Can somebody please explain to me what autism means?

[Anonymous]

I would like to know please what are the early symptoms, what you can do, how to recognize them

[Anonymous]

Some good resources:

http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism

http://www.aap.org/healthtopics/autism.cfm

Autism can only be diagnosed by a medical professional (e.g., developmental pediatrician, psychiatrist), sometimes by a team (e.g., speech/language pathologist + dev ped). Assuming you live in the DC area, and if you are concerned about your child, I would first discuss with your regular pediatrician. Then if still concerned, I'd make an appointment for an evaluation at Kennedy Krieger Institute, Children's Hospital, or a highly-referenced and recommended developmental pediatrician in private practice (some have mentioned Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Conlon on this board). You can also contact your local Infant and Toddler/Child Find for assistance.

[Anonymous]

I was going to recommend those as well. The two biggest predictors according research are something like not turning to name or pointing by 12 months. Another big red flag is little or no pretend play by 18 months and later on if there is pretend play it isn't well developed.

Autism speaks has some helpful videos of actual kids with autism which I found helpful when my child was young.

Pften Infant Toddler Connnection wants a referral from a pediatrician. Don't let your pediatrician poo poo things and tell you a whole bunch of hooey about how you worry too much and blah blah blah. Just get the referral. There's a waitlist so you want to move things along as quickly as possible. The evaluation is free. They will NOT tell you if your child does or doesn't have autism, but they will tell you if there are significant delays and then they will hook you up with interventionists who take insurance. If your child doesn't qualify you will get MUCH more peace of mind than you will from a pediatrician who thinks he or she is God. If your child does qualify than good for you for finding out early.

Early intervention is the key. The brain is the most plastic when kids are young. I wouldm't worry so much about a label and what it may or may not mean this early. If your child needs help, then get it. If you aren't pleased with the therapists through EI, then request someone new or get private help. Good for you for asking questions! Don't let worry consume you because the earlier you start the better so there is plenty of hope.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the PP who said to get the referral even if your pediatrician thinks you're paranoid.

[Anonymous]

17:10 again...

How old is your child and what is your child doing that concerns you?

Here's the thing..at the same time I was on the ball about getting an eval, I was consumed with worry about whether or not it was autism and trying to convince the world it wasn't and then trying to convince people it was. Autism is a label for a constellation of behaviors. There are so many forms and so any different ways it presents. It does not tell you what the future holds. It just tells you your child is at risk and needs help in these areas. There are many predictors of positive outcome and one of them is early intervention. I myself kept putting the cart before the horse and thinking if it's autism then my child will never be independent/never make friends/never enjoy school/never .... I was wrong. There are all different degrees of impairment and there are so many good interventions out there. There are no guarantees my child will be just fine whatever that means, but the label does not tell you what the outcome will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Here's the thing..at the same time I was on the ball about getting an eval, I was consumed with worry about whether or not it was autism and trying to convince the world it wasn't and then trying to convince people it was. Autism is a label for a constellation of behaviors. There are so many forms and so any different ways it presents. It does not tell you what the future holds. It just tells you your child is at risk and needs help in these areas. There are many predictors of positive outcome and one of them is early intervention. I myself kept putting the cart before the horse and thinking if it's autism then my child will never be independent/never make friends/never enjoy school/never .... I was wrong. There are all different degrees of impairment and there are so many good interventions out there. There are no guarantees my child will be just fine whatever that means, but the label does not tell you what the outcome will be.

Well said. I agree and had a similar experience. I lost way too much sleep over these worries. We still don't know exactly what is going on with DC, but the situation now isn't nearly close to the nightmare situations I was envisioning in my head. Don't know if it is the early intervention or just the passing of time, but things are way better now.

[Anonymous]

Autism is a developmental syndrome marked by a triad of impairments: 1) impairment in the development of social relationships and social skills; 2) impairment in the development of verbal and non-verbal language; and 3) the development of abnormal repetitive and stereotyped behaviors.

There are behavior checklists that try to identify commonly seen behaviors in kids with this triad of impairments, but every kid with autism is different so the impairments can manifest in unique ways in every case.

[Anonymous]

I don't care for the autism speaks criteria. My child is on the Aspergers end of the spectrum (well, rather, the AS "'vector"). He was pointing well before 12 mos, early verbal, etc. He was even capable of great joint attention--but what I didn't know was that his joint attention occurred much less frequently than a lot of other babies. For him, the strong interests started pretty early as well as a lot of sensory sensitivities, fussiness in crowds/stores/etc., and high need in general. Food sensitivities. Trust your insincts, and if it's too early to do anything, just try to orient your child to your facial expressions and nonverbal communication and try to establish joint attention in fun ways. As your child gets older, try to talk a lot about your own perspective, feelings, etc., so that some perspective-taking ability develops, as this is a core deficit for kids on the high functioning end of the spectrum. Best wishes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't care for the autism speaks criteria. My child is on the Aspergers end of the spectrum (well, rather, the AS "'vector"). He was pointing well before 12 mos, early verbal, etc. He was even capable of great joint attention--but what I didn't know was that his joint attention occurred much less frequently than a lot of other babies. For him, the strong interests started pretty early as well as a lot of sensory sensitivities, fussiness in crowds/stores/etc., and high need in general. Food sensitivities. Trust your insincts, and if it's too early to do anything, just try to orient your child to your facial expressions and nonverbal communication and try to establish joint attention in fun ways. As your child gets older, try to talk a lot about your own perspective, feelings, etc., so that some perspective-taking ability develops, as this is a core deficit for kids on the high functioning end of the spectrum. Best wishes.

Right. Because mother's instinct is so much better than using psychiatric diagnostic criteria.