Early signs of Autism

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I agree, which is why I haven't gotten either of my children assessed, yet. I've caught some flack for that from those that advocate early intervention, but I don't care.

I think one would have to be careful to not judge the video as an incorrect assessment of THEIR child, but instead make the point about concern over any attempt to generalize to OTHER children. Parents of little kids are already in far too much panic over Autism, and not all kids who do has AS need early intervention; sometimes they mostly need mom to take them as they are for a few years. My standard advice to every parent who overly obsesses on it, lol.

My daughter never flapped until recently... Now she just does it a little bit when she's frustrated. She did, in retrospect, have some early signs of autism. As an infant she was often very quiet and could play with the one toy for ages. She had an unusual-sounding cry; it was extremely loud and forced like she was using all her lung power. She hated anything on her legs and would pull her legs out of her rompers and kick blankets off... She still cannot tolerate clothing below the knees and will only wear skirts, dresses or shorts. Her face didn't make much expression when she was an infant and sometimes she'd look like she was in a trance.
She was diagnosed with HFA at age 5.

My brother used to flap his hands when excited. He did it right up to his late teens. He also walked on his toes. However, he has never received an ASD diagnosis. I personally believe that he's on the spectrum but the rest of my family disagree. He's in his late 20s now and still 'different' to his peers in a lot of ways.

Context.

This video is too short and too limited to decide if it is really representative of early autistic behaviour. However, most videos with such titles usually are posted years after-the-fact, by parents whose children are now older and show more obvious signs of autism.

They get a diagnosis when the child is five, and they go back over their old home videos looking for "signs".
Little snippets like this is usually what they post.

Alternately, this video could represent a "glimpse" of the constant, repetitive actions of this particular child. Perhaps she watches the same 1/2 hr video, stepping in the same half circle, clapping and patting in the same exact way, for five hours every day. In that case the parent is just showing a small segment of a long, fixed behaviour.


Finally, it could be just what it looks like; a little girl who likes elmo and is excited when her favourite show comes on.

Or, it could be all three.

Context.

Hmmm. I don't disagree with any of the comments on the videos, but when I read the OP's description of her kids as hand flapping, head banging, toe-walking, AND lining things up - I would have to disagree with waiting for an assessment in that case. When you add all those indicators together... there would seem to be good reason for an assessment. Waiting for problems to show up in school is not, in my opinion, a wise approach. It will make things harder, not easier, for your child in the long run.

*shrug* If it ends up being the wrong thing to do, I'll deal with the consequences then. For now, my children seem to be doing well. They just have some quirks.

We all make choices as parents that might end up adversely affecting our children later in life. All we can do is make the one we think is best at the time.

This is very true. I'm certainly not saying that child's behavior on the clip was not Autistic. Just that the video itself could give worrying parents a false impression of Autistic signs.

Yes indeed Earl Grey. But I felt exactly as you did when my son was little - except he had NO signs of autism - no stims, no perseverations, nothing. He was just extremely bright and extremely hard to keep up with, and yes - quirky - which I still love about him. But he hit grade 1 and all hell broke loose at school, his self-esteem dissintigrated, he went from that same happy you describe, to the most broken, depressed, angry little guy you've ever met - all because no one understood him - not even me - because we didn't know he was autistic. I had to pull him out of school, homeschool for a year, get 3 teachers fired, and write a bazillion letters to my government reps to rectify the damage the system had done to him.

If I could have prevented that with early assessment, I would go back in time in an instant.

I know how you feel. But there is nothing wrong with an autism assessment, or an autism label. All children deserve to be understood and respected for who they really are.

Some children grow out of their stims and never have any problems in school. Sure, at a later date I will tell them of the possibility if I do not need a diagnosis for them. I'm certainly not going to leave them in the dark.

I just think in many cases, early intervention isn't really the right way to go.

EarlGrey you are right. We are all doing the best that we can as parents and are all trying the best to make the right decisions for them. The only thing I can share is that I am so thankful that my son was diagnosed early (2.5 yrs old) He was able to get the services that have helped him progress to where he is. He has had an IEP in place since he was 3, so that has been helpful. My son never toewalked or head banged, he only hand flapped. The biggest clue for us was in his language patterns and his lack of interest in his peers. You are right, some children do outgrow these things. At least if there are problems in school later on, then I guess you won't be totally surprised.

That looks (to me) like normal arm movement excitement. It doesn't scream ASD! ASD! No.

My son is 10 and flaps when he is excited and when he runs. When I say flap, I don't mean like a bird's wings. He holds his arms next to his body and flaps his hands. It looks very awkward. He has been doing this since he was very young. Some people said to me about my son: 'He looks gay', 'He is going to get beat up in school', etc.. I actually tried to get him to stop when he was young, but no matter what he still did it, and still does.

First video: Crap. This kid is trying to immitate the characters jumping oon the television - shhe is absolutely focusing on the tv and interested in what's on it. Only her body's smart enough to know she's not coordinated enough to jump yet.

Second video: You can clearly see the child is losing focus on the book and moving the hands in no relation to any specific activity or stimulus around her.

As for diagnosis age.. well..
I'm seeing a shrink on friday for an official diagnosis, but have been coming to this website since January, and discovering all sorts of clarity about myself and my failures in connecting to social situations over the course of my life. Not just with school, but with my parents, siblings, etc... But I HAVE survived and pretty well, I think. In fact I believe I've learned a lot of 'fitting in' strategies on my own over the years that I might not have acquired had I not been forced out into the world by my parents... I'm 34 and suspect (know) I'm on the ASD spectrrum - not only through social history but also by memory, logic patterns, sensory issues, etc...

So I would support the idea of putting off a diagnosis. I would also support the idea of seeking the diagnosis once / if you start noticing trouble fitting into the learning process / groups. (Or problems with teachers - which I had a lot of). Each child (just like NT kids) needs to be handled specific to them. I'm just glad there are so many more people aware of ASD now... I only wish I had stumbled upon this world ten or twenty years ago.

I would say that she's hearing music, and responding to that.
Watch it again and assume that there's music playing. Would her behaviour look so odd if you could hear the music too?

At 0.46 the little hand signal is probably telling the other kid "talking too loud". And the second look is reinforcement.

And if she can't switch the music off, it doesn't really surprise me that she cannot clearly hear what the other person is asking. Although since "Disney" is an interesting enough concept, she is trying.

She could be replaying something from school/nursery or from TV. The pacing is very much like you would get in a kid's TV, where there is music, singing, explanation, "Now you try it.", etc.
The pauses are intervals. But you can see that she's listening. The whole thing is rhythmical.

She is not 'just flapping mindlessly', it's a sensory response. And if I saw that behaviour, my first thought would be to ask what she was listening to. But perhaps you need to know what replaying auditory eidetic memory feels like from the inside in order to recognise it? It's like having a real-time video (with or without images) playing in your head. As real as the first experience.

The first video looks like a very young child responding to the TV.

btw, Yoga is great for 'sensory' kids (and dyspraxia).

I agree, ladyrain.