Does Asperger's sound like the right fit for my kid?

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I agree with both momsparky *and* YippySkippy. We suspect my 7 year old is on the spectrum (he has a lot of similarities with your child), but have not been in a huge rush to get a diagnosis. The only diagnoses he has now are a pragmatic speech delay (very talkative and very advanced vocabulary), a fine motor delay, social and emotional delays. The school has been very supportive. He gets just about all they can give him (speech, OT, counseling). But, his social issues are becoming very problematic. He desperately wants to be included, but just does not know how to pick up on social cues and social rules intuitively. The school is not equipped to help him with this, and his self esteem is plummeting. So, now I feel we could benefit from a definitive diagnosis in order to help him in this area, whether that be a different school or social skills groups that require a diagnosis. Although your child will still be the same child, sometimes it is helpful to have the right documentation in your back pocket.

I agree with both momsparky *and* YippySkippy. We suspect my 7 year old is on the spectrum (he has a lot of similarities with your child), but have not been in a huge rush to get a diagnosis. The only diagnoses he has now are a pragmatic speech delay (very talkative and very advanced vocabulary), a fine motor delay, social and emotional delays. The school has been very supportive. He gets just about all they can give him (speech, OT, counseling). But, his social issues are becoming very problematic. He desperately wants to be included, but just does not know how to pick up on social cues and social rules intuitively. The school is not equipped to help him with this, and his self esteem is plummeting. So, now I feel we could benefit from a definitive diagnosis in order to help him in this area, whether that be a different school or social skills groups that require a diagnosis. Although your child will still be the same child, sometimes it is helpful to have the right documentation in your back pocket.

Sounds like your kid fits the autism label. Don't be led astray by stereotypes, as many of us don't fit common traits. (I myself don't live by a routine schedule, for example.) The good news is, since he's fairly smart and has concerned, loving parents, the social skills he lacks instinctually will be learned intellectually.

Your son sounds very like my son, who was diagnosed with Asperger's (in the UK) when he was 7 years old.

Your son sounds a lot like my son at that age. A little like my daughter. Both fall somewhere on the spectrum, though not in the "usual" way. At any rate, neither of them are NT for sure.

My daughter was delayed in getting a diagnosis because I focused on the parts that didn't "match" my preconceived notions of what autism is. Over the years, I have learned that my preconceived notions were laughably inaccurate.

The good news is that whether or not he receives a diagnosis at this point, it appears you have accepted the idea that perhaps he is not wired like the masses. This will leave you better prepared to help him cope with his own unique wiring, because it sounds like whether or not he gets the label, you are dealing with an atypically wired kid who will need a parent who is willing to put aside regular expectations to find what will work. Best of luck to you.

That actually sounds a lot like my "non-diagnosed-asd" daughter who we are really starting to realize... may not be neurotypical. We don't know if she is ADHD or ASD. My husband is against having her tested because it's not strongly impacting anything yet (other than our sanity, because on top of everything you said about your son, add a heaping dose of hyperactivity) and she is so different from our ASD daughter, how could she have anything related? But Im starting to see it. Yesterday I took her to target and inbetween her incessent chattering about arts and crafts, she repeated the phrase "you have arrived at your destination, <my name>" Over. and Over. Even when I asked her to stop. I asked her what was up and she really didn't have an answer other than it's what my phone tells me when I park my car. I asked her to stop. She didn't. Thinking back it's not the first time, this is just the first time she picked a really strange phrase. Usually it's a line from a song or a tv show and I don't think much of it.

We get more 2 way conversations with her than our older daughter, but she does redirect back to certain topics quite frequently, thing is I think we've been ignoring it because her topics are more... normal for a 4.5 year old? IT's usually unicorns and arts and crafts. She is also not as well spoken as her older sister so honestly a lot of what she says makes little sense to us or gets piled in with the white noise since she rarely stops talking. But she also takes offense to everything her classmates do, she covers her ears when we flush the toilet, run a sink, or use the vacuum. She gets mad if you touch her from behond, or if you look at her funny. It's weird to say, but she is the more challenging child. Her energy level is what makes the difference. She is off the hook.

Id say your son is worth getting checked out. I have one confirmed ASD child and I'm thinking something is cooking with my 2nd, who sounds a lot like your son. It's hard to say if ADHD or ASD, only a professional would be able to tell. Many consider them to be part of the same spectrum, which doesn't surprise me one bit.