Advice on my son please - possible ASD?

[dekra]

Hi everyone, I just posted the following on the Welcome forum but thought this forum might actually be the more relevant place so sorry to anyone that is reading the following twice but I really would like to hear from opinions from people that have experience with ASD's.

 

For over a year my husband and I have had suspicions that our sons problems combine to possibly be something within the Autistic Sectrum.

 

His speach is very very behind although in the 7 months since he started nursery school it has inproved. He will be 4 in August and he has only recently started putting sentences together, even then the ones he does use are learnt/mimiced he doesn't make independent sentences. He has only recently started to learn that other people have names. This is a big step forward for him as he does not mix very well with other children. He plays along side them not with them IYSWIM. Mostly he likes to play in a wee world of his own however. He understands basic instructions but you cannot have a conversation with him. Even at nearly 4 he mostly parrots back to you.

 

When he was a baby he wasn't a great sleeper or a bad one. Just what I guessed was average. After 7 months he went into his own bedroom and was fine until he was 19 months when he woke screaming one night. After that we had him in bed with us for 13 months then progressed to having him in his own bed but in our room for another 10 months. During all this time he would wake in the night frequently terrified and upset. Speaking to the health visitor it was put down to night terrors. January this year we tried to move him to his own room once again and with the addition of his own TV. Finally he has a good bedtime regime, happily goes to bed at 8pm and if he isn't sleepy will watch tv, when he wakes in the night as he still does at least 2-3 times he calls me (I am a very light sleeper) and all I need to do is re-arrange his covers and pop the tv on low and he settles back down. This has been a welcome relief to us all.

 

With his serious lack of speach his toilet training was seriously behind, but we got that sorted soon after this 3rd birthday.

 

Other things that concern me is that although in many ways he is a smart little boy there are basic concepts he doesn't grasp. Put him in front of a computer and he can play Mahjong but he doesn't understand basic social factors like boys and girls. When I mentioned names earlier he has started to call other children by their names but their parents he generally calls them by their childs name also or calls them Mum.

 

He likes rituals but not to a crippling extent. He likes to have set things he will say to you then you must give the expected reply so he can again give his next set reply. If you don't say your part of the dialogue there can be hell to pay.

 

Getting his teeth brushed has always been in issue. For a long time he would not allow the toothbrush into his mouth then later he has become obsessed with brushing his teeth and we now go through 3 or 4 brushes a week. I need to hide the brush and paste after he has used it but I have to distract him first to prevent a tantrum.

 

Finally after that first night he woke screaming he developed a problem with noises. He will scream and hold his ears at various noises. The local chip van that blows a whistle to annouce it's arrival in the street, the noise in a large echoy public place like the swimming pool. I tried taking him to Disney Live last month and it was a disaster. Another childs birthday party was a disaster. He gets very upset and cannot be consoled. It is not just loud noises. In our local Argos there is a conveyor belt that rattled quietly, nothing more than white noise but it results in the hands over the ears and whimpering. Hand dryers in a public toilet are a huge problem. Depending on the noise he can almost completely become rigid and will not move or only move if it is away from the noise. On more than one occasion one of us have had to pick him up to get him someplace he can't hear the noise for him to settle down. He has had his hearing checked for both this and the problems with his speach.

 

He also has obsessions with yogurts, likes to count things repeatedly (other than Mum and Dad his first words were numbers and he was counting into the teens by about 18 months old) and prefers to play in things that have more of a sensory imput such as water/bubble or on the computer/ds rather than with normal toys.

 

He has attended speach therapy once and was supposed to be reviewed last year but staffing issues has meant that is only happening next week now. Since he started nursery I have met with his key worker, and educational psychologist twice and he has another review due early next month. Whilst there has been improvement there is still huge delays in his development.

 

I think that is the majority of the issues we have with him. What I wanted to ask was does this add up to a possible ASD? If so what sort of things should I be asking the psychologist when we meet again and how would I go about asking for him to be tested? Am I just paranoid or does some of what I have said her sound like it should be investigated further?

Edited April 22, 2011 by dekra

[oxgirl]

Hi dekra,

I replied on your other post.

 

~ Mel ~