I am here for my sister, who is a young single parent and is struggling with some recent changes in her son. She took him to the ped on Monday who set them up with a child development specialist at UVA, which supposedly has a great autism center/department of some sort. The ped said he did not see anything that jumped out at him but he is not an expert and wanted to be sure they didn't miss anything.
I will list some of his other behaviors, and if you read them you would immediately think ASD, but keep in mind that he doesn't do these things all of the time and sometimes acts quite typical.
-spins in circles (more than most typical kids--my son does this sometimes too)
-looks at you with his eyes all the way to one side
-flaps his hands when excited or nervous
-gets very upset with change/things not as they should be (if you move one of the buildings in his toy town he has set up, for example; this weekend got upset to the point of panic/hysteria when the knot came out of the end of his jump rope and the plastic thing slid off--there was literally terror in his eyes and he was breathing very heavily, my mom had to hold him and rock him and say it's okay, it's okay until he calmed down)
-talks to himself a lot and repeats himself (he was in his playroom with my son and I said to my sister that it sounded like they were playing together, but she said to listen closely and here is what we heard: "I turn on the light, I turn on the light, I turn on the light, I turn on the light" really fast and kind of under his breath, not talking to anyone)
-poor motor skills (will walk right off the porch if my sister is not holding his hand, trips and falls all the time)
Recently he has begun speaking less in general and having problems with word retreival. This is what prompted my sister to take him to the ped. He is fully vaxed, and in addition recently finished rabies treatment after a rabid bat was found in his bedroom
Also, his father has ADHD and my sister has a mild case of OCD, which runs in our family.
I have researched this online on the major autism sites but he doesn't quite seem to fit the criteria for anything because his "symptoms" vary in severity from day to day. Sometimes he is quite affectionate, teases, engages in pretend play, etc. Plus nothing I have read says anything about a decline this late in life.
So, I thought I would come here to see if anyone IRL has experienced something similar. Has anyone's child started experiencing symptoms/worse symptoms after age 3? Does anyone's child have good days and bad days, some days seeming much more typical than others?
Thank you so much.
I will list some of his other behaviors, and if you read them you would immediately think ASD, but keep in mind that he doesn't do these things all of the time and sometimes acts quite typical.
-spins in circles (more than most typical kids--my son does this sometimes too)
-looks at you with his eyes all the way to one side
-flaps his hands when excited or nervous
-gets very upset with change/things not as they should be (if you move one of the buildings in his toy town he has set up, for example; this weekend got upset to the point of panic/hysteria when the knot came out of the end of his jump rope and the plastic thing slid off--there was literally terror in his eyes and he was breathing very heavily, my mom had to hold him and rock him and say it's okay, it's okay until he calmed down)
-talks to himself a lot and repeats himself (he was in his playroom with my son and I said to my sister that it sounded like they were playing together, but she said to listen closely and here is what we heard: "I turn on the light, I turn on the light, I turn on the light, I turn on the light" really fast and kind of under his breath, not talking to anyone)
-poor motor skills (will walk right off the porch if my sister is not holding his hand, trips and falls all the time)
Recently he has begun speaking less in general and having problems with word retreival. This is what prompted my sister to take him to the ped. He is fully vaxed, and in addition recently finished rabies treatment after a rabid bat was found in his bedroom
Also, his father has ADHD and my sister has a mild case of OCD, which runs in our family.
I have researched this online on the major autism sites but he doesn't quite seem to fit the criteria for anything because his "symptoms" vary in severity from day to day. Sometimes he is quite affectionate, teases, engages in pretend play, etc. Plus nothing I have read says anything about a decline this late in life.
So, I thought I would come here to see if anyone IRL has experienced something similar. Has anyone's child started experiencing symptoms/worse symptoms after age 3? Does anyone's child have good days and bad days, some days seeming much more typical than others?
Thank you so much.