diagnosing autism??

[hazeldust]

lately i have been worried about my son. he is almost 4 and seems 'normal' enough, but there are certain behaviors that i am wondering about. for instance, the other day he and i were taking a walk and i was trying really hard to communicate with him and it was very difficult. he has started say 'what?' after every other thing i say to him. and so often he asks questions about things that are obvious, like we will be in the car riding and he will say ' mommy? are we going to go for a car ride?' but not just once. he does this alot about alot of different things. i justfigured he needed to be reassured about things. i know he knows alot of these things he asks because sometimes i will ask his question back to him and he usually knows the answer. it just seems really hard to get his attention sometimes and its kind of tiring communicating with him. another thing that he does is when he is around people other than his immediate family, he gets so excited and soooo wild and then it is just way more difficult than usual to get his attention or to get him to calm down. it is just so weird. he just seems so different from some of the other kids we know who are about his age. there are two girls specifically that i am thinking of, one a yr older and one a yr younger. both of them seem to me well like little adults. gabriel just seems like oh i dont know, like a kid? like a different creature altogether? im not sure and i hope i didnt lose ya there. thing is i recognize that 'normal' is a term that really doesnt mean much to me, but i also need to be aware if something is going on with him. any insights?

[LiamnEmma]

well, just based on that I'd say he's a normal kid. My boy is just like that. The "what?"'s are soooooooo annoying after awhile, aren't they? Sometimes mine starts saying it before I've even finished my sentence! grrrr This weekend we had our 6 yr old nephew over and I noticed he does it too (as does dh : ). I've also noticed that ds and dn are very wild at family functions, to the point that the IL's often fondly recall their own (now grown and functioning in society) boys' youths (these two boys are the two youngest boys in a family with 29 grandchildren)...so, just based on the things you're saying, I'd guess your son is developmentally right on, just irritating, right now. : Hang in there! You've got a friend!

[khrisday]

I am concerned about your description of him as being difficult to cumminicate with. I would have a speech pathologist take a look at him.

[Gemini]

I have a girlfriend that has a son the same age as my dd (3 yo) that was just recently diagnosed with autism.
He came over for a play date last summer and didn't really engage in play with my daughter too much (although he did love the ball pit we have and they both played in it), just found things he liked by himself. He did display some repetitive behavior ie taking foam letters and numbers one at a time across his face and laying them next to him (all of them), having a fasination with a particular kind of toy (balls), and didn't say too many words yet, just kind of *for lack of a better word* grunted or moaned at times, but he would laugh and was very happy, still is!
My girlfriend remembers back when he was a month or two that his eyes would roll back into his head, and wondered what that was about. She hasn't been able to potty train him yet and he still does't talk much, but is a very happy little boy and very smart! (of course!) There has always been something that made my girlfriend wonder from the beginning about her son and so she got him tested.
I truly believe in trusting your gut or intuition. Your his mom and know him best, so if your concerned do some research about his behavior and go to your doctor with it. My girlfriend has found a wealth of info that has helped her with her son on the web.
Hope this helps...

[Star Baby]

my friend has a son who is four who was recently diagnosed with 'aspbergers' ( i don't think i spelled that right) the major things she noticed were where he was developmentally with communication, but mainly he has a near obsession with needing order and repetition. he'd make her do a certain thing (like opening a door, or walking through a door) over and over until it was the way he thought it should be. since his diagnosis they are all much happier and making lots of progress. i hope this helps.

~sb

[khrisday]

It's spelled Asperger's.

The three areas that all children on the Autism spectrum will have problem in are:
1) language (this can be social language as with Asperger's- having problems taking turns in conversation, etc, as well as general delays)
2) social interraction (this does not mean that they are necessarily not interested in social interraction, in fact it can mean that they are extremely interested in social interraction, but do it in an unusual way- like a child who think s everyone is his friend)
3) range of interest- having certain subjects that interest them a lot, and not showing interest in other areas. This can be one subject that they are obsessed with, or several main interests.

[Tracy]

I am positive you guys all know about this conference.

But I went looking for something to give to someone else and I sort of got led to this link and just in case it missed this forum, I thought I would post it.

Various people have discussed that they got a lot out of the conference.

Anyway, here is the link....

I think you can find out more about the topics and discussions by going to the main organizers.

http://www.autismone.org/abstracts.html

[geekmom]

The thing I've found in dealing with parents is that if you have a suspicion that there's something not quite on target with your son then you're probalby right. Keep going to doctor's or speech pathologists or whatever until someone can tell you what's going on. Basically, parents can miss things that are different about their kids, but once they suspect something it almost always means that there's something that needs some extra attention.

[fullofhope]

What about his hearing? Have you had that checked lately? I babysat a 4yo who had a constant ear infection that nobody knew existed, but he kept saying "what?", more than normal, had more hyperactivity, and needed more assurance about what was going on, as if (we realized in retropsect) everything might change just because he couldn't hear as well. Once I got the mom to have that checked and they gave meds and put tubes in, he calmed down, quit saying what *quite* so much, needed less assurance, was more confident, and his speech improved, too. Just a thought.