Getting a diagnosis of Autism or ADHD? Which is it?

[Guest guest]

Hi. My son has now turned 2 and is showing signs of autism. We are

having

problems getting an official diagnosis. His paediatrician puts autism

and

global delay 'with a question mark' on all her letters. At 18 months old

lost his previous ability to say words and still wasn't pointing

-

he would have failed every aspect of the CHAT (checklist for autism in

toddlers) yet the specialists still said they couldn't officially

diagnose

him.

Last autumn we took him to 6 special needs group sessions whereby the

speech

therapist was going to assess and try to help him with his

'significant communication disorder'. He didn't point until 21 months

old

and still has limited language skills, though he now says around 20

single

words. He also has hyperactivity issues and more recently he has began

pacing up and down the front room for hours, making strange noises and

turning his wrists round in circles - often he walks around in circles.

Recently he has began circling his feet as well as the circling flapping

motion he does with his hands. is getting very distressed when

we

are out and seems to have huge problems coping at the moment. He usually

loves going to the indoor play areas, yet last friday he had a meltdown

because he was unable to climb up a ramp in one of the play areas we

take

him to. We showed him another way to climb the equipment and he usually

climbs that way without any problems, yet once he decided the ramp was

the

only way up he got completely fixated with it and threw himself around

on

the floor screaming. He was inconsolable and we had to bring him home.

He

has very limited ability to communicate what he wants, and he is very

impatient and unable to wait a second for anything. He doesn't sleep

well

and the other night he was crying but kept laughing at the same time and

he

often cries or laughs for no obvious reason. He is the youngest of my 6

children and lacks the imaginative play my older children had at his

age.

has now began a second course at the special needs centre (an

hour

each week without us present) and the therapist is going to write a

report

on his difficulties. However she is still saying that he is too young to

diagnose as he is only 2 and she says most aren't diagnosed until the

age of

3. We are in the UK and I am hoping for a diagnoses so that we can move

forward with therapy to help and teach him some coping skills.

He

seems to have a good few days followed by a really bad week whereby he

is

extremely active and cannot sit still for a second, and gets extremely

distressed all of the time and is unable to wait a second for anything.

In

fact spends a lot of the time distressed which is why we are so

desperate to help him learn some coping skills. We find that discipline

is

very difficult with as his understanding is limited and I don't

feel

that he should be disciplined for his fixated ways if he is unable to

help

the way he behaves.

We know that loves music and is extremely musical. He can

perfectly

repeat a tune after hearing it only once. So we thought music would be a

good therapy and took him to a music school for an hour but he couldn't

cope

with the structure. He hates car drives as he cannot cope with sitting

still - he can be extremely distressed, but as soon as we put the Crazy

Frog

song on the stereo he is silenced imediately. So music could be

something

that helps cope when he is distressed. The transformation was

amazing - one minute he was hysterically screaming, yet stopped

immediately

when the Crazy Frog tune came on.

We are wondering if has ADHD as well as autism as he is

extremely

hyperactive and lacks concentration.

Does any of the above sound familiar, and have any of you have similar

experiences? We would really appreciate some advice.

Below is a list of things about that I printed off for the

special

needs co-ordinator last week.

Regards,

- signs of autism / ADHD at 2 years old. Febuary 2007

1. doesn't say Mum or refer to us as Mum and Dad.

2. He doesn't understand the word Mum and doesn't understand his 5

sibling's

names.

3. He has very poor general understanding and does not follow

instructions.

4. is constantly stimming - circling his hands, and now circles

feet

as well. Sometimes bites his hands. His stimming happens most of

the

time. For example when he is in the buggy his wrists are permanently

turning

or flapping, unless he is holding something.

5. bounces up and down on his knees and rocks up and down making

a

noise.

6. Sometimes appears in his own little world and tunes us all

out.

7. Other than on two occasions, (and echolalic phrases such as

" thereyougo " )

does not say two word sentences. Previously had a few

words

at 14 months old, but lost them and didn't talk again until around 21

months.

8. had fairly normal development up until around a year old

(though

he wasn't pointing) - he sat up early and crawled early (which is why we

don't

believe he has just global delay). Then around 14 or 15 months his

development suddenly changed drastically and he lost his previously

learnt

speech.

9. often appears to be deaf even though we know he can hear as

he

has grommets now and had his hearing tested. He was difficult to test as

he

rarely turned for the sounds and sometimes looked in the wrong

direction. We

believe has auditory processing problems as he sometimes looks

the

wrong way for a sound. Both hearing specialists who tested 's

hearing

said that he was very difficult to test because of his disorder. However

they have both stated that his hearing is at normal levels now.

10. Most of the time is unable to tell us what he wants. He is

able

to say 'cup' and 'muslin' but generally will scream instead.

11. paces backwards and forwards every day sometimes for hours

on

end. From one end of the room to the other, often making little noises.

12. He gets extremely distressed frequently and often for no apparent

reason. This is results in huge and frequent trantrums.

13. Circle walking - when holding our hand will try to pull us

to

walk round in a circle and when standing on his own often walks round in

circles.

14. doesn't engage in imaginary or pretend play other than

pushing

toy cars.

15. doesn't play with toys in the way my other 5 children did.

For

example he will not sit on a sit on and ride car, and does not play with

imaginary toys.

16. has sleep problems and wakes up screaming several times a

night

as if in a panic. He is then hard to settle.

17. He often laughs or cries for no apparent reason. He has got the

giggles

for no apparent reason in a play area before and had funny looks from

other

kids.

18. Mixed crying and laughing. Last weekend woke up crying in

his

sleep. The crying then turned to hysterical laughing at the same time,

even

though he was still clearly extremely distressed - it switched back and

forth from hysterical laughter to crying at approximately 5 second

intervals. This was extremely strange and frightening to watch.

19. doesn't show affection.

20. is extremely over-active and in general will not sit still

for a

second. He gets very distressed during car journeys and will scream very

loudly until we put on Crazy Frog tune to settle him down. Also

will

not tolerate being in the buggy unless the buggy is constantly on the

move,

and even then at times he cannot cope with it.

21. He often spends hours at a time with total avoidance of any eye

contact.

22. Lack of gesturing. started pointing to show at 21 months and

pointing to ask for things at 23 months and occasionally waves, but has

no

other body gestures. He doesn't nod his head or shrug his shoulders.

23. doesn't find hidden objects ie a crisp that was hidden under

a

block while he was watching.

24. He refuses to scribble with pencil and prefers to throw all the

pencils

on floor.

25. compulsively empties out toyboxes and any containers. He

tantrums if he is not able to empty everything out. He'll go round

emptying

all his pots of things eg toy cars, alphabet letters and if we try to

put

the small things back in their containers he has huge tantrums and tries

to

stop us. He seems to be obsessed with scattering things and any toys

with

detachable pieces must be detached.

26. gets overwhelmed in crowds. If there are a lot of people

around

he will scream and scream eg round a car boot sale. Also in the play

area he

is fine and does very well, until there are a lot of people. When that

happens he gets extremely distressed.

27. has fixated play. He has a whole tub of different shaped

wooden

blocks but will always dig out the red cylindrical blocks and line those

up.

28. He is still unable to feed himself without my hand over his guiding

the

spoon. is a very fussy eater and is unable to eat certain

textures

and foods. We have to blend up most of 's food in order to get

him to

eat. Although we do encourage finger foods for one meal per day.

29. He is still unable to undress or dress himself without significant

help

and will often tantrum during the dressing or undressing process while

putting arms through etc.

31. has certain food sensitivities and gets extremely

hyperactive

after bananas. He is also allergic to cow's milk as it make him vomit.

32. cannot cope with structure, for example the structure and

his

music lesson. We had to pull him out of his course as he could not cope

with

it.

33. He cannot cope with changing direction. If we're driving somewhere

and

have to do a 3 point turn or turn around and go back the other way, he

screams. Also at the music lesson, he got very upset when each person in

the

group was marching round in a circle had to turn around. He was OK until

we

had to turn around and march the other way.

34. cannot cope with any sort of waiting! He is extremely

impatient

and even while waiting for us to sign him in at the play area he screams

and

has powerful tantrums. Even something simple like sitting in the car for

a

few seconds after the engine has stopped, waiting for us to get him out

of

the car, can lead to him being very distressed and screaming.

35. answers any question with the word " yeah " and his tone for

the

word " yeah " is almost a questioning tone. Example, if you said " do you

want

a car or a book? " he will reply " yeah? " with a questioning tone.

36. Mood swings. has the strangest changes of mood. We've found

in

the past he'll have one week where he isn't quite as bad and is actually

able to learn and doesn't scream as much. Then something will click and

he

will have a terrible week after that where he doesn't sleep and spends

all

day and night distressed and not coping with anything. During his bad

periods his pacing gets non-stop throughout the day. Just recently we're

finding that he can change from good to bad very quickly indeed. For

example

at the play area last week when it got too crowded had a

complete

meltdown as he couldn't cope with the amount of people.

37. has claustrophobia and gets distressed in small areas such

as

the changing rooms in the swimming pool.