looking autistic

[Guest guest]

<<I joined this group some time ago. My daughter was showing so many

signs of autism and i was looking for some info. She has been going to

speech and has greatly improved. she will be 2 in june and now talks.

no 2 word sentences yet, but doing great. she has had a few ot visits

and i was told that she may have sensory integration issues. I was

told by sooner start that there is no way she is autistic since she

points.>>

Early intervention does not want to diagnose young children who are

not classically autistic as autistic. They feel it's too soon to

tell. That's fine except when they tell people " your child is NOT

autistic " because of something stupid like she points or in interested

in adults it just makes my blood boil. I went through this too with

my now almost 6 year old. I took him at 2, said I thought he was

autistic and was told that he was definitely NOT autistic because he

was so social and friendly, pointed, joint attention, etc. This went

on, even though he qualified for services, until he was four years

old. It wasn't until I got a medical diagnosis that they finally

agreed he was on the spectrum. My son is very high functioning--along

the lines of Asperger's but he is ON the spectrum. Don't let anyone

tell you this--assume she is autistic until you are certain she isn't

and judge that by her behavior with children NOT adults. I mean of

course my Asperger's son is good with adults--that's a stereotype!

But when he was almost four you could tell with his peers that he was

very different and they finally agreed with what I told them when he

was barely 2 years old! He's very verbal, pointed at 1 year old, is

social, outgoing, etc. but he is also on the spectrum in huge ways.

So do not listen to stupid advice like this--err on the side of

caution and don't lose valuable time and therapy that might help!

Just my two cents from someone who went through the same thing!

jennifer