confused about certain behaviors

[alzack]

My 5 year old son flaps his hands and makes noises when excited. He was a little developmentally delayed and in school is getting speech, gross motor skill and sensory skill training, We are told that he controls the hand flapping in class. He is age appropreiate academically. He knows how people are feeling by voice tone and expression and acts appropreiate to a persons feelings. He is a very happy kid and loves playing with his friends. There are times when he likes to play on his own but would rather be with other children. While he hand flaps he has never tried to hurt himself or anyone else and is very caring towards other people. Showing affection has never been a problem for him. He looks at you when expressing himself and points to show you things, He has never been a great eater but it has gotten better with age. He also enjoys afterschool activieties(Swimming lessons, gymnastics, soccer and this winter will be learning to play basketball). Since he has had the extra help, which started at age 3 he has made outstanding progress. We have had him to see a child psycholgist twice since age 3 and was told that he may have some Autistic tendencies was not thought to be Autistic. We were that the hand flapping was his way of releasing energy when excited. The school feels the same way. Both visits were just hour long sessions and not a formal evaluation.

Is it true that children can have Autistic tendencies and not be somewhere on th Autism spectrum? We were also told that if the stimming does not get in the way of him doing things at home we should let him do so, is that true? But also cautioned to watch that it does get worse as time goes on

[mich03]

I am going thru' something very similar w/ my 4 y.o. son. he has language,comprehension delays and has sensory issues.He gets speech and OT at preschool and is on an IEP plan. He likes to rock while watching tv, occasionaly will do the hand flap thing while jumping if excited or mad. Can be sensitive to auditory stimuli (but settles in okay after a while) The sensory "stims" my son does is very much like one that is autistic would do, but the rest does not add up.very social,good eye contact,great imaginary play,understands emotions,facial expressions etc etc I think my son has characteristics but I don't know if he actually is?? if i ask him to please stop rocking (only b/c he rocks the whole couch and gives me a headache lol) he is able to stop but it's like he has ants in his pants, he needs to constantly move..he'll be up and down on the couch get into things torture his older brother lol so my husband just says "i'd rather have him rock"

So, although I am not a "profesional" I do agree w/ you can have tendencies but not actually be autistic.
Have you ever read up on PDD nos? What I have read seems to fit my son better.Have characteristic but not be on the spectrum.. Have you ever seen a Pediatric neurologist? hope that is a little helpful and good luck