What's your experiences with Autism Spectrum Disorder?

Frances - posted on 01/02/2012

Thank you so much Carol!

Carol - posted on 01/01/2012

hi we had a similar experience when my daughter turned 2, she started play group and they said she needs to go to speech therapy so we did and they helped her so much but then all these people started to come and visit amber in her pre school and saw she wasnt quiet like the other children, so then the tests began and 3 years later we now have a autism diagnosis and thinks are starting to make sense....

yes asd is the new adhd but it is very hard to diagnose, first i recommend you have a look at national autism society's web site and look at the key things that show with autism...

my little girl at 2-3 was perfect she just didnt do all the things a child should have been like talking she could fully understand what you were saying but she some how stopped using words to express her self and started using a high pitched voice or talking very quickly. high functioning autism have no problems with speech, or understanding they just have extra quirks...
amber is very bright but has to have routines like she will play with only a select amount of toys, she has no attention span, she will play along side other children but can not make the move to interact with them... now at 5 she can try to start communication with children but only on her terms she seems to be unable to do anything she doesnt want to do, the other signs are tantrums apparently at 3 a child shouldnt have tantrums (i'm 30 and i still have tantrums so i doubt this one) but its the type of tantrums my 3 yr old paige has out bursts but there is a thought out reason, amber on the other hand will self destruct over little things she can not go into a crowded shop as she cant cope, if you try to take a toy of her then she can become violent while she was struggling with her speech she was horrendous due to the frustration of no one understanding her. her behaviour issues didnt show until she was 4 they just slowly got worse.
the true signs for me didnt show though until she was tested over a year and things she should have been learning didnt develop, she just cant hold her concentration, they say that a child should be able to sit down and engage with an object for the amount of minutes of there age, so at 3 amber could not play or intereact for 3 minutes yet if you gave her something she really liked she would sit for hours only doing that one thing. she hated anything that involved a group of children and it has taken years for amber to finally sit in the group but she still wont participate in the activites going on in the group....

i have to admit while we were going through the tests and everyone was saying something was wrong i thought they were mad, i was dreading every diagnosis under the sun, checking google and anything else that might tell me what i was missing with my child, by the time a diagnosis came i was sooo relieved that the tests were over, that we now had something to work with rather than there is something but we cant put our finger on it, i blamed myself for everything, for my pregnancy, for bad parenting, for not spending enough time with my child but now i've had time to just live and enjoy the querks and they are just that querks little behaviour patterns to challenge.. i cant say life with asd has been easy but really deep down we already knew something was slightly different with our child but didnt want to admit it plus first child you dont know any different everything is normal cos all babies doesnt matter if they are normal or not are all perfect....

we've only been going through this for 5 years and i am far from an expert but what i can tell you is that if there is something there asd/ autism is not as scarey and not as bad as it sounds yes there are always horror stories to scare you but your child if he has traits so do most people in the world its just putting all those traits together to for autism.. life is never easy in our little world, and yes things can be a little odd or different but i would not change them for the world, amber has taught me more about the way we see the world in 3 short years than i have learnt in my 30 years..

so i'm really going off one one now lol, also at the end of the day you know your child better than anyone else could yes we take for granted alot of things on the spectrum cos they dont have to be right in your face 24/7 for them to be on the spectrum some times its the little things licking their lips all the time, sniffing things, not wanting to wear clothes, not getting the idea of potty training as early as the next child... if nothing i've mentioned has jumped out going yeah my child does that then you stand a chance that either they really have nothing wrong or there not as bad as my child but at the end of the day no two autistic children are the same each has there own traits and there are lots of other things but mainly it could be just his speech and nothing more... there is no harm in checking, asking questions and always questioning any outcome and keep doing it.... hth sorry if i've waffled on to long