is not so much because "so many children ARE ( in the present tense) being missed" as it is because the diagnoses did not even exist until around the turn of the 21st centurey and so everyone in the country of over thirty with the condition got 'missed' until now ( including me).

Aspergers, as a syndrome, is currently undiagnosable at 3yrs, but there may be some signs that the child is unusual or different from their peers. The social issues don't tend to be obvious, as all kids are learning those, so they don't become apparent, until the gap widens, a few years later. My daughter's sensory issues (which are part and parcel of her Aspergers) were evident from day 1, although I didn't know that's why she was behaving the way she was, but some kids will not display any signs until later.

Nobody knew there was anything wrong with me at all until I started school. I don't think AS is very easy to notice in a baby or a toddler, unless it is very noticeable, like a baby as young as 10 months constantly lining up toys or something.

But even these little traits like ''Autistic children line up toys'' or ''Autistic children have repetitive behaviour'' or ''Autistic children rock backwards and forwards'' or ''Autistic children get attached to an object'' just become exaggerated stereotypes. I have worked with small children aged 2 to 4 before at a preschool, and all of them presented at least one of those given traits listed above. A lot of the children clutched on to a teddy or a doll or whatever and didn't want to let it go, and some of them went up and down the slide loads of times in a row, and I often saw toys lined up (sometimes the boys liked to line up toy cars as though they were pretending there was a carpark), and a lot of the children bounced up and down excitedly or even rocked backwards and forwards. For all I knew, there could have been 5 Aspies among the group of 30 toddlers altogether, and I probably wouldn't have noticed. Some 2-year-olds could talk already, whilst others were quiet and wasn't really talking significantly yet. All children are different, which is why Autism can sometimes be overestimated in toddlers, unless they display significantly odd behaviour that noticeably separates than from their peers.

I have a lot of photos and videos of me as a child under 3, and I seem very typical. I am smiling in a lot of photos I have (looking cheerful or playful), and I liked being played with by adults. In one of the videos I have got of me on my second birthday, I was behaving like any normal toddler of that age.
Also I remember when I was first at preschool I used to sometimes cry when my mum left me, which is typical of small children.