My 2-y-old daughter got a DX, well not really...

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I've already posted that I was pretty sure that our daughter is on the autistic spectrum and that the psic seemed to agree, but now we have finished the DX process (at least for now) and here are the results:

After 5 meeting our psicologist has finally gave us the DX of our daughter. The result are somewhat expected but they are still strange to read.

Remember that the DX process started when my daughter was between 21 and 22 months old (now she is 23).
First the result of "ability" test. The test done by our psic has 4 topic:

object manipulation: 25 months "real" age.
language: 21 months "real" age.
body language skill: 20 months "real" age.
social skill: 12 months "real" age.

So basically from skill alone she can only tell that the social behavior is back for his age (and a lot scattered) but overall she doesn't have any "real" impairment.

She also did an "autistic" test for her strange behaviour. The overall result was "normal" (but in the overlap zone for Asperger) but single partial results were not. Basically she seems autistic if you consider language use and some part of behaviour alone but not in the overall, for istance she is expansive with adults (smiling, kissing, etc..), she does eye contact and things like that.

So is she NT? No. That's what she said. She said that from test "alone" she can be NT but given her experience if she must bet, she will say that our daughter is Aspie also if "subclinical" for her age. In fact she asked to meet her every 2 mounth to follow our daughter development. She also said that her language is normal (given the test) the problem why it seems underdeveloped to everybody is that our daughter has a congnitive age of 4 years (she already know how to count for istance, she was not tested with an IQ test, is too young, the psic said that looking at her kind of playing/behaviour) so the problem is created not by the single-field development but for the fact that it's skewed too much. Also she said 2-y-old test are made to DX classic autism or things like that but she have noticed many "strange" things not included on those test like sound/touch hypersensitivity, toe-walking and routine-breaking problems + the will to make her do what she want in order to reach "order" and "determinability".

Basically she said that her overall impression is that our daughter has an Aspie brain-wiring but without a significative impairment a at this age she can say so only based on impression because there is not enough back-ground to really test her that way expecially because for the moment she don't have some of the distinctive "behavioral" problem (like eye-contact).

From an operative point of view apart from going there every 2 mounths she said to us to trying avoiding noisy place or with a lot of people (expecially children) but trying to mix her in a controlled environment (for istance with 1-2 child). Read her "social stories" and make her see repetitive TV-shot with child stories and worlds (she think that our daughter has an auditory processing disorder because is true that she say enough word for her age but she mainly try to comunicate with sounds like "brum", "crash", "click", "slam", etc.. and say the other words in a very "distorted" way).
Expecially she want to continue seeing her because she said that also if now there is no significative impairment when putted in school or simply growing up it is not so sure.

What do you think?

The "coolest" things is that after talking with us for a while she said: "Ok, so... when you two can come for a DX" So probably I (and my wife) will have an official DX soon

She could just have aspie traits but not enough to be on the spectrum.

Yes it could be but what made it strange is that the psic wants to follow her (and it's not about money because really she takes a very very small fee, like 30$ for 1 hour).
Its more like: she is absolubtly not classic-mild autistic, she is probably Aspie, but she is too young to get a proper DX, so... wait and repeat

I think the reason she wants to monitor your daughter's progress is because more difficulties may become apparent as demands increase. When your daughter starts school, more difficulties may show up is an example. If your daughter starts having problems, they will be identified quickly so accommodations can be made. She's a very lucky little girl.

It is simply too young to tell. Pretty rare to gat a diagnosis at this stage.

Yes its what I think about it, expecially because for the moment she loves going to our psicologist so it's not "traumatic" for her, the psic seems very caring.

Far too young.

Psychologists need to make a living and the practice of Psychology is a business like any other. All of this sounds like the psychologist is simply trying to drum up business in any way that she can. I hope you have good health insurance.

2 is the age my parent took me to see someone. They said it was too early to tell. Of course I didn't get diagnosed till 25-26 but that is another story. I think you should go back at 3 and 4. Main thing is don't give up.

I do not believe that it is possible to make an effective diagnosis earlier than about age 5 or 6. One can certainly identify traits, and set out an investigative path to watch behaviours, and support the development of deficient skills, but a solid diagnosis of a place on the spectrum will take more time, I believe.

That being said, I think that some of this early work is valuable if it helps you understand your child, and support your child's development.

I agree that 2 is too early to tell, even though pretty much all of us could say, looking backwards, that there was always something different. I wonder, because your daughter has such a high chance of genetic disposition, if what the psic(?) really wants to do is study her. Not so much for your families knowledge, but to expand understanding of how a how a high functioning child developes. Professionals aren't often closely involved at those early stages, and the information is often drawn from later parent interviews. If that is part of what is driving her recommendations, it will depend on your own philosophies and time/financial constraints as to if you want your child to be a part of that.

My son wasnt diagnosed with Asperger's until he was 6, I dont think its until they go to school and develop a bit more that it becomes more obvious. My husband told the Psychologist at the regional center (where both my kids were diagnosed) that I was diagnosed with Aspergers a few months before, when she first interviewed him. She then interviewed me after my son then called my husband back in alone and said to him, I do believe your son has Asperger's and I have no doubt that your wife does. Autism can be diagnosed at a very young age. My daughter wasnt diagnosed until she was nearly three but that was mainly my fault and my doctors. Maybe its because I have Aspergers, even though my psychiatrist thinks that if I had been born in this day and age I would have been diagnosed with Autism, I dont notice like maybe an NT mother would but one would think that after five kids I would have noticed something. It was my husband that first became concerned when she was about one and a half but the doctor said she was fine. She never pointed, did not respond to her name, did not wave, lined toys and cans and anything else she could get her hands on, spun around in circles for hours, watched TV with her forehead pressed against the screen, did not speak other than babble and animal noises, and she has always had her rituals and sensory problems. I am thankful we got her diagnosed before three because otherwise she would have missed out on all the early intervention services that she got. Asperger's is more difficult to diagnose because some of the symptoms are not there yet when they are really young. My son is now 7 and when you see him in his social group with the other Aspies it is very obvious that he has Asperger's, and even more so when you put him in with NT kids.

Psic stand for psicologist

Well her is the major expert of Asperger/Autism in Italy is a sort of "autority" like Atwood in USA, well apart that I had the same idea as you and I told it to my wife but we agreed that if she want to study us, well, there is no problem. Pratically speaking we are both scientist and we love doing experiment, our daughter is really happy when she goes to our psicologist so it's absolubtly not traumatic for her. Also the price seems low (30$) so yes, probably she want to follow what she think is a "high functioning family" (she want to test both me and my wife for Asperger) and follow the development of a child from early times to gather data, etc.. but it's ok for us.

Psic stand for psicologist

Well her is the major expert of Asperger/Autism in Italy is a sort of "autority" like Atwood in USA, well apart that I had the same idea as you and I told it to my wife but we agreed that if she want to study us, well, there is no problem. Pratically speaking we are both scientist and we love doing experiment, our daughter is really happy when she goes to our psicologist so it's absolubtly not traumatic for her. Also the price seems low (30$) so yes, probably she want to follow what she think is a "high functioning family" (she want to test both me and my wife for Asperger) and follow the development of a child from early times to gather data, etc.. but it's ok for us.

My son was "diagnosed" as having global developmental delays at age 14 months, but even TEACCH doesn't diagnose autism until 3 years old. So even though he was much more obviously autistic to me when he was young, (classic autism, didn't speak or point or anything) they still say they can't and won't diagnose at that age. So when he was 3 he got his real diagnosis of autism even though he was much higher functioning at that time. Seems like 3 would be the standard, as I was told this by TEACCH which is the autism authority for North Carolina.

She did an autism-test usable since 2 y old, but basically it's "crossed" with my daughter "problems", that test doesn't test for istance OCD or sensory issue, the psicologist said (as yours) that a more valid test can be done not before 3 years old.