AS Parents

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Hey all...

Just wanted to hear from parents about what your AS child was (or is) like at age 4-6...

What were/are their issues and what does a typical day look like for them?

I have a 5 year old who we highly suspect is AS. His evaluate is 12/15.

Thanks!!

MY son had no issues - other than he was highly intelligent, could do up to 15 x tables in his head and knew ever number of every single bus and where it went to in the greater London area. Oh he had a couple of probs with his fine motor skills which hampered handwriting. Other than that - happy , healthy and I thought - sociable. Eye contact was fine back then too!

It was only when he was older that his teacher suggested he was AS around 10 or 11.

my youngest is 4, will be 5 in february, and he has classic autism rather than asperger's.

speech: formal speech patterns, used to echo phrases back to you when spoken to but that is almost gone. has started story telling in the past few months, still impaired in ability to sustain conversation, but will answer questions willingly although with often with short scripted answers. interprets speech very literally. he receives speech therapy as he has a severe intelligibility issue and is very hard to understand, but not sure this is related to autism as my oldest had a similar yet more severe issue.

physical: receives OT for fine motor issues, finally able to trace letters, altho they come out shaky. clumsy and often unaware of where his body is in space. he loves to bounce and spin, is quite often running or jumping around, has trouble staying still if he doesnt have something he is intently focused on. he flaps a little bit, mostly when excited and running.

sensory: very tactile, must touch everything. oral sensory seeker also, likes to chew on things, lick slick objects like wet cars or glass doors. always seeking input, likes to lay on the floor or lean on people or furniture. has trouble interpreting body signals so is still not potty trained and shows no signs of being able, but willingly sits on the potty at school without actually going. has recently started doing vocalizations, especially when lying down to go to sleep, he will make soft little grunty noises to himself.

peer relationships: none. he plays with his 6 yr old brother, but outside of family he doesnt interact. he will parallel play beside other children at preschool, but does not play WITH children. his interactions are generally limited to trying to correct their behavior when they are doing something wrong. this also upsets him as he does not like talking to other kids, and feels forced to when they do things wrong and he "has" to correct them.

academics: very bright and ahead of most students in his class in knowledge, but behind in application such as writing due to his motor issues.

a typical day, he gets up, goes to school, comes home. his free time is spent playing video games, playing with legos, looking at books, or playing with his brother. overall, his day is like a typical child, but when you look at the small individual moments, things are different. little meltdowns when transitioning from one activity to another at school, emotional upset when his legos wont stay together, refusing to eat anything but peaches for dinner, etc. we are noticing autism specific traits are increasing as he gets older, and he is developing a few more stims and sensory seeking behaviors.

thats the stuff all the professionals want to know about. to us, he is a beautiful, happy, loving, smart little boy who is absolutely perfect in our eyes =) altho i could do without changing diapers at this point!

Now that I have a little time, I will tell you all about my son (I had posted quick on my lunch break from work earlier, lol)...

My son turned 5 back in October. We've noticed things being a little atypical with him since about a year old, probably a bit younger...At one year old he was stacking items repeatedly, he also spent a lot of time sorting things and lining things up. To this day he lines things up daily, things have to stay lined up...he freaks out if they get knocked out of line. He's never slept well, although he's taking Melatonin at bedtime and now sleeping decent. He has TONS of energy and if he is awake he is moving. He is undoubtedly hyperactive.

He is fascinated by numbers...Will look at books just for the numbers on the page. He's taught himself addition and subtraction and can add or subtract 0-10 with number 0-999 (probably beyond). He's taught himself to count forward and backward to 100 and beyond. He LOVES digital clocks and timers, thermometers, etc; he likes to watch numbers change on these things...If there is something cooking in the microwave he will stand there and watch the times til it is done. His passion is NASCAR. He talks about it all the time...knows WAY more than ANY 5 year old should. He could talk about it ALL day, doesn't matter how bored anyone is of it.

He has a lot of anxiety...Will get anxious and rock (standing or sitting) and do other repetitive movements. Sometimes when he is upset or anxious he will bite or hit himself. He also is aggressive to others at times. He tends to be very edgy and little things can really set him off easy. He is very impulsive and has a super low frustration tolerance. He is refusing to go to the bathroom anywhere but home, and he is in childcare 5 days a week...So he holds it from about 7:00am to 5:00pm 5 days a week...

He wants everything to be just so and hates changes. He expects people and animals to do what he wants them to do and not what they want to do.

He does have a diagnosis of developmental coordination disorder/dyspraxia and SPD. J's fine and gross motor skills are delayed; fine is more delayed than gross, although he does seem to have an abnormal gait based on the wear on his shoes (MAJOR wear on the RIGHT part of both heels - so on the left foot it is the inside of the heel and on the right foot is on the outside of the heel while the rest of his sole looks nearly new).

The area that I'm not so sure he meets is social - he is interested in other kids but can't really seem to relate with them (he'll go up and say something like "I have a lot of cars" and go on about facts - things he has, likes, is interested in) the kids usually walk off and he follows them around. With adults he is VERY outgoing but not exactly in a good way...He "shows off" and goes on and on about stuff (generally numbers and/or NASCAR).

Overall his speech is normal, but he seems to have trouble with hearing (or saying) differences in similar words (pace/paste and others that are slipping my mind at the moment). He has some difficulty with stuttering - his mind seems to go faster than his mouth a lot of times. I've wondered if he has an auditory processing disorder.

Like I said, he has an evaluation in less than 2 weeks.

I think that about sums it up...Hope it makes sense - I've had to get up a million times while typing this, so I may very well have missed something or said something twice, if so I apologize!

It all sounds very, very similar to my son who's almost 6 and has been diagnosed with AS. His behaviors have changed a bit over the last year or so. He doesn't line things up constantly anymore, but he always has Legos in his hands these days. He has some anxiety and is easily frustrated, but he's not very hyperactive or aggressive. His speech is more delayed though. It seems to be related to his conversations revolving around his special interests. He uses vocabulary that he doesn't quite understand or know how to say properly.

He has his own bathroom issues too, but just with poo (sorry if TMI). He always holds it in, for days at a time. He even has similar feet/gait issues. His feet are very flat and his ankles roll in, a lot. We've seen several specialists about it and each one tells us something different. The advise has ranged from "he'll grow out of it" to "he needs surgery." We're still unsure about what to do (he hasn't grown out of it).

The social aspects sound identical my son's. Just substitute Legos for NASCAR. My little guy loves numbers too.