Does my dd have a form of autism?

[nrsenadenos]

I would third/fourth/fifth the recommendation of seeing a developmental pediatrician. We had the ADOS (tests for autism) done at about the age your daughter is now. While she's not technically autistic, she has enough issues to be put under the PDD-NOS label - which we chose to do because it meant getting therapy for her. Her official diagnosis of the moment is PDD-NOS, Anxiety/Mood disorder, and Selective Mutism. We are in the process of applying for the Ohio Autism Scholarship so that we can send her to a very nice private school in the fall that deals specifically with kids with "issues". The place is amazing!

[momof_3]

My older dd goes to a waldorf inspired(full waldorf curicculum) charter public school and they will allow dd2 to attend next year as well. They will not seperate her even. They simply assign another teacher to her and she gets 3 teachers in the class that she will be in. I just need to decide if I want to have her tested and go that route. I think maybe I will talk to the school and see. And maybe even our ped.

[momof_3]

How do they do their evaluations? What do they do?

[MDever]

There is a long series of questions posed to the primary care givers and any teachers that are currently instructing the child. Most of the evaluation is based on the trained observation of the doctors and therapist while the child is given simple tasks(play based). They use a series of criteria as a basis for diagnosis.

[Suzi]

As a mom with aspergers (although I feel like I barely "have it" anymore) and a son with autism I agree with bits and pieces of what everyone has said.

She has some red flags for being more on the spectrum than most. As far as how that will inhibit her its hard to say. Educating yourself on aspergers, sensory processing disorders, and pdd nos will be very helpful. Its hard to find good info on girls with autism. Girls in general are better at not getting in trouble due to the autism-ness.

What helped me the most growing up was having friends who were willing to teach me things (like how to talk), and then somewhere around puberty I became acutely aware of the fact that I could change how I interact and became very dedicated in studying the differences and trying to change how I acted. After many years I was much improved I was also good at sports growing up which gave me an "in" with the other kids. Even though I didn't speak to them they would call me a friend.

I have never wished I wasn't autistic-ish. The way I categorize the world around me helps me do great things with my job, I excelled at school, I'm a great mom and a great friend. It was harder for me to figure out how to be a great sig. other but I'm getting that down too. I was really never tempted to make destructive decisions as a teenager.

[FrozenBooty]

I wouldn't pose a diagnosis on your observations as an outsider but I would recommend an evaluation by the school district and a developmental pediatrician. It can't hurt. I also see some sensory processing stuff but many non autistic people have sensory processing difficulties.

[nrsenadenos]

The evaluations are tons and tons of paperwork and questions. We have given our medical history so many times that it is ridiculous. They asked a ton of "does your child do this?" sorts of questions. I don't know if you've done any of those, but it's a bunch of "sometimes, never, always" answers that will give them a baseline score. They watched her while she was playing, seeing if she would do certain things or wouldn't do others, how she interacted with other people in the room, if she made eye contact, etc.

My daughter had also been in therapy of some sort since she was 2 months old. At first it was PT for a moderate case of torticollis that was causing her head to become misshapen. Then she started losing weight and wasn't hitting her gross motor skills on time. She was evaluated at about a year by an OT who called it SPD and referred us to Help Me Grow. More OT and PT with them. She was always the "careful" child - she was very picky about certain textures of clothing and foods when she was younger, she didn't walk until 22 months - and then she walked like she'd been doing it for a year, never the "drunken baby stumble" you usually see with new walkers.

She aged out of help me grow but I still felt she wasn't quite "normal". She tantrummed excessively, rocked when upset, and would just "shut down" when she didn't want to deal with anything. The pediatrician referred us to the developmental pediatrician who did the ADOS. We were referred to a psychologist who "fired" us a few months later because DD refused to participate in her therapies. She is very literal, and doing things that require imagination escape her. Back to the developmental pedi who sent us to the public school district. They've done their evaluation and said she qualifies for an IEP which we are now waiting on. Once we have that we can pursue the scholarship and the private school. If we don't qualify for the scholarship, we are more or less out of options at this point. Everyone agrees that she has "something" but no one seems to know what to do, and I've been told the next step is medication which I don't want to do at this point in time - her quirkiness is not bad enough that I want to risk the side effects.

[momof_3]

Originally Posted by nrsenadenos The evaluations are tons and tons of paperwork and questions. We have given our medical history so many times that it is ridiculous. They asked a ton of "does your child do this?" sorts of questions. I don't know if you've done any of those, but it's a bunch of "sometimes, never, always" answers that will give them a baseline score. They watched her while she was playing, seeing if she would do certain things or wouldn't do others, how she interacted with other people in the room, if she made eye contact, etc. My daughter had also been in therapy of some sort since she was 2 months old. At first it was PT for a moderate case of torticollis that was causing her head to become misshapen. Then she started losing weight and wasn't hitting her gross motor skills on time. She was evaluated at about a year by an OT who called it SPD and referred us to Help Me Grow. More OT and PT with them. She was always the "careful" child - she was very picky about certain textures of clothing and foods when she was younger, she didn't walk until 22 months - and then she walked like she'd been doing it for a year, never the "drunken baby stumble" you usually see with new walkers. She aged out of help me grow but I still felt she wasn't quite "normal". She tantrummed excessively, rocked when upset, and would just "shut down" when she didn't want to deal with anything. The pediatrician referred us to the developmental pediatrician who did the ADOS. We were referred to a psychologist who "fired" us a few months later because DD refused to participate in her therapies. She is very literal, and doing things that require imagination escape her. Back to the developmental pedi who sent us to the public school district. They've done their evaluation and said she qualifies for an IEP which we are now waiting on. Once we have that we can pursue the scholarship and the private school. If we don't qualify for the scholarship, we are more or less out of options at this point. Everyone agrees that she has "something" but no one seems to know what to do, and I've been told the next step is medication which I don't want to do at this point in time - her quirkiness is not bad enough that I want to risk the side effects.

Oh mama. I am sorry you had to go thru so much just to get help for your child. I hope she gets the help she needs.

[momof_3]

I hope I don't have to go to those lengths to find out what my dd's quirks mean if they mean anything at all.

[UnderTheStars]

I am in the same boat as you right now, actually - I've questioned some of my son's behavior for a while now but it wasn't until his 3 yr well-check that his pediatrician raised some red flags and referred him for evaluation. We just filled out all the paperwork today prior to his appointment which was 6 pages long - a lot of questions about medical history, when he hit certain milestones, how he communicates and interacts with other people, etc. It gives them a background to review prior to our appointment so they know what to watch for I guess.

As far as the labeling goes, well - men are just difficult because, like another PP said, they don't want to view their kids as having any sort of problem. My DH is like that and it's tremendously hard sometimes to get him involved with therapy or medical stuff with our DS. But truth be told, I am sort of HOPING for the label because we have had so much difficulty getting my son the help and therapy he needs that the label might make all the difference. The diagnosis won't change who he is, just like the label won't change your daughter either. All it does is say, "Yes, this is how she operates, and here are some resources that might help you." I'd say it's worth getting her evaluated, especially as she gets in to school.

Our evaluation appointment for DS is coming up on Jan 9th, we actually got in fairly quickly (the referral was sent out in early Dec). I'd be happy to let you know how it goes and what to prepare for!