Is it worth seeing someone about my 4 year old daughter.

[hippycatkin]

My husband was diagnosed last year with high functioning aspergers.  We have 2 kids - our son has a lot of similar traits to his dad but we have decided not to follow it up as at the moment it seems to have little impact on his life.  He seems to have found weays of coping with some of his idiosyncrasis.  However we are now wondering about my daughter.  She is very, very different to Tom.  She is an incredibly sociable little girl.  She desperately wants to be friendly with everyone - but invariably intimidates them.  She is very loud when excited.  Has absolutely no concept of personal space and will throw herself at everyone.  Its fine with adults but her peers are quite clearly terrified of her.  She used to be brilliant at jigsaws before she was 3 she was doing 50 piece ones and would focus on them for hours.  But she's not interested now.  However I think she is also struggling in nursery - she learns names in a heartbeat and wants to know everyuthing about everyone but struggles when people address her.  Even when they're replying to things she's asked.  She gets this very glazed look in her eyes and you can't get through to her. She is also incredibly clumsy.  She tends to run around looking everywhere except where she is going.    She was referred to an OT ages ago because she kept falling over - who was terrible and kept clicking her fingers in Tasha's face to gert her attention.   They thought it was a concentration issue.  

I know this isn't anything like my husband and son - but I don't know what to do to help her - I don't know about females on the autistic spectrum.  I just want to be able to help her socialise.  Any ideas?

[specialmom]

Hi,  my son has something called sensory integration disorder (which can overlap with autism but also be a seperate disorder on its own) which is a developmental delay of the nervous system.  He did (and still does some) everything you mention.  Google it and see if it fits at all.  He was diagnosed by an ot-----  a good one that specialized in sensory integration disorder.  I'm sorry you've had that experience with an ot as she sounds like her training was not good.  I've only had great experiences with ot's and I've never seen any snap a finger in a child's face or call what is clearly symptoms of sensory integration disorder a focas problem.  I would perhaps research your area and try to decide which occupational therapy office would be best suited for an evaluation.  This is just my opinion-----  but her story sounds similar to my son's.  

My son has been doing ot for a year and a half now and we've had great improvement in all areas.   Some little things went away completely and some we still work on but they've gotten better.  Socializing is hard for some kids (not just sensory kids)----  we did a social skills camp this summer that my son just loved.  He's 5 and learned many things.  He's now in kindergarten and doing really well.  

As far as boys vs girls with autism, sensory, ADD/ADHD----  while it effects boys more frequently----  many girls also have these disorders.  

If you google sensory and think this might be the case for your daughter, I can give you lots of ideas of things you can do at home to help her.  We do ot once a week now but the real work on the issue takes  place at home.  Good luck!!!