Possible Autism

I would give your son some more time before you get too worried. My son turned 3 last month and did many of the same things you are describing. He did everything very late for his age. From the age of 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 he was obsessed with spinning things. He would spin anything he could and those seemed to be the only toys he liked. If he had a ride on toy/car, he wouldn't use it that way. He would merely flip it over and spin the wheels. He was never really around other kids and would act like they didn't exist if they were near him. If he was building blocks or lego's they had to be the same size straight up in the air. If you built them another way, he became very upset. When he was 22 months, our daughter was born and I started staying home with both kids. He really started some strange behavior then. At 27 months, we went to a family party with relatives we hadn't seen in awhile. About a week before this, Sam started focusing on anything with straight edges and lines and would walk back and forth staring at the item. At the party, he wanted to walk around the tent poles constantly and stare at them. We didn't stay long because he hadn't had a nap and was throwing terrible fits. Later that evening, my mom called me and said my cousin took her aside and said we should really have Sam tested because he appeared to be Autistic. This upset all of us greatly but we weren't sure what to do. During the next week his line obsession increased dramatically. He would spend at least 50% of his day walking back and forth staring at the banister spindles, chairrail molding on the wall, corners of walls, poles, etc. It got to a point where it was like a game to him. He would walk straight ahead, turn his eyes as far to the side as he could and walk fast, over and over past the object. After another week of this, we decided to call the doctor. He always played by himself even when he was around other kids, he spoke only a few words and most people couldn't understand him, etc. What confused us was he was extremely affectionate and loving, and I know many autistic kids are not. My cousin has a five year old who is austistic and until recently they could hardly touch him and he is just starting to speak in the last year. We too thought, maybe he was high functioning if he was autistic. We took him to the doctor in mid-Sept. We explained our concerns and while he was there he did fixate on the cabinet edges of her office. She gave us a referral for the Autism center at our Children's Hospital. The waiting list was so long that his first appointment was not until the last week of December. While waiting the 3 1/2 months, his line obsession decreased drastically. He was doing it occasionally, maybe 10% of his day. His evaluations from Speech, Psychology, and the Pediatric Dr. finished up at the end of January. They told me he was not Autistic but displayed the signs of Language Development Disorder, and Oppositional Behavior which they said was probably a result of his inability to communicate. They recommended we contact Early Intervention Services and enroll him in Speech Therapy. He began both in later March. Immediately his Speech Therapist and EI Specialist both said we should have an OT evaluation done because they both felt he had Sensory issues. In April, the OT evaluator diagnosed him with Sensory Integration Dsyfunction. We now think this is the root of most of his delays and problems. We have seen dramatic improvement in our son since therapy began. He is currently in Speech and OT, each once a week and has home visits from Early Intervention about twice a month. Last week he began an Early Intervention Transtion group to help him get ready for preschool. He had enough of delay in speech, fine motor skills, and adaptive behavior to qualify his transfer to the School System Preschool since he turned 3. In the last 5 months his speech seemed to explode. He has an amazing vocabluary now. He is using sentences that are 3 to 6 words long. Most people can understand a majority of what he is saying now. He has a great memory and his very good at telling you things and describing things to you. He is still having problems with processing questions you ask him and has to really think about it. He is now beginning to interact more with children and doesn't completely ignore them. He tends to like the children who are 1 to 2 years older than him. He is improving with his transitions, but still needs help with maintaining his attention and focusing on designated activities. Our private speech ends in August and OT ends in mid October. When January comes around we will definitely enroll him in our insurance approved 20 visits for each again. Beginning the end of August he will start preschool 2 hours 45 minutes a day, Mon - Thurs, so we are really hoping this improves his social skills. Our son is a Visual Learner and one thing that really seemed to help him was following a picture schedule. This really seemed to help with language and transitions because I could show him a picture to let him know what we were going to do or what his choices were. You can find the picture system info usually under Autism categories. His EI person got us started with a board and many picture clips. I recently found a few inexpensive CDs that have great pictures with words that I print and laminate myself. Well I didn't mean to ramble so much but I wanted to let you know how much of an improvenment we have seen in our son between 2 and 3 because your son sounded a lot like mine.

Angela

Lurker here. I'm looking for possible disorders that my 5 yr. old may/could have. I also thought autism since he was very little. But, he is affectionate, makes eye contact, etc. He does this thing (similiar to the thing your son does-it's repetitive)with a string. Any string. A shoestring,etc. I can't remember exactly when it started but it was long ago. He does it a little less than before but he still does it. He also does this thing where he puts his face really close to an object like a table and then taps it with his fingers. He also has serious tantrums and did prefer to play alone w/ things--he's gotten much better with this though. I talked to his doctor about the string thing and she either didn't get it or wasn't concerned about it. I talked to her about my concerns about autism and she said she didn't see any real signs of it. Anyway, at his 4 yr check up she said he didn't seem to be communicating w/ her as he should be for his age and sent him to a speech pathologist. He was diagnosed w/ a language disability-primarily expressive-I think this is seriously related to his tantrums. He goes to a preschool that has a speech therapist on hand and a special ed teacher. I love it. He does wonderful there. He also doesn't throw fits there--he's only there 3 hours M-Th but out for summer now. He's 5 but will go another year to preschool and then kdgtr. I'm still worried about him. He still does this thing with the string. You know those little play telephones w/ the red receiver and the eyes in the front that roll when you pull it on the string? That's his favorite string toy. He will go get it and sometimes be at it for awhile if you let him. He just sits in front of it and curls the string up, puts his face close, and then pulls away over and over. My MIL was here and she always gets up in his face about it and frankly, it pisses me off-but that's another story. Anyway, he seems embarrassed by it. I don't know what to think. I just found out that my dh's nephew has been diagnosed w/ sensory integration sort of ADD. I don't know much about it but was thinking this could be what is wrong w/ my son. My SIL also said that they don't give their ds medication but a small cup of coffee in the morning and it gets him through the day at school. She said his teacher thinks he's on meds. He's doing great in school now.

Oh my, sorry it got so long. Just looking for a little help. TIA

Jennifer, ds jimmy 8, ds corey 5 (expressive language disorder)