Hi,
My 3 yr daughter has always been different to her peers. She didn't roll over as a baby or point or coo. She wanted to be with me all the time and I never had to move any dangerous objects onto higher shelves as she never showed an interest, in fact she seemed to understand caution from a very young age. At 8 months she would pick something up off the floor and hold it up to me as if to ask if it was safe, if I said it wasn't she'd put it down again!
She is now 3yrs knows all her colours and shapes and letters but although she has a very wide vocabulary the way she uses language is 'unusual'. Her language seems made up of parroted phrases, although she uses these phrases in the correct context and elaborates on them. Her intonation is a little monotone and she doesn't really vary intonation when she uses her stock phrases. She uses language as a toy, she finds it hilarious to say for e.g: 'bread' instead of 'bed'. She repeats phrases a lot. She always says the same thing on the same step of the stairs. She reverses her pronouns and gets fixated on a subject one week, she won't stop talking about 'Daisy, Daisy' from the nursery rhyme and then next week it will be something else.
She is quite obsessive about my hair, I have to limit the amount of times she can ask me to clip a peg in it, first she wants it at the front then the back then the side and so on! And often the first thing she says when she's not seen me for the day is "Mummy got her hair down'
Her memory astounds me she is fascinating and I love her to pieces, but I am worried about her and how these characteristics will manifest as she gets older. She already finds interaction with her peers bewildering, she loves company but doesn't know how to instigate play with her peers or conversation. She progresses every week and is capable of learning and understanding although with language she takes things a little literally.
I have raised my concerns with her Nusery teacher and she has arranged for a 0-5 developmental specialist to see her at the Nursery. I haven't contacted my GP yet, I am in the process of writing her a letter.
Is there anyone out there who has a child with just a few Autistic tendencies like my child appears to have. I feel very lonely and worried and upset a lot of the time as I really want to help her from this early stage but don't know where to begin.
Many thanks Cate
