Autistic Child?

Any mothers/fathers of Autistic children able to tell me what some early signs may be? My girlfriend has an 8mo old son and she is suspecting he is autisitc. When he cries, he is next to unconsolable. Also, he does not do well with other people, in play groups, or sometimes even with her and her DH. He would rather be by himself in his pack-n-play with only a few select toys. Any suggestions? Are these signs she should be worried about? How old were your children when they got diagnosed? Did you suspect something prior to their diagnosis?

[ashort]

I'm a special education teacher that worked in Early intervention for several years.  Eight months is really too young to diagnose Autism although she should keep an eye on him.  If she feels he is delayed she should contact her department of health to get him evaluated.  At his age he really wouldn't be interested in playing with other children.  I wouldn't be too worried.  If she sees he isn't developing language, making eye contact, pointing or if he IS lining up toys, looking out of the corner of his eyes, engaging in perseverative play, not playing appropriately with toys, not responding to his name being called, and not social referencing then I would seek help BUT these things all come later on though...around 18 months to 2 years.  However, it can't hurt to have him evaluated if she is concerned..however, they will not doagnose Autism now.  She can go to Autism speaks website...that should have more characteristics of Autism on it...good luck

[kjnnurpl]

         My son has been recently diagnosed with ADHD and Aspergers Autism.  He is 9 yo. Its been a long long road.  Three schools within 2 ½ years.  If anything I noticed at 2 1/2 years of age slight problems like toilet training regression, and his tantrums and not getting along with others.  He seemed to play well by himself.  so much so that I usually had to go and check on him to see if he was still alive and breathing.  
      He did well socially with adults and subserviant kids mostly girls and nieve and younger aged children or boys.  Anyone headstrong would do nothing but butt heads.   I thought his tantrums and regression was due to me returning back to school full time.   Turns out that was purely coincidence.
      He was talking at 4 1/2 months of age (said mama then a week later dada), traveling at 5 1/2 months,  never did crawl, walking by 11 months of age, and after his first official word at 7 mo..good-bye he stopped talking for about 6 months.  He didn't say a word.  then like out of the blue started talking again.  He's always been one to blow people's mind away.  
    I've been told on several occasions he has a big vocabulary for his age since 2.  He loved Thomas the train.  After that he has been into “Science!!” as he would put it and Astronomy.  Didn’t know what a Nebulae was until he came along.  His favorite channel is the Science channel and cartoon channels ( nick, cartoon network, etc. )
    
    In the beginning I thought he was having problems because he was gifted and bored to death well we know he's gifted.  The psych is still on the fence about the diagnosis but with all the testing we've done he meets the criteria for the diagnosis and there's a law in the state of La. which I find to be stupid, but....basically that in order for our son to get the aid he needs for his disability he  or a child must be diagnosed by 9 - 10 years of age if not then basically oh well.  The counselors of the parish know of a teenager that slipped through the cracks and they know he has Aspergers but due to the law there is nothing he can do and no telling what's going tohappen to him.  What ever happened to our children or our future.  I guess they forgot to include as long as it doesn't cost anything....etc...hum

[Charlie's girl]

Your son sounds similar to mine.  He is now almost 3.5 years.  We are waiting for all assessment results, ot, psych, and speech.  He is also very gifted.  We were told maybe ADHD with giftedness or hyperlexia.  He is obsessed with words and numbers.  His memory recall is insane.  He can read but it's not true reading.  It's word and phrase identification.  
He has behavioral problems.  This year he is starting a new school.  Three year old program.  He gets overstimulated and hyperfocused on everything he does.  He blocks out all sounds when he is consentrating.  He also is overly touchy feeling.  A sweet kid but all over the place.  
We thought maybe asbergers but were told that he wouldn't make eye contact and because he loves other children and adults that it's not that.  
I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone.  It's such hard work to have a child with special needs.  I'm so exhausted.  Please keep me posted on both of your children.

Charlie

[mom2-2ts]

Holy Moly, this scares me when I hear this.  For some reason, even professionals have a tendency to tell people that because a child is touchy feely, they like to be around others, etc. they can't possibly be on the autism spectrum (this includes asberger's).  When I took my daughter in at 23 months, we were told by our doctor that she was way too affectionate to be autistic, boy was he wrong.  Unfortunately many professionals get a stigmatized view of what the spectrum looks like, and forget that it is actually a spectrum.  Where one child may not want to be touched because of a sensory issue, another autistic child may need constant pressure on their bodies by another person to get the sensory stimulation.  Please still look into the possibility of asperger's, or PDD.  Whether or not that is what it is you have the chance of getting them help earlier.  

Another note to all:  Even if you are waiting on getting your child diagnosed, look at what the behavioral treatments are for autism, you can still begin working with your child on your own at home, helping them to learn things like pointing and even speech.  Babybumblebee.com has some phenomenal videos that help teach nouns and verbs, they work great for beginning talkers, especially pre-talkers with special needs.

By the way, just so that I don't sound like a know it all, I do have a daughter with autism, she's now 3 and 4 months old.  We got her diagnosed at 25 months and have already began mainstreaming her into a regular preschool.  We worked hard, very very hard, but she is doing amazingly well because of it.  The future can be bright, trust me.  I am also an MFT as well as a behavior intervention case manager for special eduation, so I regularly deal with special needs.

Good luck everyone