The Doc's "think" its Asperger's?!

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I am pretty new to this.. although I have known for quite sometime that my son was not like a lot of the other kids. He is almost 8 and I feel like we are running circles. Hunter is often refered to as eccentric, he is funny (hilarious actually). He fits a lot of the aspie stuff but because he seems normal, he is extremely smart but has difficulty reading and was diagnosed with a reading disorder. He uses really big words for his age and sometimes has problems socializing, or know what is appropriate. I was reading some of the discussion board and some things are like some one else is talking about my son. He is VERY literal. He has a hard time getting our humor and we don't always get his.
Hunter at 6 was brought to the office by the teacher and she told me that he skipped and held her hand all the way to the office to call me and tell me why he was in trouble. He doesn't seem to understand when others are upset with him
or if we go to the grocery store it can be trouble... earlier this summer I told him we had to go get milk, bread and cheese. But the store had sale on so I bought a few other things.... this bothered him so much that when we go to the store now and he asks what for all I say is "just to get a few things" because if I name what we are getting and buy more it bothers him.

Does this kinda of thing sound like anything any of you have been through with your child?

Also, I have been told different things about whether this "runs" in families. Hunter has a 1/2 sister (from his bio father) that has been diagnosed with asperger's and now that I am looking into this more my youngest son actually sounds a lot like the descriptions. My mom has often said that if my boys were one person they would be autistic, they are opposites but they are so much the same.

By your description it does sound like asperger's. Yes, it's genetic. I have it along with another sibling and both my parents are asocial.

It is highly possible he is AS. AS isn't a precise diagnosis so I wouldn't fret too much over the details. There is a lot of instinct involved with this one.

The leading theory on ASDs seems to have some 26 genes involved so, while it does run in families, it isn't going to create family members that are clearly like each other and distinct from the others. Any one person can have any odd combination of these genes.

There are the families out there that are convinced the cause is environmental, but that really isn't where the science seems to be headed. More viable is genetic with some components perhaps having environmental triggers, or increasing in severity due to environmental factors. That makes the most sense pulling together all the individual experiences we've seen.

And, well, there could be conditions that present as autism that maybe are not really autism. Since all the current diagnostic criteria are based on what can be observed, there is not currently any way to pull those out. I think that if a family can't find any genetic links at all, even the most subtle, then maybe they should look in that direction. But, most of us, when we really sit down and think about it, knowing that 26 genes are involved, can pull out all the quirkiness in our families and see the genetics at work. Uncle Bob had trait A, Aunt Sally had trait B, grandpa had trait C, and now baby Johnny has ABC and enough to be diagnosed as ASD.

Yes, what you say about your son does sound familiar. My 8 year old boy has been diagnosed with Asperger's and I can see it clearly in his father and significant traits in my mother's side of the family too.

Welcome!

I am 99% sure my hubby has it and we did not even realise this( well i thought there was something different about him) until recently our 10 year old daughter was diagnosed, and to top it all off my boys aged 8 and 6 now are awaiting testing, my 8 year old is very sensory extremly so, and i always just put it down to him having sensitive skin! my 6 year old has a very weak stomach or so we thought, he cant sit with us when we eat certain foods, he wont eat anything that has color in it and he actualy vomits when he smells some foods, have i been walking round with my eyes closed for the last 10 years?

I have been doing alot of research and have found much information pointing to it running in familys. With that all said and with alot of hair pulling(my own from going stir crazy lol) i would not swap my beautiful kids for anything in the world, I have had some people call me a saint,( i definatly do not think i am a saint ) because my kids are so full on, and been asked how i cope, (everyone just seemed to think my kids were very naughty) like all parents we cope because we have to. Sorry i seem to have gone off topic, im ranting again <slaps self>

This is so true. I believe there is a very strong genetic component--I've seen this in my own family firsthand (mother and both brothers definitely ASD; dad with many traits probably also ASD, uncles, great uncles, cousins, grandparents... going all the way back to the old country). I also believe that quirky families (like mine) can create a sort of culture and socialization process all their own that exerts influence on the non-ASD members and encourages whatever tendencies they might have. Although I don't have enough of the traits to be diagnosed as ASD, I definitely do have many of the memory and obsessive interest quirks. And strangely I have been drawn to people with ASD--even though my own family drives me nuts. I had no idea at the time, but my two best friends growing up also have autistic/asperger's parents like mine.

Yes, it does sound familiar. My son (actually diagnosed High Functioning Autism by one Psych. and Asperger's, by another), is the same in grocery stores. He is also very intolerant of certain stores because of the way they smell. He obsesses about a lot of things, but not necessarily one thing all the time. He is 6. My husband, now having gone through this diagnostic process, strongly believes that he has Asperger's, which I agree with, and he has a son from a previous marriage that has it. Our youngest, now 3, is showing a lot of the signs that my 6 yr old exhibited at 3, but is still too young to assertively diagnose. I consider myself completely NT (if there really is such a thing) and now I understand why it feels like my husband doesn't even get me sometimes--cuz he really doesn't, it turns out.
The positive thing for me about getting the diagnosis is that I felt like i finally had a starting point. Once, I had that, I could read and read and do research on what it might be like for my son to function day to day and why the way I deal and see situations, is very different than him. It really took the confrontation out of my daily dealings with him. Do I still get frustrated and want to rip my hair out- FOR SURE! but at least, I can go to a resource and have something to hang onto that says, "this is why--now, try this!" I have gotten a lot of great information from Tony Attwood's book, "The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome" --when I read that, I couldn't believe the connections I made about my son.
Best of luck to you