Possible AS

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Hello, I'm new here. I have four children and my second youngest has been showing signs of AS, or possibly another PDD. The pedi said based on the information I relayed to him regarding my sons quirks that it souds like AS, ADHD, or OCD. I myself have slight OCD (compared to others) and my dad had it as well. Anyway, I have been researching information on Asperger's Syndrome and find that my son has many of the same characteristics, but not all. One of his main things to do is line things up: cars (his favorite), coins, business cards, etc...He will do this for hours at a time and has a order to them, although I've never figured it out. Or just lay there and roll the cars in front of his face and watch the wheels turn. I have had friends tell me their child complained that my Jack won't play with them. He often prefers to be alone and can tune people out very easily. He can start out playing with others and then go off in his own little world which confuses his friends. I have always had people tell me since he was a year old that: "he's gonna be an engineer or something!" He gives a great deal of attention to detail and is very focused. He loves match games, and patterns. He can pick out a pattern very quickly. I've heard getting an offical DX is time consuming and he is only 3 1/2 years old. What do you think, does it sound like AS? Or something else? The pedi said not to worry about it until he is school age. My question is should I be doing something now? Maybe working on his focus in like a school type setting? I just don't want him to struggle with school if he does have this. He has difficult staying on task or doing chores, he gets distracted very easily and I often find him lining up his cars instead of doing something else that he was just asked to do.

Thanks for listening!

Most people with Asperger's have only some of the symptoms so there is a very good chance he has it. Sorry for such a short response, I'm on the way out the door.

Hi - it's great that you're noticing these things already, when he's so young! I agree that you shouldn't "worry" or "stress" about it, but keep your radar up. I also suggest that you make regular notes of what he's like in a journal, so that you can see what he's really good at and what he has trouble with, and how he progresses, and have a record of it for future reference. I did that with my son, just as part of being a Mom, and I was really glad to have that info later!

It does sound like he has some Aspie traits. The ones that may make his life difficult later are related to non-verbal communication, socialization, and possibly sensory integration. So I highy recommend that you encourage and support his strengths, and help him with those weaknesses. I would not force him to socialize or do things he doesn't want to. But I would deliberately explain to him "what people do and why they do it." There are little behavioral things that most people pick-up intuitively, but many Aspies don't. TEACH HIM everything, don't just assume he will get it. And help him understand emotions, his own and others'. When you see a sad or angry or happy person, point them out, and talk to him about how they probably feel, and how you know that.

I'll never forget my son, at about 7, when I told him how his Dad was feeling about something, he asked me very pointedly, "How do you know that?" I could see then how much trouble he had empathizing. Aspies can learn social cues and clues and appropriate behavior, and early intervention is the most effective.

Best wishes!

I can't imagine why your ped would want to wait on getting a dx. Are you in the US? There can be lots of great resources for early intervention - depending on where you are.

I wish we had known much sooner - it would have made elementary school a lot easier for our son. We didn't get a dx until he was 10.5, and it took us some time after that to get the "hang" of how to work with him best.

One thing in our household (hubby is on the spectrum as well) is that I have to be careful about what I say. Both of the aspies in my house take everything you say literally. Not all do, but many will. We had a lot of rain recently, and had I said something like "all this rain looks like it will carry our house off", my son, despite being highly intelligent, wouldn't sleep for fear the house would slide away.

An AS dx doesn't require the child have ALL the listed behaviors - just some. This is why each child with AS will present so differently.

Thanks for all your replies. I think the journal thing is a good idea.
aspiesmom1-We are in the US. I'm not sure why he wanted to wait, although he said the cost of an evaluation is extremely high and no one in our area accepts our Insurance. I guess I could just watch him closely, making notes of things I see. Having this board and reading about how you guys deal with and help your children really helps me. I will definetly learn many things here to help Jack. And if it turns out he doesn't really have it then no harm done either way. Again thanks for taking the time to respond. I'm sure I will have more questions to come.

lots of old school drs don't want to dx unless they see soething radical before the age of 6 or 7....evals are quite costly, and perhaps the dr is thinking son will " grow out of these behaviors"... my daughter's idiosyncracies have always been chalked up to being "immature".

My opinion is if you delay the diagnoses, then dont delay it too long. It sometimes takes a couple of years for the school system to jump on board. In a year or so, try a preschool or headstart program. Then you would maybe get a referral from a teacher. Also try going through your states health department. They sometimes wave the fees for those who cant pay or charge on a sliding scale (in my area).

That makes me mad that he said to wait, because our ped also said the same thing. Although it is too late for you, for others out there- state early intervention services will pay for everything if your child is diagnosed with anything on the spectrum before the age of 3. After that, you can go through the local school district, but their services are more limited because they only deal with problems that may affect the child's learning in the classroom.

If I were you, I would seriously consider going to your school district now. Our son, who is now 2 yrs, 9 months, has sensory problems to gravity (vestibular) and his own body movements (proprioceptive) that I didn't know that he had. (I knew he had auditory and visual issues.) Occupational therapy at an early age may help him overcome some of his insecurities, which affect the way he reacts to other children on the playground because their noise and movements overwhelm him. If you don't want to do that, at least get an eval from an occupational therapist trained is sensory processing disorder.

Our ped said that Aspergers wasn't diagnosable until the age of 8ish, so we were thinking of waiting too. But the motor planning problems were causing physical delays as well, so we went ahead and did the testing and our son ended up with a PDD-NOS diagnosis. He is now getting physical and occupational therapy, behavior therapy, preschool 3x's a week, and possibly speech (we are still waiting to see the results of that eval.) I can't tell you how much these have helped his confidence in such a short time. HIs therapists say that at this age they are developing all kinds of new brain connections that they don't do forever. That is the whole point of the early intervention services.

Thanks for all the advice. I was actually thinking about contacting the school about preschool and seeing what they think about Jack trying that out. It couldn't hurt and then if they notice the things I do and can give a referral that might get the ball rolling on the early intervention. It worries me to wait until he is school age because if he does have issues that interfere with learning then we will have further delays due to getting a proper placement. Thanks for the support and advice I really appreciate all of them.