Early symptoms of Asperger's?

Post Reply New Topic

As an aspie, I was kind of hoping when my daughter was born that she'd be an aspie too. She turned out to be perfectly normal as a baby, though, and was so wonderful that I'm happy with that, too.

At about 20 months - she's 23 months old now - I started noticing some occasional behaviors that are sometimes considered aspie traits. So now I'm curious. The things I've noticed are:

- once or twice I've noticed she had very neatly lined up some toys after she spent some time alone.
- at the park, she frequently watches other kids her age quite carefully, but never seems actually to interact with them.
- she sometimes gets upset when things don't go exactly the way she wants them to - for example when the red baby swing is not available when she wants it at the park, even though the otherwise identical black baby swing is free.

So here's my question for parents who know whether their kids are aspies or not: are these minor things signs that she might be an aspie, or do neurotypical kids also do these things at this age?

Note that I'm just as happy either way; I'm just curious to know as much about my kid as possible.

I was born LF autstic, I became more AS as I grew older. I personaly think all LF autistic children have the possiblity to become more ASish if their parents take the time to work with them on the child's terms and not worry about trying to erase stims and special intrests.

From what you've mentioned, I think it's much too soon to say.

As her parent, she will mirror your behavior whether or not she has a neurological condition, especially communication skills.
I would ask your doctor at what age children typically start forming social relationships with other children. 2 years is really too early to judge much, especially at that age, they are more interested in safely exploring their environment. Their relationship with you should be more pronounced, so I would judge by that if anything.

I think 2 yrs is too early to judge the social interaction with peers, maybe around 2.5 if she still isn't interested, then maybe you should be concerned. At 2.5 my AS son began showing a very obsessive interest in car makes and models. He also flapped his hands. He also did not show interest in playing with kids at 2.5 and still doesn't and he is almost 5. His language continues to improve, but not much social interaction. He has delays in fine and gross motor skills as well.

All I've got to contribute is my personal experience as a parent of two Aspies. A psychologist or psychiatrist would be better for a real diagnosis.

My eldest son was obviously different right from the start. He was seriously overstimulated ALL the time. He would scream in the car, scream when we changed activities, scream just to scream (or so it seemed). He's 13 now and still cries a lot. If there was a fan or object with repetitive movement in the room he would focus on that until the object was no longer visible to him. He was attracted to all things shiny and would even hide small shiny objects in his diaper so we wouldn't take them away from him. We had to search him as we left stores. He ran from thing to thing and was constantly climbing and getting himself into dangerous situations.

My middle son seemed like a dream come true (not that I didn't adore his brother but it was a wild ride trying to keep up with him). He was always hungry but content and happy. He was even cuddly, a nice change from Mr. Runs Away Screaming. He was very social as a toddler and seemed really connected people, but it was really just adults or older children. He would stand off to the side and watch other children play, but we thought he was just shy. He constantly lined things up to make trains. He liked to take similar objects, like things that are the same color or the same shape, or the same kind of animal or whatever, and line them up. He was so different from his brother I never really thought he might have AS, though it was extremely obvious. I've always found him to be extremely charming and enjoy his company a great deal.

As he got older he developed more obvious symptoms. He walks on his tip toes and holds his arms like chicken wings. He has a mild lisp he hasn't outgrown. He is obsessed with sharks and oceanography and will talk indefinitely about those things regardless of signals he is being sent from the listener. He avoids imaginitive play and fictional books. There are other things, but that's enough. He does very well at school but has been very unhappy this year. I brought him to the psychologist for a workup to see if there was some kind of learning problem that might be upsetting him. I can spot an Aspie from a hundred miles, but my own little guy I didn't see that way. I am so crazy about him I think I just see him and not a label.

Your little one sounds a lot like my second son. I'm sure your child be fun, interesting and quirky regardless of neuro status.

My daughter, who we consider to be NT (more or less), did all those things as a very young toddler. Many toddlers do.

So, I answer really is - - too soon to tell. When it comes to kids high on the spectrum you really can't tell until they are older.

Even if your child is NT, she is likely to have some AS traits. Some 26 genes are likely to be involved, after all, so odds are she has at least a few of them, even if not enough to get a diagnosis. The line isn't always that clear, as is apparent in my family.

Thanks everyone for all the responses. It's interesting that both aspie and neurotypical kids do those things at a similar age. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.