Hi, everyone. I'm new here, and I just kind of wanted to share my story and see if you guys think. I apologize in advance because this will probably be lengthy and a little disordered, but my thoughts *are* disordered right now.
My son Zeke is 6 1/2 and in 1st grade. He's always been a very intense and sensitive little boy. He's incredibly smart, with an I.Q. of 134 (had to do an I.Q. test for IEP at school). We first sent Zeke to school when he was 3, and from the first day, his teacher approached me with a deer in the headlights expression and told me she saw a lot of red flags for autism. I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me, especially since just the week before our pediatrician suggested we take Zeke to see an occupational therapists, due to him being so scared of loud noises that it was giving him nightmares. Fast-forward a couple months...we finally got in to see an O.T., where she diagnosed him with some sensory processing issues - auditory, visual, proprioception, vestibular - nothing too major, but enough to impact his daily life. We also found out he was about 2 1/2 years behind on fine motor skills, such as pencil grasp. A few months after this, we decided to go ahead and do a screening for autism. Granted we didn't know a lot about high functioning autism, but we didn't really think that was what we were dealing with. BUT his preschool teacher has a daughter on the spectrum, and she also works part time at as an O.T. assistant, so we figured it was best to be safe since she knew more than we did. At the screening, a team of doctors - child psychologist, developmental doctor, O.T., etc. played with Zeke for a couple hours (after collecting paperwork from us), and at the end they said that he DOES NOT have an autism spectrum, but that he does have ADHD.
Social - Zeke is now 6, and we have since been told that his ADHD is severe. But over the past year, my husband and I are seeing more and more signs of Asperger's traits. He wants badly to make friends, but he is very awkward. He doesn't seem to understand personal space, he's way too hyper, tries too hard, gets inches from people's faces often when trying to engage, says awkward things, and he overwhelms people. They try to move to a different area to play away from him, but he's oblivious to this (and to all the behaviors I just shared with you) and follows them. His teacher has commented that he follows one particular girl around at school. And through conversation, it seems to me that one little girl is trying to play tag with him, but he thinks she's running away to be mean, so he may not always understand play? He's gotten in trouble at school for name calling, like when he called a kid in class whose name is Billy "Billy Goat". He didn't understand how this could possibly hurt Billy's feelings. In fact, his teacher has commented he doesn't seem to understand others' feelings. He does well with adults, and when we travel home to see our extended family, I have noticed he will try playing with the youngest child at wherever we are, rather than someone closer to his age. Sometimes he just plays by himself and says it's more "peaceful" that way.
Emotional and Behavior - He has A LOT of meltdowns. This can be caused by not getting his way in something, a change in routine....During these tantrums, he is aggressive. He gets in trouble a lot for arguing and being defiant. He often says mean things to his sister, like, "I wish you weren't in our family. I don't like you, stupid girl."
Misc. - He's set in his routines, and going off the routine can (but not always) spark meltdowns, like the time I picked him up early from kindergarten and he had a meltdown because we weren't exiting from the same door he usually exited from at the end of the day. And I can tell sometimes when he's playing that he has his own rules in his head that on one else is aware of, and deviating from those rules can cause a meltdown - like the time at the doctor's office when he was playing with giant blocks with other kids. I could tell he had a picture in his head of what the finished product should look like, and he was close to a meltdown because other kids were climbing on the blocks or moving them. Also, we had to stop going to church because he would cry and cling to us before Sunday school every Sunday. A month before he turned 6, it finally just got to be too much for us, and we stopped going.
Quirks - One odd thing is that , while he does not have an obsession with any one interest (as far as gathering facts and such, though he does love to gather facts about a wide range of things) he has been obsessed since at least this past August with saying the word "Donut". He inserts the word randomly (and very often) into conversation. I think he's trying to be funny, so would that still count as a restricted interest? He says a lot of off the wall things (think Dr. Seuss). He makes high pitched noises fairly often. His teacher says he does this every day at about 2:30. He doesn't speak monotone all the time, but I have noticed it here and there, and one thing I have noticed about his speaking is that it is very often very loud, and he doesn't seem to notice that it's loud. I try to get him to find his inside voice, and he can't. He does pretty well with eye contact, but his teachers have commented that he doesn't make eye contact as much as he should. And he does stare off into space more, lost in his own, world fairly often. He does things like clap his hands on his sides or clap his hands together or wiggle his fingers or stomp his feet, etc., without realizing he's doing it. He tells me when I pick him up from school often that he looked inside so-and-so's mouth at school or picked them up and squeezed them, odd things like that. He's always thinking when we're out and about that he sees a certain child or teacher from school or even one of his grandparents, and he'll call out to them, and I have to tell him it's not who he thinks it is. Very hard time with facial recognition.
Does this sound like Asperger's? Every teacher he's ever had, and now his pediatrician, says he shows a lot of red flags. We're scheduled to do an evaluation in April, and I'm so afraid they're going to miss it because he does well with adults. It's especially when he gets around a group of kids that it becomes very evident. Will the developmental specialist observe him around other kids? I really need this diagnosis if that's what we're dealing with because without it, our insurance will not cover the ABA therapy.
My son Zeke is 6 1/2 and in 1st grade. He's always been a very intense and sensitive little boy. He's incredibly smart, with an I.Q. of 134 (had to do an I.Q. test for IEP at school). We first sent Zeke to school when he was 3, and from the first day, his teacher approached me with a deer in the headlights expression and told me she saw a lot of red flags for autism. I felt like the wind had been knocked out of me, especially since just the week before our pediatrician suggested we take Zeke to see an occupational therapists, due to him being so scared of loud noises that it was giving him nightmares. Fast-forward a couple months...we finally got in to see an O.T., where she diagnosed him with some sensory processing issues - auditory, visual, proprioception, vestibular - nothing too major, but enough to impact his daily life. We also found out he was about 2 1/2 years behind on fine motor skills, such as pencil grasp. A few months after this, we decided to go ahead and do a screening for autism. Granted we didn't know a lot about high functioning autism, but we didn't really think that was what we were dealing with. BUT his preschool teacher has a daughter on the spectrum, and she also works part time at as an O.T. assistant, so we figured it was best to be safe since she knew more than we did. At the screening, a team of doctors - child psychologist, developmental doctor, O.T., etc. played with Zeke for a couple hours (after collecting paperwork from us), and at the end they said that he DOES NOT have an autism spectrum, but that he does have ADHD.
Social - Zeke is now 6, and we have since been told that his ADHD is severe. But over the past year, my husband and I are seeing more and more signs of Asperger's traits. He wants badly to make friends, but he is very awkward. He doesn't seem to understand personal space, he's way too hyper, tries too hard, gets inches from people's faces often when trying to engage, says awkward things, and he overwhelms people. They try to move to a different area to play away from him, but he's oblivious to this (and to all the behaviors I just shared with you) and follows them. His teacher has commented that he follows one particular girl around at school. And through conversation, it seems to me that one little girl is trying to play tag with him, but he thinks she's running away to be mean, so he may not always understand play? He's gotten in trouble at school for name calling, like when he called a kid in class whose name is Billy "Billy Goat". He didn't understand how this could possibly hurt Billy's feelings. In fact, his teacher has commented he doesn't seem to understand others' feelings. He does well with adults, and when we travel home to see our extended family, I have noticed he will try playing with the youngest child at wherever we are, rather than someone closer to his age. Sometimes he just plays by himself and says it's more "peaceful" that way.
Emotional and Behavior - He has A LOT of meltdowns. This can be caused by not getting his way in something, a change in routine....During these tantrums, he is aggressive. He gets in trouble a lot for arguing and being defiant. He often says mean things to his sister, like, "I wish you weren't in our family. I don't like you, stupid girl."
Misc. - He's set in his routines, and going off the routine can (but not always) spark meltdowns, like the time I picked him up early from kindergarten and he had a meltdown because we weren't exiting from the same door he usually exited from at the end of the day. And I can tell sometimes when he's playing that he has his own rules in his head that on one else is aware of, and deviating from those rules can cause a meltdown - like the time at the doctor's office when he was playing with giant blocks with other kids. I could tell he had a picture in his head of what the finished product should look like, and he was close to a meltdown because other kids were climbing on the blocks or moving them. Also, we had to stop going to church because he would cry and cling to us before Sunday school every Sunday. A month before he turned 6, it finally just got to be too much for us, and we stopped going.
Quirks - One odd thing is that , while he does not have an obsession with any one interest (as far as gathering facts and such, though he does love to gather facts about a wide range of things) he has been obsessed since at least this past August with saying the word "Donut". He inserts the word randomly (and very often) into conversation. I think he's trying to be funny, so would that still count as a restricted interest? He says a lot of off the wall things (think Dr. Seuss). He makes high pitched noises fairly often. His teacher says he does this every day at about 2:30. He doesn't speak monotone all the time, but I have noticed it here and there, and one thing I have noticed about his speaking is that it is very often very loud, and he doesn't seem to notice that it's loud. I try to get him to find his inside voice, and he can't. He does pretty well with eye contact, but his teachers have commented that he doesn't make eye contact as much as he should. And he does stare off into space more, lost in his own, world fairly often. He does things like clap his hands on his sides or clap his hands together or wiggle his fingers or stomp his feet, etc., without realizing he's doing it. He tells me when I pick him up from school often that he looked inside so-and-so's mouth at school or picked them up and squeezed them, odd things like that. He's always thinking when we're out and about that he sees a certain child or teacher from school or even one of his grandparents, and he'll call out to them, and I have to tell him it's not who he thinks it is. Very hard time with facial recognition.
Does this sound like Asperger's? Every teacher he's ever had, and now his pediatrician, says he shows a lot of red flags. We're scheduled to do an evaluation in April, and I'm so afraid they're going to miss it because he does well with adults. It's especially when he gets around a group of kids that it becomes very evident. Will the developmental specialist observe him around other kids? I really need this diagnosis if that's what we're dealing with because without it, our insurance will not cover the ABA therapy.
