Symptoms at age 5?

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I understand that for many AS is not dx'd until age 7 or later, but if you have a child 5 or younger or remember what your child was like at age 5, I would like to hear what your child was like. Below are some reasons why I think my son may have Aspergers, along with some reasons why I think my son might NOT have Aspergers, but any insight appreciated.

Justin's language is pretty much normal, though slightly delayed. However, before the age of 2 he had NO words, so he had a pretty serious language delay. Once I placed his sister (only 16 months older than Justin) into preschool and started speech therapy his language came in very quickly. His language scores place him in the average range, but he does sound a little immature for his age.

He is pretty conversational. He understands the rules of conversation, he initiates conversation frequently, and he does not verbally obsess on any topic. He usually stays on topic as well, and has no trouble changing topics. He does, however, converse much better with adults, though he will converse with children he is comfortable with (siblings, cousins, friends who come to the house often). Sometimes, however, he will say things that are very inappropriate. For example, one day while getting a hair cut, he was having a conversation with the hair stylist. A very normal conversation. When things got quiet for a few minutes, he all of a sudden burst out with "For the last time, I am allergic to dust." While this statement is true, it was completely inappropriate.

Justin is quite social with family and close friends. He loves going to his cousin's house for family gatherings, and loves having family gatherings at home as well. Again, he is mostly socially appropriate, conversational wise and just in general. He plays nicely with his cousin, though sometimes he may not wish to be on the same page as him and will try to change the game. He is usually unsuccessful in changing a game. He also plays well with his sister, but I think she sometimes compensates by not playing things he refuses to play.

However, if you place Justin in a situation where there are SEVERAL kids, most of whom he does not know, he does not do so well. He is obviously anxious in this type of situation, and VERY unsure of himself. He will either a. not attempt to interact and go off by himself, or b. make feeble attempts at interaction but move off at the first sign of rejection. He will sometimes say to me that the kids don't like him. It's more anxiety that shyness....Justin is not really shy. He may also "hum" in these types of situations, particularly if he can not remove himself from the situation. He is much more comfortable in this type of situation if his sister is around, and then will happily join in playing with the other kids, like she is his comfort.

Justin RARELY has a meltdown, and even when he does it is mild when I compare the scenes my other two children have made when they were younger, and they are totally NT. However, he is not always interested in things other kids might be interested in, or for not as long anyway. He definitely is not into arts and crafts, but he loves music and sings very much in tune!! His handwriting skills are poor...he has trouble holding a pencil, but his teacher is working with him and we have seen a definite improvement.

Justin has no trouble with changes in routine, nor does he insist on having a routine. Our bedtimes vary, bathtime varies, etc. However, if there is a routine in place, while he will not be upset if the routine is changed, he is VERY aware of the change and will point the change out immediately. He also sometimes likes to do things in order. For example, for snack he will say today I will have an ice pop, tomorrow fruit snacks, and the next day chips. he will remember this order and want to stick to it,though he won't make a big deal if it is changed.

He LOVES commercials. He LOVES to repeat commercials. He will sometimes come up to me and say the commercial, but sort of in a question like it is a conversation. He will say the commercial right down to the "batteries not included." He might do this once a day, sometimes less, sometimes more.

He has trouble regulating excitement (a psychologist's words, not mine). When excited, he will jump up and down. Also, if he is excited while in coversation, he will shake his hands while he speaks and bounce up and down.

He is very good with routes. He knows the way to school, the store, etc. He will comment if we take a different route. When he was 3 changing the route used to upset him, but not anymore.

However, if playing a video game, he does like to do things in a certain order and take certain routes in the game. If his sister is playing with him and she DOES not follow where he tells her to go, he becomes very upset. Of course, his sister knows this, so she does it intentionally OVER AND OVER. These are usually his only real outbursts where he becomes quite upset.

He enjoys new situations, but the novelty seems to ware off quickly. Like this year he was excited to attend a new preschool, and LOVED it at first. Now he is bored with it. He is ahead of the class academically, but on target socially. He is with 4 year olds, as Justin is immature for his age. He does well with the younger group, but he is not really learning anything new. Preschool is old hat to him. At home, he is starting to sight read a little bit....pretty much where you would expect a 5 year old to be, so I guess preschool is a little boring for him.

Anyway, this is some of Justin. Any insight into what I would typically see with an Aspergers child at age 5 will be very helpful.

Thank you,

Janis

when my son was little, there were many things that stood out. he, too, recited commercials and loved to sing ~ he memorized the words to Twinkle, twinkle little star at the age of 2. for an entire year, he insisted watching "the lion king" movie every day at nap time...if i tried to play anything else, he would have a fit ! he had a very difficult time getting along with other children~ and still does....if they want to play something he doesnt, or want to play something he does ( but not the way he wants to), he has a fit ! ! this is unfortunately still a problem.
he also has perfect pitch ~ he can play vitrually any song on his saxophone and keyboard by hearing it........ummmmmmmm what else ? he always go along better with adults and could be quite charming ~ adults were fascinated by his adult-like language..........hope this ehlps

I have a 4 year old daughter that has the same issues. I talked to the doc and he said that she is most likely just ADD or ADHD but had to wait to do tests for a little while (I felt a little pushed aside by the doc). Emotionally, she has tantrums just like her 2 year old sister, but intellectually, she is very bright--although it is nearly impossible to get her to actually sit down and work, unless it is in her own time. I just want her to have the best life possible. Her father has the same issues, but has learned to deal with them and just goes on with life, but he don't want her to go thru the same things he did growing up-always being on the outside looking in, so to speak. I don't know how to really describe it, but it sounds just like what you are talking about...

Hi there - I read your post and I was really intrigued to see another parent who's child is not a "classic case" of AS. My 10yo son is also not a classic case. A little info - He was dx'd with ADHD at age 6, but later discovered it was a misdiagnosis and at age 8 was dx'd with AS.

He was like Justin in that he also did not fit the mold of AS. But, I have learned, over the past few years of talking with dr's, psychiatrists, etc. that just as Autism has a wide spectrum (or degrees) of severity, so does AS. They consider my son to be "High Functioning Asperger's". He doesn't have meltdowns or some of the other major symptoms of AS, but has enough of the symptoms to fall under the category of AS.

As a young child, he didn't start talking until 2 years old. Even as a toddler, he had very rountine ways of doing things. For example, at around age 3, I bought him bins to store his toys (cars, dinosaurs, blocks, legos) and labled them, showed them where they went. I did the same for his 6 yo sister. I could tell her to go clean her room and hours later, it would still be a mess and she'd have this totally lost look on her face when I asked why it wasn't clean (she, of course, has ADD). But my AS son, at the age of 3, would have his room spotless, even if he'd just hours before had it totally trashed, with every toy out on the floor. And if you checked, not one item would be out of place - he'd actually prefer to do it all himself b/c he'd get aggrivated when I would accidentally put a lego in the car bin. He likes everything to have a place and everything in it's place. That was something, that at a young age, really suprised me.

He also talked with adult language, although he said it with a babyish voice. Even now at age 10 his talk is very babyish. He too would recite commercials. He could recite favorite movies, word for word. I remember one time, he told me he was going to tell me a story. As he began this story, I thought to myself how detailed it was ....until I realized he was reciting, verbatim, Mickey Mouse's Fun and Fancy Free (his movie of choice at that time). Til this day he can recite that movie and that was years ago.

But I will say this - even though he preferred routine and usually insisted on it, he wouldn't have a complete meltdown if changes were made. He would just do like Justin, and point out the changes. Til this day, if we are going to a town about 30 miles away (one we shop at often), he'll tell me all the towns we have to pass through to get to this town. He always makes mental notes of things most people just overlook.

I am DEFINITELY not an expert, but it sounds to me like your son may be like mine, and just be on the less severe (or "high functioning") end of the Aperger's spectrum.

BTW, even though my son had a few quirks, he didn't really start exhibiting the AS traits strongly until around age 6 (first grade), so you might not see some of the traits for a while longer.

Hope some of this helps.

Court~ your story about putting toys away reminded me of when my boys were little. My oldest, the Aspie one, would put everything away in its proper place. The youngest,an NT, would just throw things everywhere ( much to his brother's chagrin)...and i thought the NT one was the problem

Ster, that is so funny! I used to think the same thing with my two kiddos. It's funny, but as an infant and toddler, my Aspie was the most well-behaved baby. He never cried unless he needed changing or feeding, never once needed me to rock him to sleep (although I would sometimes), soothed himself easily, and as a toddler, loved playing on his own, entertaining himself - in a nutshell, he was a breeze. My NT on the other hand, was a colicky baby, always needed to be rocked to sleep (only to instantly wake up the minute I put her in the crib/bassonet), constantly wanted attention. Looking back I always thought that she'd be my "challenge" and my Aspie would be my "easy one".....Of course, I have come to see that there are no "easy ones" and they all have their strengths and weaknesses!

so true ! my NT always wanted constant attention, and was always into EVERYTHING ! My Aspie, on the other hand, was quiet and content to play by himself...even irritated when he was interrupted.

Exactly! That's what I love about this website...discovering that, as parents of Aspie's, we're all going through similar things -which is a great comfort.

Bland- My husband does that...that thing Justin does....pallalia???It drives me nuts. At first, I thought maybe he was nuts and trying to make me join him there!! It worked!! !! !

Bland-My son began talking at around 10 months and said many words but gradually stopped at around age 1 1/2. We thought it was because of the birth of a sibling(he didnt like that). When he became withdrawn and nonverbal we began taking him to doctors. Most said he was just fine and a late bloomer. One doctor mentioned autism but we didnt buy it because our son was nothing like the stereotypical autistic. I thought that he was like me. (that should have been a warning!) He rarely spoke but we knew he could. Soon after he turned 4 he began talking incessantly!! He spoke nonstop to anyone who would listen. It was all one-sided and very loud, slightly monotone with strange inflections. Adults appreciated this but not kids. He never made a friend until he was 10. He also speaks in commercial jingle. He says that he needs a "refreshing beverage" or "tasty treat". He is dropping most of that now that he is 12 but the old phrases stick. When he was 1 1/2-3 he would be so engrosed in play (lining up toys or sorting rocks and dirt) that he would not respond to his name being called nor flinch if you clapped your hands behind his head but if a distant (and I mean distant) plane or train came through he would cock his head and look and listen. Id say, What is it honey? Hed say, Mommy, a plane! Id listen and say, No, Honey, theres no airplane. A long while later the plane would pass by! I home schooled him grades k-4 and the concepts I thought would be difficult for him, Time, Money, were easy to him and things like basic comprehension were hard. He definately seemed more AS from 4-10 years old but now hes adapting pretty well but still obviously different. I pursued a formal, seperate, professional diagnosis, apart from the schools because I knew that the school dx only applies to educational needs and I also knew that the older he gets the harder it may be to get a solid dx due to the development of coping skills. I thought that he may one day need assisted living or other benefits in the event that he wouldnt be able to cope in the world and if we werent around to help him but I dont think that this will be the case. I enjoy him so much, even though he is obsessive and negetive and complains alot. So much of his thinking seems so obvious and immature but I noticed that in Temple Grandins book, Thinking in Pictures, her thinking is simplistic also. She notices things that are obvious and overlooked by others and this has led her to a satifying career. This gives me great hope.