Autism? long post.

[sw2129]

My 3 yr old son has had bad/weird behavior for some time. Some we are very worried about so took him to doctors many time with no help. We finally took him to my husbands doctor (who is fantastic) and within 10 mins of being there he said its possible he might have autism. We are still waiting to see a specialist, told it will be January 2014. Its been hard to try and deal with this, we have done some online research and tried to change how we approach things. The doctor told us that he will have the lower spectrum (cant remember exactly what he said). Has anyone seen these in their children
*He has no sense of danger, he will run in the road, lean over the top of the stairs, climb on anything high with out a care.
*he will threaten us with knifes at dinner, we have hid them all just in case. He doesn't watch anything with violence so not sure where he has got it from.
*he is obsessed with orange and all things orange.
*If he asks/talks to someone, they must answer. He will ignore anyone else who may answer and will get louder until he is answered by the right person.
*we have to explain in detail what will happen during the day, and will often have to repeat it to him.
*he gets very angry and will spit, hit, kick, pick up heavy objects to throw at us/brothers. (he is very strong for his age and can quite easily pick up our dinning chairs/coffee table)
*he must finish a job/tv programme etc before he will go out or do something else.
* then sometimes he can be so nice, he will help out with shopping, cleaning, washing.

It is so hard to deal with this as we unsure if we are doing everything right. If anyone has any advice that would be fab.

sorry its a long post and thanks for reading

 

[Ninagrrl]

I only know a little about autism but my mom had similar problems with my brother. He even set the kitchen closet door on fire when he was 4 and she kept a leash on him in public. When he was a year old, if she had to do something she would turn the playpen over on him and put stuff on top of it to keep him safe. He wouldn't ever take no for an answer and would do bad things and then blame them on other people (including me, who was under a year at the time and usually couldn't do what he was blaming me for). She said that he would throw himself on the floor at the store and then scream that she pushed him.

It ended up being something called oppositional defiant disorder. I'm not saying it's not autism, just something else you might want to look into just in case.

 

[sw2129]

Thank you, will look this up but will wait and see what happens with specialist.

another note just seen that your son was born the day after mine, simple things make me smile lol

Thank you

 

[mummy2o]

It could be autism plus something else. The no sense of danger is pretty typical with boys with autism, some girls also, but more likely boys. Also great obsession with something. My sons is computers and would play they 24/7 with only going to the toilet or bed if left to his own devices. However, he isn't violent and very placid little boy, but if he's being interrupted to go horse riding he might have a temper tantrum like a 2 year old (he's older at 6, diagnosed at 3 and a half) but some will get physically violent.

As for what your doing in the day, maybe a visual aid will help him. It helps a lot of children with all different types of special needs and even normal children! When my son was younger before he could memorise all he did in a day we had a visual timetable in a place he could see and would take off the thing he last did e.g get dressed, then put that in the done pile then move on to the next task, which might be shopping/pre-school etc and once done he would then take that off. It helped him greatly. I can't help much out for the questions as my son was pretty non verbal and even now is a couple of years behind in language development, but lately he has asked questions to people by saying their name and who is it? Normally logo's and his favourite at the moment is HIT entertainment. And generally asks everyone in the room one by one and if you answer out of turn, he'll ask the original person again. But he will remember if you have answered the question.

What worked for another friend who has 2 autistic boys and one normal boy was have a time out tent. Just a pop-up tent which was dark a calming for one of the autistic boys so he had some were peaceful he could vent and could come out once he had calm down if he was getting a bit violent, or the other thing he could do was chuck soft things like cushions and cuddly toys into an area if he needed to throw something. Is it possible to implement either of these? As I said I generally have a non violent son so I can't help you out much. But with the timetable, and either of these constance is the key, children are reluctant to change and it can take several times until they understand what is expected. Don't give up though as the rewards on the other end are well worth all the hard effort you put in.

 

[Dezireey]

My nephew is autistic but he is 2 years old and he is already quite bad. He does not communicate at all and has the developmental age of a 10 month old baby. He is showing signs now of becoming aggressive if he cant have his way, hates loud noises, no sense of danger, doesn't speak at all, no eye contact, behaves as if other kids around him don't actually exist and he also just runs back and forth in a room repeatedly.

It sounds as if you need to speak to someone asap and ask for advice in dealing with any aggressive behaviour. Its no fun as they get older and stronger and less easy to control. I wouldn't wait for specialists, call them and say that you need help asap and you need to be told methods and ways of dealing with him as you are afraid for his and your own safety. There are definitely tips and tricks out there to help deal with autistic children, have you also thought about actual classes or even a course that specialises in this?

 

[sw2129]

Thank you both for advice there is alot of things i can try
Thats another thing i forgot to add and thats the loud noises, especially hand dryers in public toilets, we now have to take out wipes and that alcohol rub stuff so we can wash.

Gonna write this all down and try some tomorrow, thanks again. I feel like i have a bit of hope in helping him x

 

[mummy2o]

My son doesn't like hand dryers either. When they come on, whilst he's going to the toilet (he can only sit down at the moment) he's got to the habit of telling himself 'don't worry Ossian. It's only the hand dryer.' He refers himself by his name all the time plus has a lot of conversations with himself, might be as he's an only child right now. When he was younger though he would cling on to me and dig his hands in. He doesn't like the hoover much either.

 

[Ninagrrl]

My son doesn't like hand dryers either. When they come on, whilst he's going to the toilet (he can only sit down at the moment) he's got to the habit of telling himself 'don't worry Ossian. It's only the hand dryer.' He refers himself by his name all the time plus has a lot of conversations with himself, might be as he's an only child right now. When he was younger though he would cling on to me and dig his hands in. He doesn't like the hoover much either.

OT, but my son doesn't have an autism diagnosis but we are in the process of getting him reevaluated (was seen at 15 months and they said unlikely but I think they were wrong and that he was too young for diagnosis). He likes to look in mirrors at himself right now and always says "Look at Holden?" to ask if he can go look in the mirror at himself. He's an only child but I think he has a harder time in associating me and I into sentences. Then again, he also just recently started talking in more then a mimicking fashion within the last 3 months.