Hi I'm just looking for some advice about whether my daughter may have a form of autism.
**warning this is going to be lengthy, sorry!**
I haven't found anyone that I know that has a good understanding of autism spectrums and thought asking here would be my best chance of understanding if I'm overeacting or not!
My daughter is 2years and 9 months old and I started noticing something was different when she was 18 months old. From being 1 she hated people wouldn't even look at anyone and would panic and cry if someone spoke to her. She wouldn't go to anyone and still wont. Even at her current age she still hides her face and wont respond to people when they speak to her she will just respond with baby noises.
She was always way to advanced on her speech and her development was walking at 10 months old and saying 5 worded sentences at around 20months aswell as counting to 10.
Once she got to 2 she started suddenly acting different she become overly clingy then normal I had to carry her everywhere (I still do!) and her speech reverted rapidly.. she reverted to only being able to string together 2 worded sentences which then became 3 words and now its 4 at nearly 3 years (which I know is normal but it wasnt for her).
At the time her speech reverted she also started babbling. Nower days her speech generally consists of mostly babble with a few words thrown in.
For instance if she was talking about her book she would say *babble* the cat *babble* because *babble babble babble* but she can manage 2 worded sentences without babbling. I've noticed lately that she has lost some words out of her vocabulary.
She also has major ocd with mess and cant stand if something is messy she will litterly clean it up or have a meltdown. She has always lined toys up or other objects and has to have everything in the same routine or it will upset her.
I generally have to tell her 4hrs before we go out anywhere and have to repeatedly say that we are going such and such place so she is prepared. She will still be anxious but not as bad to the point of meltdown.
To be honest I thought that she had an excellent imagination but it's just dawned on me that everything she does in pretend play is actually what's either happened that day or in the past.
The only thing she plays is pretend play for instance her kitchen or dolls house, but it's always the same routine she spends more time setting it up and then when she does play it's the same game. With her dolls it's always mummy's and daddy's with the same storyline or she plays cafe with the same storyline.
I have noticed recently that she also hits her head alot but never tied it in as she is normally jumping around when she does so. She also moves her feet and legs alot if shes sitting down or standing still. She does look at faces but shes not looking at your eyes she is looking through you.
Now the meltdowns.. the meltdowns have become a real struggle .. I noticed a pattern when she cant think of a certain word or cant think of way to do something she goes into an extreme panic. This then turns into her screaming,kicking, hitting herself, banging her head. Nothing will calm her down when shes like this it's like shes not even there I just have to let her let it all out whilst comforting her... the longest was 2hrs! They have become so frequent lately about 8 a week.
I'm really struggling to work out what's going on as people are just telling me she is shy, a winge, needs discipline, molly coddled, she will grow out of it and is badly behaved. I'm struggling as I have my own mental health issues so I dont no if I'm over thinking because of my anxiety or whether something might be up?
Any insight will be lovely as I am really at a dead end!
Thank you!
(Sorry again for the length)
