Is my daughter autistic?

First time on here so good evening to all.

My daughter is 8 years old. Having worked in special needs for over 10 years, I am confident enough to say that she does not present with significant traits of ASD. However behaviour over the years that myself and wife have been aware of have been presenting more and more in recent months. I read more frequently that ASD in girls presents much more subtlely and we're not sure if we have genuine concerns or are neurotic parents.

As my little girl is making progress at school, class teacher is not overly concerned. My daughter does access a weekly sensory bus as she finds it useful to self soothe and re-regulate. During parents evening I asked if they had concerns over ASD and they did not. Anxiety is a huge problem at the moment. A school production has sent her anxiety through the roof. Every morning has been a battle and whilst we want to encourage her to take part, the visible signs are going beyond normal. Sleeping is huge issue at the moment. It's almost 11pm and she is still calling down from her bedroom. It seems that physical touch/contact from us is the only method of soothing her.  

Any changes to her daily routine cause distress. Whilst she can cope at school behaviour wise, she's vey keen to follow the rules, when she returns home from school we see a very different picture. She frequently goes into meltdowns and similar to a lot of ASD children, she bottles up emotions in the day but once the top is off, we see an eruption.

She has been motivated at school to achieve success through a points system. However she has achieved all available to her and she s very confused as to why this cannot continue. We have tried to explain but her rigidity in thinking cannot compute what we  saying. She is often vacant at home. She frequently spins and asking her why, she says it relaxes her. She will watch TV stood on her head as it is comfy.

She struggles with friendships and emotions. Children will ask her to play but she does not know how to respond and appears rude.

She obsesses with interests for months on end until complete over saturation.

Advice appreciated.

Parents
  • NAS 36796 asks: 

    Is my daughter autistic?

    I at least would say Yes, if all of what you say is true.

    Please pay an attention to all that you say in the last half of your starting Post, there. Then suggest all of that ("oddness") to a GP and ask for a referral towards Official Diagnosis.

    That you are here in this Forum is a good thing. (Someone else may next give a less hastey reply than myself (!).)

  • Thanks for thoughts. We had been to see the GP a couple of years back. This was following a negative obsession with doors. She had been accidentally been stuck in a school toilet. What resulted was huge anxiety around unfamiliar doors. We could not even get her to go into the local supermarket as she would meltdown at the thought of going through the entrance. The GP at the time heard these concerns plus others and said it would be more than likely that he would be seeing her again.

    We were fortunate that an experienced SENDCo taught her last year and managed her really well.

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  • Thanks for thoughts. We had been to see the GP a couple of years back. This was following a negative obsession with doors. She had been accidentally been stuck in a school toilet. What resulted was huge anxiety around unfamiliar doors. We could not even get her to go into the local supermarket as she would meltdown at the thought of going through the entrance. The GP at the time heard these concerns plus others and said it would be more than likely that he would be seeing her again.

    We were fortunate that an experienced SENDCo taught her last year and managed her really well.

Children