Hi, I am a mother of a 23 month old and
curious about some ways he has been acting
lately. I have a 2 year check up for him
on the 8th of february, and was planning
on talking to the doc about some concerns
I have been having, but with my past
experiences with other problems I have
learned that sometimes being prepared with
the right questions is best. So I figured
I would post on here and get some opinions
from others on this issue. I have been
reading up alot on autism, and have read
that no 2 autistic kids are the
same....But maybe somet things he has been
doing may look familiar to some people??
Also if there was things that your
children did that you wouldnt have thought
of would be helpful too, because I have
discovered through reading that some
things my son has been doing other
autistic kids do.....So anything is
helpful. These are the things he has been
doing that have been concerning me.
He is very very picky about what he eats
and has been since day one, and will only
eat a couple different foods. Alot of
people have told me he will eat when he is
hungry, but he wont. He will act hungry
and I will offer him whatever I have
cooked for the rest of the family, and he
will look at it and yell no.
He hits himself in the head, in the face,
pulls out his hair when frustrated (which
seems like he is always frustrated)
from the age of 6 mos he will not cuddle,
or sit on anyones lap or show any kind of
affection, and rejects affection when you
try to give it to hiim.
He doesnt seem to know the difference
between when I am happy with him or upset
with him.
He only says a few words, and the wards he
does say are not the right way....For
example, thank you is : duh duh, all done
is : ahda, more is : ma, I love you is :
I wa. , and help is: ah huh ah huh ah
huh. The only other words he knows is
mama, and da (means dad).
He has been making a hyperventalating
noise when ever he wants something even
when he is not frustrated.
He uses the word no in two different ways.
He uses in the right way when he doesnt
want something, but also says : "no no no
no no" when he wants something. He seems
to say the word over and over and over,
same with when he wants help he says "ah
huh ah huh ah huh ah huh".
He doesnt know how to follow any
directions.
He will only sleep in a completely silent
and dark room by himself.
Does this sound "normal" to anyone? I am
only 21, and this is my first child, my
second is only 6 weeks old right now. I
know 2 year olds can be very defiant and
go through the "terrible 2" stage, but to
me he just doesnt seem right compared to
other kids.
Also, I forgot to add that when we go
places in the car he is completely silent
the whole trip and doesnt make a sound and
just stares foreward. Even on long trips.
We recently took a 3000 mile trip and
drove prettey much the whole day and
stopped only at night to sleep. And the
whole trip he stared foreward with a blank
look, didnt care to play with toys and
didnt say a word.
Any advice would be helpful. And maybe if
some of the things I have mentioned sound
familiar you could let me know that it is
important to make sure I let my doc know.
I figure as many things as I can think of
to tell him would be good.
Thanks for your help,
laurie
|
jenweric
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 12 Location: pa
Autism Posted: 02-13-06 22:51pm
Hi,
i have worked with autistic kids for
years. No, it doesn't sound like your son
is autistic. My son, who is around the
same age, does the same things. That's
normal. Autism is turning into mass
hysteria!! It's crazy.
Now, at that age, kids with autism do not
respond when his/her name is called. They
act like they are deaf. If your son is
responding to his name and looks in your
direction when you talk to him, most
likely he is not autistic. I hope that
helps.
Jen
|
mommyx2
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Posts: 20 Location: Arkansas
Posted: 02-13-06 22:57pm
Ok, thankyou for your opinion. Should I
be conscerned at all about the way he is
acting and not talking? I feel so
frustrated, and I feel the frustration in
him with not being able to communicate.
People have told me to try reading to him,
but he gets very very angry when I try and
doesnt want me to. When I try to teach
him the right words,or tell him the right
word to say for something (instead of just
grunting) he gets very frustrated as if I
am telling him no. Did your son have any
kind of speach therapy to help him??
|
jenweric
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 12 Location: pa
Behavior Posted: 02-14-06 12:20pm
Hi again,
no, I wouldn't be concerned, but if you
are, take him to a doctor to get checked
out. He is only 23 months old. Some kids
don't start talking until they are 2 1/2
or 3 yrs old. There is such a wide range
in developmental milestones. Don't go by
the books, either. My son didn't start
walking until 19 months!! And he is
normal. Don't go by me 100% because I
never actually saw your son, so it's worth
getting him checked anyway.
|
jaycmartin
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 20 Feb 2006 Posts: 2
Re: Behavior Posted: 02-20-06 14:34pm
jenweric
wrote:
hi again,
no, I wouldn't be concerned, but if you
are, take him to a doctor to get checked
out. He is only 23 months old. Some
kids don't start talking until they are 2
1/2 or 3 yrs old. There is such a wide
range in developmental milestones. Don't
go by the books, either. My son didn't
start walking until 19 months!! And he
is normal. Don't go by me 100% because
I never actually saw your son, so it's
worth getting him checked
anyway.
i also have a son with similar issues.
We heard the same thing when he was 3 that
he may just be a late starter. Sadly he
is now 5 and still can't communicate
properly. We (his parents) are
frustrated with the doctors and medical
experts as none have told us exactly what
our child's problem is. Our child can't
be the first to have this problem so why
not just tell us? If he is autistic we
want to know and if he's mentally retarded
we want to know. We have a daughter 2
years younger who is perfectly normal so
we can easily draw comparisons and know
that something is obviously wrong.
Maybe someone on this forum can help.
Our son plays with his toys in a very
idiosyncratic way. He lays flat with his
cheek on the carpet and stares at the side
of his toy cars. He can't handle
multiple requests. For example if we say
"put the spoon in the sink and the paper
in the trash" both items might end up in
the sink or trash. If you ask "did you
have fun at school today?" he will usually
say "school today" if you ask him
questions he will usually repeat the last
word of the question instead of answering
it. "what are you eating?" answer
"eating" instead of "apple sauce." he
can't do the homework his teacher sends
home. He had to count objects and circle
the number but when he counts he almost
always skips an object and ends up with 9
apples instead of 10. He is in
kindergarten with normal kids.
We think he is autistic but we don't have
phds. We're just parents. He has had an
mri on his brain and an ekg to test his
brain waves. All tests ok. Doctors say
he is not autistic. He was attending
speech therapy but the cost got
overwhelming with our other essential
bills. We will start sending him again
if we can't find a special school with
financial aid for kids like him.
Hopefully someone can tell us something -
anything.
|
jenweric
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 12 Feb 2006 Posts: 12 Location: pa
Autism Posted: 02-20-06 20:28pm
Hi,
i am not qualified to diagnose your son,
but I have worked with lots of kids in the
autism spectrum. Have you ever heard of
pdd(pervasive developmental disorder)??
Kids who are given the label "autistic"
have specific traits taken from the dsm
book(a guide for psychologists). However,
children who have some traits from the
autism diagnosis but not all, may be
diagnosed as pdd. You may want to look
into that more.
There are programs, funded by the state,
like provider 50 services for kids in the
autism spectrum. Provider 50 services are
mental health services and they do provide
therapists who do special programs with
pdd/autistic children at your house. I'm
sure they have theses services in all
states. Also, there are school speech
therapists available(you don't have to
pay). I work for a provider 50 program
and we do drills with the children. These
drills are specialized for each child.
Language skills and social skills are
programs in aba(applied behavioral
analysis). So, hopefully this may help a
little!!! Call your human services
hotline in your area and I am sure they
can refer you to a provider 50 program(if
necessary) for an evaluation. But make
sure that the provider 50 business has
specialized autism therapies(discrete
trial or aba). But typically, provider
50 programs are for mental health
cases(bipolar kids, add, adhd,
oppositional defiant disorder,etc)
jen
|
jaycmartin
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 20 Feb 2006 Posts: 2
Posted: 02-22-06 00:08am
Hi jen, thanks so much for your reply.
It is very refreshing to just talk to
someone who seems to understand our
frustration. We were not aware of
"provider 50" programs and will be calling
our local human services to find out more.
Hopefully this new info will begin a
more encouraging journey than our last 4+
years. Thanks again.
|
fireball01
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 10 Apr 2006 Posts: 14 Location: worthing
Posted: 04-13-06 12:05pm
Ive got asbergers which is a form of
autism,
it sort of sounds like a form of adhd but
not to certain because the autistic
spectrum is quite vast, it may also be a
kind of dispraxia or deslexia, but you
should not try to relly on books and stuff
because you will over worry about that, so
I would just tink of a few questions or
the doctor and the go see him and try not
to get worked up over it.
