Is 3.5 too young to test for Asperger's / Autisim

[minkydog]

I spoke to my sister today and she said that my niece was going to call and ask for a referral to a child psychologist. I will call her tonight to see if she did.

I think both my sister and niece were in denial that there was a problem until I brought it up so I don't think my niece really pushed the pediatrician for answers. Now I wish I would have said something sooner. It has been evident for awhile but neither me nor my mom wanted to mention it. It was really hard telling her I think there is something wrong with your baby.

Yikes! I see a LOT of red flags!

I have to tell you, my sister was in denial about her daughter for 13 YEARS. Her daughter does a lot of the same things--no eye contact, couldn't carry a conversation outside of Pokemon or Star Wars speak, extremely picky eater(I think she eats french fries, oatmeal, and chicken nuggets.) The oddest thing about her is she has NO sense of humor whatsoever. In fact, when you talk to her she is very condesending (mostly because my sister had told her over and over how smart she is.) I dont' think I've ever seen her crack a smile. I have a son with severe autism, and I'm a pediatric RN with 36 years experience, so I am not uneducated about this. But I could not make my sister see what was staring her in the face. And she is a teacher with two master degrees!

Unfortunatly, this child lost valuable years and now she's a freshman in HS. The older she gets, the weirder she gets. IMO, my sister has dropped the ball in a big way. I fear for my niece because they have made very few efforts to prepare her for the road of life.

 

[tasha99]

No, it's not too early for a diagnosis! Early intervention is key, so get her to a Child Find screening ASAP. As others have mentioned, Asperger Syndrome won't be in the DSM-V.

Btw, there was a study done on kids who were diagnosed with autism. Almost all of them were identifiable by looking at their first birthday movies (things like no joint attention, no turning their head at hearing their names, no eye contact, etc.) A lot of info is usually already present, but not noticed at that young age.

 

[Southerngirl71]

I am really not sure now exactly what my niece was asking the dr to check for. I think up until this time she was just telling him she was hyper and maybe had adhd. She did call the dr yesterday after I mentioned everything to her and he said bring her in on Friday. He will do a very quick evaluation and more than likely give her a referral to see someone at the Children's Hospital in New Orleans. I will be seeing them all on Saturday. I think I will go to Barnes and Nobles and pick up a few books for her. I can tell she is really nervous and worried now but also very excited about the prospect of things getting better. I guess in a way it is not a "real problem" until you acknowledge it and now she is forced to accept that there are definently issues. Thanks everyone for your advice.

 

[Liberty Belle]

I am really not sure now exactly what my niece was asking the dr to check for. I think up until this time she was just telling him she was hyper and maybe had adhd. She did call the dr yesterday after I mentioned everything to her and he said bring her in on Friday. He will do a very quick evaluation and more than likely give her a referral to see someone at the Children's Hospital in New Orleans. I will be seeing them all on Saturday. I think I will go to Barnes and Nobles and pick up a few books for her. I can tell she is really nervous and worried now but also very excited about the prospect of things getting better. I guess in a way it is not a "real problem" until you acknowledge it and now she is forced to except that there are definently issues. Thanks everyone for your advice.

That's a good idea. Even if her daughter isn't diagnosed with autism, adhd, or spd/sid (though, sure sounds like it's at least one of those), she does have some of the behaviors that go along with it, so the books with help her understand her daughter and know how best to help her at home.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

I am really not sure now exactly what my niece was asking the dr to check for. I think up until this time she was just telling him she was hyper and maybe had adhd. She did call the dr yesterday after I mentioned everything to her and he said bring her in on Friday. He will do a very quick evaluation and more than likely give her a referral to see someone at the Children's Hospital in New Orleans. I will be seeing them all on Saturday. I think I will go to Barnes and Nobles and pick up a few books for her. I can tell she is really nervous and worried now but also very excited about the prospect of things getting better. I guess in a way it is not a "real problem" until you acknowledge it and now she is forced to accept that there are definently issues. Thanks everyone for your advice.

Good for her! No one wants to hear something is wrong with their kid. She gets kudos for acknowledging something is wrong and doing something about it. Good for you for being a concerned family member!

 

[Aladora]

Just chiming in as a parent. My son was screened for ASD the first time when he was 3 1/2 but because he is on the very high end of the spectrum, he was not diagnosed until his second screening when he was almost 6.

Our screening might be different since we live in Canada, but ours consisted of a multi-page questionnaire for us to fill out, followed by a 2 day evaluation with 1 developmental pediatrician, 1 speech language pathologist and 1 psychologist. Then the specialists got together to discuss and them met with me and my husband to go over the results.

Early intervention is truly the key and if your grand-niece needs help then the sooner she can get started the better. Learning how our son's mind worked was so helpful, it's not that there is anything "wrong" with him, he just thinks differently and feels more intensely than neuro-typical people. Know how to teach him and how to help him integrate with society has been as much a learning curve for him as for us!

Good luck to your niece and her daughter!

 

[RunningGirl]

Skip the pediatrician and find the local Early Intervention program. I noticed red flags with my son at 15 months, got him diagnosed and into a specialized program at 2.

I agree with this. Ours is through our public school system. They have a wonderful program for evaluation and intervention with preschoolers. LOTS of experience with many different issues!

 

[tcufrog]

My son who has Aspergers is 6. It's amazing what a huge impact early intervention can make. It changed my son's life. She needs a referral to a developmental pediatrician.

 

[Southerngirl71]

Dr's appointment is at 1:00 today. Hopefully she gets a referral. I can't imagine she would not. It also turns out that the mom of one of her friend's is involved in a program at their public school involving children with special needs. She is checking into that also.

I went ahead and ordered a couple of books from Amazon that range from trying to get a child with Asperger's to eat to potty training techniqus. I am the youngest of 6 kids and there is a 20 year age difference between my oldest sister and me so my nieces and nephews are just a few years younger than me. I was never able to have kids of my own so my husband and I take great pleasure in spoiling the children of my nieces and nephews and have regular slumber parties. I am looking forward to the day when my niece feels comfortable enough to let her out of her sight so she can participate in all the fun. I plan on helping her as much as I can. Will keep everyone posted and thanks again for all the much needed advice.

 

[mfd25wife]

Dr's appointment is at 1:00 today. Hopefully she gets a referral. I can't imagine she would not. It also turns out that the mom of one of her friend's is involved in a program at their public school involving children with special needs. She is checking into that also.

I went ahead and ordered a couple of books from Amazon that range from trying to get a child with Asperger's to eat to potty training techniqus. I am the youngest of 6 kids and there is a 20 year age difference between my oldest sister and me so my nieces and nephews are just a few years younger than me. I was never able to have kids of my own so my husband and I take great pleasure in spoiling the children of my nieces and nephews and have regular slumber parties. I am looking forward to the day when my niece feels comfortable enough to let her out of her sight so she can participate in all the fun. I plan on helping her as much as I can. Will keep everyone posted and thanks again for all the much needed advice.

Yay! I'm glad she has an appointment. I have friends raising a grandson who was showing signs of problems. He was evaluated and diagnosed with autism and a sensory issue. They wer able to get him enrolled into a daycare/Occ Therapy Center that has teachers who specialize in these things. I don't know a lot about it all, but they said he has started showing some improvement.

 

[Robbi]

My friend's son was diagnosed at a younger age than your niece. His mom worked very hard with him and attended all kinds of seminars. He went from non verbal, don't touch me, to a lovable child with an extensive vocabulary. Tonight is his 11th birthday party. He's done very well in school. Sometimes, he does go off into his own world but not as often as in the past. The thing is doctors have told her that once kids with autism hit their teens, a few things could happen:
1. He stays the same.
2. He shows even fewer signs of autism.
3. He regresses to about a 2 year old.
She's pretty nervous but she's also optimistic and not giving up on him. Early intervention makes a HUGE difference in the quality of life for these children.

Good for your sister! She's very lucky to have you and your mom in her life. If she doesn't get the result she wants from the doctor, tell her to see another one.

 

[Southerngirl71]

Thanks so much everyone. She had the appt today and was given the referral. The dr said he really does not think that is it but gave her the referral anyway. The dr is the same pediatrician my niece went to 25 years ago. She said all he did was a wellness check up and brought her up to date on her shots. Hopefully she gets an appointment soon with the special program he is referring her to.

 

[GraysMom]

I am currently a special instructor (specializing in speech) with Early Intervention. As PPs have mentioned, she needs to be seen by a developmental ped who can determine through testing and parental interviews/questionnaires whether there is an issue. At the very least they would probably diagnose her with PDD (Pervasive Devlopmental Disorder-sometimes called PDD-NOS meaning 'not otherwise specified') or Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) if they don't have enough details or the child won't participate in the testing.

A good book for kids with sensory issues is called The Out of Sync Child.

The very limited diet she eats makes me wonder if she would benefit from a gluten-free, casein-free (milk protein) diet. There are kids who seem to crave/self limit their diets to mainly/only gluten and casein filled foods. I was reading a book called Let Me Hear Your Voice by Catherine Maurice. The book is written by a mom of two autistic kids and details how a GFCF diet and intensive (40 hrs a week or more) therapy helped her kids learn/recover many of the neurotypical behaviors of kids their age. The book explains that for some reason these kid's bodies process the gluten/casein into a morphine-like product, so basically they are "addicted" to the gluten/casein and will actually go through withdrawl when it is removed. Very interesting reading, that's for sure.

I currently work with a child who was diagnosed with moderate autism at age 2 1/2. His mom honestly had no idea but immediately made an appointment with a developmental ped when I recommended it after his third session. Unfortunately, we only have one dev ped in our area of almost a million people, and the wait is 18+ months . Luckily, I also was able to get him OT services and we managed to get him squeezed in with the dev ped 5 months early or he wouldn't have had a formal diagnosis until he was almost 3 and aging out of Early Intervention. Having the formal diagnosis had opened the door to him receiving Medical Assistance, additional OT and speech therapies each week, as well as special groups, such as the Miracle League, for kids with disabilities. He will transition to the Intermediate Unit when he ages out of EI at age 3. At the IU he will be going to a special preschool where therapists are in the classroom providing intensive therapies tailored to his needs.

Before DS8 was born, I taught kindergarten and first grade in a public school. Even allowing for varying degrees of severity in autistic kids, I could still tell who had had EI therapies. The earlier the therapy starts, the further the child can progress, truly applies to autistic/SPD/PDD kids.

 

[thedonduck]

I am currently a special instructor (specializing in speech) with Early Intervention. As PPs have mentioned, she needs to be seen by a developmental ped who can determine through testing and parental interviews/questionnaires whether there is an issue. At the very least they would probably diagnose her with PDD (Pervasive Devlopmental Disorder-sometimes called PDD-NOS meaning 'not otherwise specified') or Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) if they don't have enough details or the child won't participate in the testing.

A good book for kids with sensory issues is called The Out of Sync Child.

The very limited diet she eats makes me wonder if she would benefit from a gluten-free, casein-free (milk protein) diet. There are kids who seem to crave/self limit their diets to mainly/only gluten and casein filled foods. I was reading a book called Let Me Hear Your Voice by Catherine Maurice. The book is written by a mom of two autistic kids and details how a GFCF diet and intensive (40 hrs a week or more) therapy helped her kids learn/recover many of the neurotypical behaviors of kids their age. The book explains that for some reason these kid's bodies process the gluten/casein into a morphine-like product, so basically they are "addicted" to the gluten/casein and will actually go through withdrawl when it is removed. Very interesting reading, that's for sure.

I currently work with a child who was diagnosed with moderate autism at age 2 1/2. His mom honestly had no idea but immediately made an appointment with a developmental ped when I recommended it after his third session. Unfortunately, we only have one dev ped in our area of almost a million people, and the wait is 18+ months . Luckily, I also was able to get him OT services and we managed to get him squeezed in with the dev ped 5 months early or he wouldn't have had a formal diagnosis until he was almost 3 and aging out of Early Intervention. Having the formal diagnosis had opened the door to him receiving Medical Assistance, additional OT and speech therapies each week, as well as special groups, such as the Miracle League, for kids with disabilities. He will transition to the Intermediate Unit when he ages out of EI at age 3. At the IU he will be going to a special preschool where therapists are in the classroom providing intensive therapies tailored to his needs.

Before DS8 was born, I taught kindergarten and first grade in a public school. Even allowing for varying degrees of severity in autistic kids, I could still tell who had had EI therapies. The earlier the therapy starts, the further the child can progress, truly applies to autistic/SPD/PDD kids.

Thanks for the info about gluten. I knew that they were finding some correlation to autism, but I had no clue there was an addiction correlation! DS has verbal apraxia and severe gluten addiction so I started doing some research tonight and it really seems like there is a strong correlation . I will be taking my findings to both his pedi as well as his speech therapist.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090714104002.htm

 

[sookie]

Screening should take place at 18 months.
I don't know what is going on but take your child to a pediatric specialist who specializes in development. At the least - a child psychologist. You might have to travel but it will be worth it.