Are girls harder to detect?
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Are girls harder to detect?
| Sun, 10-09-2005 - 12:09am |
Hi,
I have posted before about my concerns with my daughter Ella she is in E.I for O.T and P.T. She has senitivity to touch and issues with the left side of her body(walks off to the left a lot). She just had an annual eval from E.I and she came out ahead in everything except motor skills but I'm not so sure I don't have another child withh PDD. There are just little things about her and I'm not sure if it's just sensory stuff or what. When we play on the floor she gives great eye contact but when I hold her she never looks at me. I brought this up at the eval and they think sensory. She likes to fan pages in a book(also told this is sensory stuff). I guess my biggest concern is her speech and how unclear it is. She's 15 months and has about 25-30 words I can understand but a lot of what she says sound like throaty sing song kind of stuff.She is social but so is Jake, she's great at imitation and her play I would consider appropriate(Jake at this age would sit for long periods staring out the side of his eye at anything that would spin).I guess my question is are girls harder to spot?
Teresa
I have posted before about my concerns with my daughter Ella she is in E.I for O.T and P.T. She has senitivity to touch and issues with the left side of her body(walks off to the left a lot). She just had an annual eval from E.I and she came out ahead in everything except motor skills but I'm not so sure I don't have another child withh PDD. There are just little things about her and I'm not sure if it's just sensory stuff or what. When we play on the floor she gives great eye contact but when I hold her she never looks at me. I brought this up at the eval and they think sensory. She likes to fan pages in a book(also told this is sensory stuff). I guess my biggest concern is her speech and how unclear it is. She's 15 months and has about 25-30 words I can understand but a lot of what she says sound like throaty sing song kind of stuff.She is social but so is Jake, she's great at imitation and her play I would consider appropriate(Jake at this age would sit for long periods staring out the side of his eye at anything that would spin).I guess my question is are girls harder to spot?
Teresa

I know when they are older girls are harder to spot in general. If fact there is lots of writing out there about girls and women with AS being underdiagnosed because they express symptoms differently than their male counterparts. I don't know how that relates to toddlers however, but I expect that it could. Now my daughter can blend in better than some of her male counterparts even though in many ways she is more autistic than some of them. (I don't know them all). She has poor eye contact, poor communication skills, goes on incesantly about her special interests. It gets her into trouble because when she has challenges mainstream teachers will forget it is due to her autism. She doesn't "act out" but rather tends to withdraw or become oppositional.
I know our aspie girl at 15 months had 1 word that only I and her dad understood - dog. Any guesses what her obsession turned out to be? animals in general.
Cait was very typical ASD as a toddler and preschooler, however, in doctors appointments she always did well then. She would make some eye contact (not great but some with them) and was affectionate/social with me. She would even be social with the testers if they got her interest first. Others she would not interact with, but if they had cool things she was very compliant. I found out later though not in the same way that NT kids are, but she is still my best buddy and side kick.
However, outside testing situations and in preschool it was different. She had no use for other kids, her language was very odd and often echolalic, she tantrumed frequently and those tantrums could last hours even if you gave into her initial wants. She was very rigid about routines and no fear of just wandering off where ever we were. It was nearly impossible to take her to parks or stores because of that.
Looking back at that age I do know that she would have failed the MCHAT terribly so that is perhaps something you want to look at? I think they do that at 18 months more though.
Renee
I think a girl who is more severely impacted will be spotted, Whereas a higher functioning girl is less likely to be than a boy on the same level of functioning. I think there are several reasons for this:
People are more on the lookout for a PDD/ASD in boys. We all know the 4/1 rule, right?
I think generally, girls are mellower than boys, I know my DD generally shuts down in stessful situations, whereas my son goes wild -much easier to spot that he is having issues -particularly if you're a busy preschool teacher.
We didn't really start noticing things with her until she was about 23 months -a slight language delay. However, relative to Peter, she was so far ahead, we didn't think too much of it. It wasn't until the major sensory issues kicked in that we really started to get worried...
You DD has a lot of words. Is it just *words* or the rudiments of language? This is one of the BIG things which tripped me up when we were first evaluating Peter.
Although I often say that Peter didn't develop functional laguage until he was 4¼, he actually had a lot of *words* in good time. Only I was too stupid to know that words do not equal language. Most of his words were labels. He could name every Thomas the tank engine train that ever was. He could quote movie lines verbatim (His first 'sentence': "To infinity and beyond!!!!). So I checked the box that he was stringing words together -he WASN'T, but I didn't know the difference. (Those questions need to be worded more specifically. Us concrete people need that.)
He couldn't answer a yes or no question: "Do you want a cookie?" and he might say "Cookie" (echolalia), I took this as a 'yes" and I would give him one, and he would look at it, perplexed, and more often than not, toss it away. NOW I know that was a major red flag, but at the time, I thought he was *really* fickle. (*blush*)
I think the only word he could really communicate was "more". That was great once we figured out what he wanted "more" of. To communicate the initial need, He used to lead me to the pantry stand in front of it, expectantly. Then I would go through every snack in there, until he raised his hand to take the one he wanted. If the process lasted too long (more than two or three items), he would tantrum uncontollably
Just for the record: my DD is 5 and *still* isn't diagnosed. Offiially she is "at risk for Aspergers Syndrome" -she showed some traits -less in testing situations, although they did notice she has severe difficulties with more abstract concepts; but more through my communicating things I saw to the psychologist and mentioning my son's DX. Her language was functional from the start, although she does use a lot of echolalia as well (you should hear them do movie scenes together -it's hilarious)
I HTH somewhat.
-Paula
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Wow paula, That sounds like Cait's language. She had lots of words but had a very hard time using it effectively or understanding anything we said. I often recall it was right around 5 that we had our first "conversation" where she and I actually had a couple exchanges and understood each other. Functional language likely came in with speech therapy at nearly 4. By functional I mean she could request and I could understand and she could follow simple 1 step directions and some simple 2 step directions. But we still used PECS and visuals to communicate with her otherwise she just got frustrated adn didn't understand us.
But at 2 she could label ALL her letters, numbers, colors and shapes. By 4 she could Count to 100. Spell. Knew phonics (what words start with what sounds) but couldn't follow a simple direction or tell me what she wanted for lunch.
I should also say that Cait was identified younger than most girls and even younger than her brother due to her perculiar language delays and lack of social skills. Her brother didn't have delays but definitely had more intrusive behaviors from a young age. Because he didn't have the delays they thought it was SID, ADHD, OCD, behavior disorder, auditory processing delays, etc etc etc.
Renee
Edited 10/9/2005 6:58 pm ET ET by rbear4
Edited 10/9/2005 7:01 pm ET ET by rbear4