Autism / Autism Spectrum Support Group
Autism is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder which manifests itself in markedly abnormal social interaction, communication ability, patterns of interests, and patterns of behavior. Although the specific etiology of autism is unknown, many researchers suspect that autism results from genetically mediated vulnerabilities to environmental triggers.
Hello, My son is almost 7. He was diagnosed with ADHD in September 2012. We did behavior therapy, diet change and everything we could to avoid medicine. It came to a point where he was going to flunk out of kindergarten if we didn't do something. So we saw a child psychologist and he put my son on vyvanse. Let me make something clear. We did NOT want to put our son on medicine. But we had to. It was amazing the difference it made. His grades went up and he made it to the passing reading level and in the behavior section of his report card it went from all NF= Needs improvement in this area for the first three grading periods to all S= satisfactory for the last grading period. Then in the summer time we took him off it and started back up right before school started, well it wasn't effective like before so the doctor switched it to metadata. Well he was having more behavior problems so we went to a different doctor and he said my son shows some bipolar behaviors and some autistic behaviors. My son is a happy child and never depressed and isn't really manic either so I think the bipolar thing is off but I have always wondered if he is autistic. He was delayed in everything as a baby, from crawling, walking, talking, didn't like to be cuddled, did a thing with his hands up by his head when he got excited. My 2 year old daughter talks better than my son did when he was 3 1/2. It was hard for me because my oldest son was early to do everything and talking in complete sentences at 2. And my daughter was early to average for doing everything and talks in sentences at 2. At the age of 2 my son with suspected autisim only said a few words. He doesn't like to be touched, he cant stand tags, or the way certain clothes fit, he doesn't like to make eye contact very often, he tried out for football this year but couldn't stand the way the shoulder pads felt against his neck so he quit. My question is could it be aspergers or a different form of autism. I know with all the reading ive done a child with aspergers usually is super smart on one subject, like animals, bugs, music etc, so far my son doesn't seem to be that way about a particular subject. He loves sharks and likes to watch stuff about them on Netflix or the discover chanel and will go on and on about what he saw and learned but I don't think hes fixated on them. I came across a quiz online for aspergers and it said that if 6 out of 10 of your answers coincide with their answers aspergers is highly likely. 8 out of 10 of his answers coincided with their answers.
Lisa-Witt
Hard to say exactly since I'm not a doctor, but it's definitely worth bringing up with your son's docs. Our son was diagnosed as possibly having a whole list of things over the last year, including bipolar, which totally didn't fit. We finally, after a year and a half, have a confident diagnosis of Aspergers and OCD. My son was also delayed compared to my other three kids. He didn't talk until nearly 2 and only a few words until 3, didn't walk until 15 months, never wanted to cuddle to the point that he weaned himself at 6 months old. Never really showed affection until recently, after undergoing some treatments- he has now given me two hugs. Large groups make him uncomfortable and when he gets nervous he covers his face. When it gets really bad he lashes out and says horrible things, though this is an improvement, he used to hit and kick. Now that we know what he has, all the pieces fit together and it makes it easier to know how to help him. Definitely keep trying until you are sure!
Lisa-Witt
I forgot to add, my son is also on honor roll in school. He was failing in regular school, but once he was moved into the special ed program where they could work with him as needed, he started to excel. He reads at an 8th grade level. He doesn't have one area he is stuck on for long term, but he does get fixated for periods of time. There will be one thing he's focused on for a day, a week, a month, to the exclusion of other activities. I also do that though.
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