Early Diagnosis

[Laloona]

Hi guys,

I have a boyfriend and an 8 months old daughter with him. I always thought that my bf is extremely selfish as he left me at the times when I needed him the most both emotionally or physically. The experience of long labor and then an emergency c-section was a disaster... Anyways, the story is not about that, but the fact that he told me that he has AS yesterday. And it all makes sense now. He just did not feel my pain and it was beyond my understanding that you need to explain to someone that it hurts to have a c-section...

I am still in the phase of digesting the information and going through past experiences which make more and more sense to me. Any advise would be appreciated on how I should educated myself about relationship with someone with AS.

And I have a question: can I evaluate somehow if my daughter has it too? I found a description of "tilt" test on line: when you told the baby to the left and right and AS baby would align his head with the body while a baby w/o AS would try to keep it straight. Any advise there? I am so scared. I have a high EQ, very/too sensitive to emotions of others and to be honest just feel lost now...

Thank you so much!

 

[Jordan]

I'm sure there are plenty of places where you can read up about it!

Here is one from an official source: What is Asperger syndrome? - | autism | Asperger syndrome |

From experience, I have to tell you, that's it was very hard for me to adjust to my own diagnosis because I wasn't sure what it meant, or whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. - But just to be certain, and what I got told from my clinical psychiatrist is that having Aspergers means that your brain is wired up differently from others. It also means that you don't act like neurotypicals. We aspies are nothing like NTs, we are quiet, and we quite often be in our own world.

If you want family support, the doctors and psychiatrists can give you help if you need it. Especially if you don't understand it that much and you want to learn why your boyfriend acts that way. But there is always support for you and your family; no matter where you look.

With regards to your daughter, go and ask to see if your doctor can get someone to get her an assessment done for the Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ASD is basically the wide range of different disorders / syndromes that are within the spectrum - High Functioning Autism & Aspergers Syndrome being the main ones on the list.

 

[epath13]

Are you in US? If you are, you probably take your child for check ups, next time you go you might want to share your concerns with the doctor. If your doctor doesn't think there's anything to worry about you can contact your local Early Intervention Office (just google for it), call them, see what they suggest. In case of my younger son, doctor gave me the number. I called, they came in, evaluated, suggested to see a child psychologist and the psychologist diagnosed my son with ASD and Apraxia (it was all free). Later a person from local child/ parent association was coming to our house once a week to help out plus we got speech and OT through them (paid close to nothing). Early Intervention also paid for neurologist visit to rule out epilepsy.
8 months should be good age to diagnose nowadays.. They might ask you to wait or might diagnose right away, if there's anything to diagnose that is.

 

[Arashi222]

I know that most places don't really like to diangosis babies. Its just too many things that can act like autism. I know more and more that its before school or preschool aged that a lot of the good autism places at least in my state are willing to test for Autism. Depends on the place you live.

 

[Jontish]

8 months is too early to diagnose aspergers, but if you're looking for symptoms...
- Doesn't make eye contact
- Delayed language development
- Doesn't imitate your expressions (smile when smiled at)
- Doesn't respond to cuddling
- "Rag doll" - when she is lifted her head and limbs kinda just hang there

But even if she doesn't display any of these symptoms she may have it. Or the opposite, even if she does display some of these symptoms doesn't necessarily mean she is on the autistic spectrum.

 

[epath13]

Yeah, 8 months may be too early for some specialists, but between 1-1,5 and 2( your kid is going to be 1 soon enough) is a good age for diagnosis, so, again if you are in US, try to take the Early Intervention path unless you believe there's a better way

 

[Laloona]

Thank you so very much to all who replied!!

I am still in the phase when I need to accept it, it will just take time... There is a person behind the diagnosis and I need to speak to that person, he was living an isolated life and keeps people away and I need to build his trust in himself and his ability to live to the fullest.

My daughter is always making eye contact, smiles a lot, hates being by herself and gets bored of any toy in 15 min, if I put her in my bed before she falls asleep she turns to me and grubs my neck, so she like to sleep facing me... She seems to be what you call a neurotypical baby to me... I don't want to have any "tags" placed on her, we all know doctors like to diagnose things but the child will have to live with it, so I am trying to figure it on my own at this point, but will call the Early Intervention to get some advice. Thanks again!