Bit of advice re autism?

[ilovebabybean]

Hi ladies

My son is 2 and has an assesment next week for his speach and social behavior after i took him to speak to someone regarding this...i have noticed the following-

He only says one word...dog but calls everything a dog! He has said dad and yeah before but just stopped, now its all dog! Even when im showing him a bus its DOG!

He is VERY violent (his sister has a black eye right now as he headbutted her ) and he is always hurting his little brother. No matter what i do he doesnt learn to stop and its all the time!

He hurts himself and wont stop even when crying.

He rarely waves may be twice in his life.

He doesnt sleep that well at night (his 8 month old brother sleeps better!)

He only really lines up his toys, stacks his blocks, he also clips all clipable things in the house obsessivley.

He doesnt seem to understand what im saying.

If he wants something he will either get angry and i wont have a clue whats up or he grunts and runs off expecting me to follow like a baby lassie!

He doesnt kiss or cuddle, hates all that.

I am now thinking he may be autistic...??

thank you for reading...if any of you have experienced the above i would love to hear about it?

xx

 

[deafgal]

dunno but My husband has an autism relative who did the same thing although it doesn't neccessary mean your lo has it as I know some kids do the same, autistic or not.He is a teen now but a wonderful kid.

does he respond to soft noise? some kids lose their hearing

 

[ilovebabybean]

Thank you for your reply...i have wondered before if he has hearing problems (took him to the doctors but he had a look and says his ears looked ok!) but i think that is more because he doesnt really pay attention, he just isnt interested! I can say his name or there be a noise loud or quiet and he just takes no notice...i have even called him quiet and super loud to see if he will look and he wont most of the time! Its impossible to keep his attention with a book.

We got him a set of cards that have pictures on to help him with his speech but unless the cat is at the front he gets annoyed!

Glad your husbands relative is doing well. My sisters husband is autistic and is a happy accountant done really well for himself, i had no idea til now!

 

[mummy2o]

He does sound like he's autistic. My son is also, although he never is violent and actually a very lovely boy, who generally keeps himself to himself.

His violence is probably coming from frustration and not being able to communicate properly with you. I'm not telling you what you should do but this is what I found helpful after my son was diagnosed and it has helped him understand more I think.

Routines. I'm sure you have loads in place already, but are they visual? Can he actually see what is happening next? Take morning time, my son would sit at a computer all day if he could but then we made a chart with pictures he could remove once he did that step with the activity he needed to do. The end one should always be something rewarding to see what they are working towards.

Does he have a special interest? If so try and engage him during this time even if its just talking and asking what he's doing. Do it daily and eventually he'll let you into his world.

Is something bothering him? Does he seem to get worse in certain times of days or doing something different? If so could you think of a reason why? Some autistic children have sensory issues, maybe he has hyper hearing and a sound you can't hear is bothering him, or maybe its a light thing.

These are a few suggestions for now but good luck and hopefully everything will sort itself out.

 

[ilovebabybean]

Thank you for your advice and info on what helps you and your little man

Visual routines sound like an excellent way of getting him to understand...how old is your son? What age did you start that? At the moment the only way i can describe him is like an oversized baby, he has no understanding when i ask him what he is doing for what im on about! Most of the time if i play with him he doesnt really like my involvment and in the end gets a bit cross!! He seems to like playing/doing things his way...which when he has an 8 n half month old brother cutting in to mess things up does not go down well!

He will be having speech therapy as well as being assesed next thursday so im hoping this will help xx

 

[mummy2o]

My mum knew something wasn't right with him since he was 6 months. He always reached his milestones late, and some he hasn't yet accomplished like toilet training despite him being 5. He was diagnosed just after his 3rd birthday I believe but we had speech therapist and a brilliant pediatrician who thought it was most likely autism and been dealing with it since then. He is at different levels on everything. To date he's about 2-3 verbal he's at his terrible two's and everything is no. We are just starting conversations with his been 2-3 word responses. He's just started imagination play and will have a conversation with himself (in his language) with toys and he likes doll's houses right now but again playing on that for about 10-20 minutes max but its a long time for him!

Prior to his diagnoses I believe I was making his commands to long for him to understand and was say 'lets get our shoes on so we can go in the car' for example. That in his brain was later explained who is mummy talk to and what does she want. If you want his attention you need to say his name and the task he needs to do one at a time. So it then changed to Ossian shoes. That was it. It took a few attempts with me helping him at first by holding his hand and finding his shoes but after a couple of goes I could then just say that and he knew what I wanted. The next would be Ossian car and he would then know he was going in the car. Since then he has progressed to remember what he's doing for the whole day. It just practicing constantly and when he has mastered that level try and push him to the next, if its to much go back a step.

How are you trying to involve with your son? If your physically playing with him that won't be the best idea maybe just watching him and observing with talking would be better and he'll accept you for that.

Another question is do they have separate nap times or the same? I was just thinking if they had different times you can spend time with each whilst the other is napping (although I would miss the down time when they are both napping so I can understand if this isn't possible)

Another idea which worked for one of my friends who has two autistic child was to give her middle child his own space in like a child's tent and that was his space and that seemed to work well for them. She could keep an eye on him whilst the other two were doing something else.

As for the visual aids we did them as soon as I was told about them. You can use pictures you take yourself so he can see himself doing it or we just found a lot on the internet. I won't like it did take a while to begin with as it was new and change isn't always liked, but after a couple of goes he seemed to get the idea and eventually knew before he saw the next picture as the order never changed.

It will take time just don't expect miracles to happen over night, but if your willing to put the effort in the rewards are well worth it.