AS onset at age 5-6 or ...?

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I don't know but apparently, my onset was 2.5 according to my parents.

Autistic traits causing problems at age 7-8 instead of age 5-6 does not seem like a great delimiter for diagnosing PDD-NOS instead of AS, eggspecially when the criteria for AS are met in adulthood eggswell.

Happy Birthday

DS was diagnosed just before his 5th birthday, with the help of a pretty 'switched on' teacher. otherwise I am pretty sure he may have flown under the radar. Also, there is a difference between onset and diagnosis

I watched a home video from when I was 4/5 and that 4/5-year-old is not someone you'd suspect would grow up to have any of the issues I do now 20 years later. That was a normal child, not sure exactly when it all went wrong. I was diagnosed at 23 but of course AS diagnoses weren't popular (if done at all?) when I was little. Anyway I think some stresses can build over time on nervous systems that are more sensitive and cause eventual breakdown of coping capabilities, there is not a magic age I would guess.

Which is why they're including the phrase, symptoms may fully not manifest until demands exceed abilities, in the DSM-V.

I was good up till grade 7 (age 12). That was as far as I could go.

Apparently, I started showing symptoms from maybe 6mo, and it became more obvious from about 9mo, etc.... But THOSE seemed like mostly GOOD things. A parent really couldn't tell, and a child would have no basis for a valid comparison until like 6yo! And that is about the time it happened for ME! BTW 6yo is first grade, in the US!

Steve

AS is present from birth, but depending on severity may not be observable until a certain age. For many AS this is 5-6 because that's when NT kids have ToM and are getting really into social play. But a milder AS kid may not be noticeably socially impaired until 8-12 or so. It's like with MR - a kid with an IQ of 75 will be at a 3 year old level at 4, a 4 year old level at 6, a 6 year old level at 8, an 8 year old level at 12, etc, so their delay will become more noticeable as they grow.

Interesting thread. I'm sure I posted something like this before.

I grew up mostly in the 60's. Unless you were seriously handicapped, you were considered normal. Anything short of LFA would have gone unnoticed.

I definitely had more social problems as I got older. Around age 6-7 I realized that I needed to act more like other kids to avoid teasing and bullying as much as possible. Mostly I was able to do that until 7th grade. (Don't they say middle school is the worst?) I was unable to fool my parents though and I got into more and more social related problems with them as I got older. Age 8 - 13 was the worst. Their perception was that I was doing things wrong on purpose and needed more discipline. My perception was that I just didn't understand what I was supposed to do and I simply needed more explanation. For awhile I was convinced I must be a bad kid because I couldn't figure out that stuff on my own.

I had some friends who lived close by in the neighborhood. I was the social follower, doing whatever they did. I was sort of the "interest" leader though, as I had interests I pursued whether anyone else cared about them or not. My mom has told me I was content to play by myself. Some of the interests I had were taken up by the other kids. I was often dismayed that I got punished for only doing what the rest of the kids did, never knowing (even today) how they got away with things and I didn't.

We moved after 8th grade and I spent my freshman high school year in another state. I discovered I had no idea how to make a friend and didn't have one the entire year plus we lived there.

The rest of my high school years were spent back in a city near where we used to live but I attended a different high school than I would have if we hadn't moved. I might have made no friends there either if the school didn't happen to have a club that was my main interest at time. I made a few friends there. High School is where I was farthest behind socially. There was a number of social groups on campus but any attempt to join them failed. I often felt like I was an observer looking into a terrarium watching the inhabitants inside without a clue as to what they were doing. I suppose the kids did normal social things like parties, dances and sports but I have little recollection of that. I find it quite amazing that I made it all the way through high school totally unaware of anyone having a boyfriend or a girlfriend. I was really far behind. I spent pretty much all my time, including social time, pursing one interest.

So yes, I believe aspie traits can show up past one's earliest years.