New and confused

[LisaKaz75]

Title says quite a lot really

 

My little boy will be 3 next month and has delayed development and goes to a childrens centre, where they assess him for possible autism

 

I knew nearly 12 months ago that Leo was not developing as quickly as his peers and also had a number of strange habits (smelling everything, eating very few foods, walking on tiptoe, lobster claws, very little speech)

 

My GP and health visitors were not overly concerned but referred me to a paediatrician - who have ruled out any medical reasons. He is now under regular assessment with the community peadiatric team, has speech therapy and a continence and diet nurse!!

 

My confusion is that so much of Leo seems atypical with what I read about autism. He has come along such a lot in the last few months. Speech and vocab has massively improved, handles social situations better, gives eye contact, loves cuddles etc..

 

Can there be people on the mild end of the spectrum, who maybe dont show the main traits, or who grow out of them?? Just feel like I dont understand enough and dont want to be led down a one way path

 

What is your experience??

 

LisaKaz

[Kathryn]

Hi LisaKaz, welcome to the forum.

 

My daughter is now 21 and only got a diagnosis of AS at 15 so I'm not an expert on early years and it's quite a long way back for me to remember! I do remember thought that she always seemed to be behind her peers, especially when it came to fine motor skills. She took a long time to develop speech - at 18 months I still hadn't recorded a proper first word but by 2 she was speaking in complete sentences. She also loved cuddles and interacted well with adults. There wasn't much to worry us until we noticed that she didn't generally seem to be able to play with other children - they tended to scare and perplex her, although she was OK with one or two very familiar children. It was the greater demands of school which made her difficulties stand out and we saw how much she struggled socially and physically in that environment.

 

Make of that what you will. Now my daughter is a young adult I can say that she still has many problems but has grown out of others,or learned ways around them.

 

It's good that your son is getting support at such a young age. Keeping a diary might be a good idea, that might help you to assess for yourself how your son is developing. It may not be till he gets to school age that you get the full picture. In the meantine enjoy him and try not to worry too much.

 

K x

[justine1]

Hi

Welcome to the forum. Its great to hear your son is getting all the help and support he needs,even better that he is making such great progress.

 

I have four boys,two of them are on the spectrum.Sam(7) has Aspergers and has very good vocab and reached all milestones on time.Dan(4) has more development problems esp speech so they ruled out aspergers.

Going back to your question,I do think that all children develop at different rates so even with autism a child may make progress over months or years and it can seem quite a rapid progress if the correct help is there.I know of children with ASD who are non-verbal but within a year or two can make full meaningful sentences because of the speech therapy and the parents determination to help their child.

 

However the autism will not "dissappear" and I find with my boys they often progress in one area and at the same time regress in another area. For example they maybe less physically aggressive but more verbally abusive.So the idea of keeping a diary,as Kathryn mentioned,is very good.Write down the positives but also the negatives that you observe each day.

 

All in all sounds like you are on the right track.