Aspergers' in toddlers?
Find a Conversation
Aspergers' in toddlers?
| Mon, 03-13-2006 - 1:13pm |
Is Asperger's ever diagnosed in toddler age children? What are some of the typical signs in younger children? My son is 2.7 years old and has a lot of sensory issues and some odd behaviors, as well as social issues. A psychologist mentioned Asperger's as a possibility (but to wait and see). Any info would be great.
Thanks,
Jen

Pages
Powered by CGISpy.com
Perhaps if Kailey had gaze avoidance and lacked imaginative play she would have been diagnosed. She used to have an adversion to eye contact(as does my ten month old, who also hates to sleep) but I worked daily with her to get her to look me in the eyes. Although I have AS, I don't have consistant gaze avoidance. Some people (usually strangers or when I am extremely nervous) I can't seem to look away from. They become uncomfortable with my gaze PERSISTANCE and some have asked me to stop looking at them (even though we were talking.) With family and close friends, though, I don't typically look in their eyes. And when I do have gaze persistance I don't remember much of what the person says and I must look away in order to formulate a response of any kind. So, there is an obvious problem with eye contact, but to specialists who don't really know their stuff, there is no problem whatsoever.
Back to my daughter, I also practice pretend play with her every day. No lack of imaginative skills is not a reason to withold a diagnosis, either. The autism specialist who is the facilitator for my AS support group said that many of her patients have wonderful imaginations, but tend to get too involved in their imaginary world. I did this too, and my daughter tends to not understand the difference between real and imaginary (but then she's only three, so this may be normal.)
Have you found a method of discipline that has helped with your child? I can't find anything. Once she gets it into her head that she wants things a certain way there is no way to get her to change. I have tried rewards, timeouts, spankings, and nothing works. IF anything, it worsens the problem. She's better if I just ignore her! As a result, her two year old sister imitates her behaviour, and then doesn't understand when she is punished for doing soemthing that KAiley does all the time.
Powered by CGISpy.com
I thought about ABA. I talked to her therapist about it and she said that she has found that it helps some extreme cases in patients of hers, but that she doesn't recomend it. She said that all of her patients who have done ABA for a while have squashed spirits. She doesn't recomend ABA to anyone. She also said that it's very expensive and most insurance companies don't pay anything.
But, that doesn't mean that it is a bad idea or that it wouldn't be great for your son. I just decided based on our conversation not to try it except as a last resort.
Tina,
Some doctors consider aspergers to be any child with an autism spectrum disorder who began to have single words prior to the age of 2 and phrases by the age of 3. If your son was three and was using phrases at all and on the autism spectrum than that would be my guess as to why that was the diagnosis given. That is actually accurate according to the DSM4. The criteria is almost exactly the same as autism with the exception that there is not clinically significant delay in language or cognitive skills. In the DSM that is defined as single words by 2 and communicative phrases by 3. That is how Cait is dx'ed with AS instead of autism or PDD-NOS. She was also language delayed but did meet that criteria. Now she is the stereotypic Aspie girl.
My guess would be that your son had enough autism symptoms to say he was on the spectrum and had enough language to meet that criteria and thus AS was diagnosed. Other doctors may have said PDD-NOS (Like Cait first got) or autism spectrum. There is so much variance it is silly. Fortunately they are trying to clarify diagnostics some now for the next DSM though they will likely make it clear as mud.
Renee
That is unfortunate that this was your doctors experience with ABA. I know that it does happen and some ABA providers are less that perfect, but ABA really shouldn't be like that at all.
Actually, I would look for a provider that uses an eclectic approach using the best of all treatments or at least basing treatment around an individual child. Ones that know and utilize ABA, floortime, sensory integration, etc. For some skills ABA is really great, but for other skills floortime is a better option. Then inbetween using sensory breaks and sensory diet, etc. I am concerned with any providers that insist on using only thier preferred approach.
Actually I am rather partial to PRT and TEACCH. PRT is kind of a mix of floortime with ABA. Some also call it "incidental teaching" which is slightly different but not much. TEACCH is more of an educational approach to using ABA type practices. There is lots of visual schedules and work on being able to gain independence. It works great for preschool and early elementary classroom for children with ASD.
Renee
I have always wondered why Jake got a pdd-nos dx rather than an AS dx because he spoke in sentences at 26 months at the time of his evaluation. I know this may sound like a stupid question but will his dx change to AS or can you keep a pdd-nos diagnosis for life? I often think if I had taken him at age 3 he would have been given an AS dx, it's so silly like splitting hairs. Can anybody give a clear distinction between HFA, AS or NLD.
Teresa
Hi Jen....
My son is almost 7 with AS, and has shown signs since infancy believe it or not! But as a toddler, he also had a lot of sensory & behavior issues, but most of all, he was obsessed with the alphabet, numbers and shapes all before the age of two. Does your son have any obsessive interests? That is definitely a sign! So it is quite possible for a toddler to show sign, well, at least mine did! Good luck Jen!
Nancy
Teresa,
See this is what gets me!
Powered by CGISpy.com
Yup they have changed over time and it depends on who you see. Currently my kids are autism spectrum but with a high vocabulary, language and cognitive skills for an autistic so thier diagnosis is Aspergers. Their language still has significant difficulties as far as conversation, pragmatics and processing. But they have advanced vocabulary and sentence structure (ie little professor) so AS it is for now.
Honest, there really isn't a clear distinction between HFA and AS. In fact, HFA isn't even in the DSM4 so there is no real clear diagnosis for it so there is alot of debate of what it is.
Some say that those with autism spectrum disorder but initially delayed langauge who are doing well and are cognitively able and language is caught up are HFA. Often HFA will look alot like kids with AS only perhaps they didn't speak until 3 or later. Others will say that HFA is anyone with autism with an IQ that is not in the mentally delayed range. ie - IQ over 70.
So for some Aspergers and HFA are one in the same. Others (particularly the Yale child study people) think AS is something completely different than ASD. That it is more in line with NLD than autism and a social learning disorder.
My husband has told me some of the ideas they have come up with under the new DSM for diagnostics and honestly it confuses teh bejeepers out of me even more. He was trying to explain to me about diagnosis of Aspergers and Aspergers-NOS as well as other things. Like what we needed to do was to come up with MORE classifications. Like we aren't confused enough already!
So in short depends on who you talk to where the line is drawn between the 3 but there really is no clear cut line at this time and really, HFA doesn't exist.
Like my husband says, autism is autism is autism. You can't be a little autistic like you can't be a little pregnant. You either are or you are not. Aspergers is autism. HFA is autism, etc.
Renee
Pages