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20 month old with early ASD signs, doctor suggests alternative reasons

JamesMS

Hello everyone,

I have a wonderful 20 month old son (my only child), who for the last few months has been showing signs of having ASD. He has no speech (though certainly makes lots of emotive noises), does not respond to his name, has limited eye contact at times, no pointing or waving, and likes running in circles. 

His mum and I have recently started having him assessed. She is being very positive, however for entirely personal (and probably selfish) reasons this has hit me hard and this evening I was speaking with my doctor to try and get some counselling.

When I described my sons behaviors, he claims to have seen similar situations that were not ASD but actually due to a lack of adequate parental contact, and with hard work can be reversable. Some parents might be offended by this, but if I'm honest I can't say it's entirely impossible. It's certainly true that due to work pressures I'm not able to spend as much time as I'd like with my son, and while his mother is able to stay at home with him, his first year and a half was somewhat unusual, uneventful and a bit isolated. Maybe we just haven't done enough to engage him?

Normally every time I speak with a health professional about my son they refuse to be drawn on the odds of his having ASD. This is the first time I've heard someone actually suggest an alternative reason. I'm wondering if anyone else here has ever had a similar suggestion? 

Parents

  • Thanks recombinantsocks. Honestly, I would be delighted if it turns out that his issues are due to some cack-handed parenting on my part. For me this would be much better than the alternative, which is why I'm wondering if anyone else has had this suggested to them by a doctor.

    I think we can rule out ASD as being inherited. Nobody in our families has ever been diagosed or shown any signs. I took an ASD test recently and scored 29. I understand the threshold is 32. My wife and I aren't particularly social as adults, but we were both very outgoing and social when we were children. Our changes in personality were down to some rather nasty school bullying.

    Reading through the forums here, I'm struck by how many symptoms parents report struggling with that my son just doesn't do. He has always slept perfectly, has no issues with sudden changes in routine, has no sensory issues, has no problem with large groups of people, has no issues with food, isn't lactose intolerant, doesn't smash or break things, doesn't self-harm, doesn't eat non-food items and has never shown any signs of regression. 

    He does have tantrums, but they are never unexplained and always because he's being forced to do something he doesn't want to do. His lack of eye contact seems to be circumstantial; put him in a room with his toys and he'll focused on them. Sit him up to the dinner table with no distractions and his interactions are better. He likes to run in circles in the living room, but if I open the door and give him the option to explore the house, he'll instantly choose the house. It took us only two attempts to show him how to get down the stairs safely before he picked it up. Today he literally pushed me away at the top of the stairs so that he could get down the stairs independently by himself.

    Sorry, I'm rambling. Things like this give me hope and make me think my doctor might be right. Maybe he's just a little insular and bored.

Reply

  • Thanks recombinantsocks. Honestly, I would be delighted if it turns out that his issues are due to some cack-handed parenting on my part. For me this would be much better than the alternative, which is why I'm wondering if anyone else has had this suggested to them by a doctor.

    I think we can rule out ASD as being inherited. Nobody in our families has ever been diagosed or shown any signs. I took an ASD test recently and scored 29. I understand the threshold is 32. My wife and I aren't particularly social as adults, but we were both very outgoing and social when we were children. Our changes in personality were down to some rather nasty school bullying.

    Reading through the forums here, I'm struck by how many symptoms parents report struggling with that my son just doesn't do. He has always slept perfectly, has no issues with sudden changes in routine, has no sensory issues, has no problem with large groups of people, has no issues with food, isn't lactose intolerant, doesn't smash or break things, doesn't self-harm, doesn't eat non-food items and has never shown any signs of regression. 

    He does have tantrums, but they are never unexplained and always because he's being forced to do something he doesn't want to do. His lack of eye contact seems to be circumstantial; put him in a room with his toys and he'll focused on them. Sit him up to the dinner table with no distractions and his interactions are better. He likes to run in circles in the living room, but if I open the door and give him the option to explore the house, he'll instantly choose the house. It took us only two attempts to show him how to get down the stairs safely before he picked it up. Today he literally pushed me away at the top of the stairs so that he could get down the stairs independently by himself.

    Sorry, I'm rambling. Things like this give me hope and make me think my doctor might be right. Maybe he's just a little insular and bored.

Children
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