Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi there! My sons 3 years old and is currently in the early stages of trying to get the diagnosis.
My health visitor told me to join this website and get some support from families who are going through the same. I'm not quite sure whether she believes he may have autism as he covers his ears a lot to noise. I don't believe he's autistic, but I know for a fact he has ADHD. I don't even need a professional to tell me. His development is around a year behind due to no patience to learn anything. He's also going for speech therapy at the moment. I'm hoping things may move sooner when he starts nursery next week.
Anyway, just looking for a bit of support and understanding from people going through a similar situation!
Victoria said:I'm more than open to consider he has ASD, It's just that there are no other signs which would lead me to believe he has.Also I know socialising with other people is the key sign to it and my son loves other people. Only problem my son has with socialising is he's far too hyped and in their face so it scares them off. I have warned nursery, we have a meeting before he joins so that I can explain to them that they'll have to watch him more because he has no sense of danger and no patience to wait for anything. For example when he eats, he's in such a rush to get back to playing that he'll ram all the food into his mouth and end up choking.
I'm more than open to consider he has ASD, It's just that there are no other signs which would lead me to believe he has.
Also I know socialising with other people is the key sign to it and my son loves other people. Only problem my son has with socialising is he's far too hyped and in their face so it scares them off.
I have warned nursery, we have a meeting before he joins so that I can explain to them that they'll have to watch him more because he has no sense of danger and no patience to wait for anything. For example when he eats, he's in such a rush to get back to playing that he'll ram all the food into his mouth and end up choking.
It is difficult to form an opinion based on a few words in a forum thread so I apologise if my observations, below, are off the mark.
One way of interpreting his behaviour is that he doesn't understand how to play socially, i.e. co-operatively, with other children. This could be because his social communication skills are poor which is one of the signs of ASD. Perhaps that is what the HV sees when she looks at his behaviour? Does he make eye contact with you and listen attentively to what you are saying or does he often just do his own thing?
His lack of understanding of danger could again reflect the fact that he isn't really listening carefully to what people are saying. He perhaps hasn't understood that he needs to take part in social interaction so that he can benefit from the things that other people will tell him.
Hi, welcome to the site . There's lots of info via the posts + home page about autism so have a look around. It's presentation can vary as each person is an individual. Ask anything you want.
Obviously I didn't mean to post four times. I just don't know how to remove the other three.
No, it's not wishful thinking, It's just that he has no other signs that are considered to be autistic.
The sensory processing problems are very common in ASD but they aren't part of the condition and don't contribute to the diagnosis. Your health visitor may well be right though and he may have an autistic spectrum condition. You have to be clear that it does not mean that he is necessarily mentally disabled - intelligence is a different thing to the communication problems that autism involves.
He may find nursery school difficult. ASD children can find the quantity and quality of social interaction that nursery provides to be unbearable. The noise and commotion in the class may be stresful for him and he may have meltdowns as a consequence. You need to tell the school of the HV's suspicions so that they can handle him slightly differently.
How does he behave with other children? Does he play nicely with other children or play on his own? Does he make good eye contact with you or not? These would be classic signs of an ASD.
P.S. The website is grievously slow at times so you have to wait patiently for things to happen after you have clicked the submit button. This leads to a lot of multi-posts - we are used to it :-)
Hi Victoria and welcome,
The four things you mention above do sound like ASD. Speach delay and ADD can be overlapping conditions to ASD. Covering his ears sounds like a sensory issue to noise. He clearly finds noise painful and this may become more evident at nursary if the noise level is too much.
I would keep yourself open to the possibility he has ASD. If he does, early intevention can make all the difference. One of my lads wasn't diagnosed until much later and it's clear he missed out.
The process of diagnosis can be a long one 18 months +, se bee prepared for that also.
Good luck
Coogy
Posted four times? At least he got his ADD honestly....
EDIT: my sniping aside, youll likely get your support here, but given the sensory issue why dont you think your son has an ASV? Is it just wishful thinking?