Signs of Autism?

[mom76]

My daughter is 2 years old and has been flapping her hands since she was one. She flaps her hands often, especially when she is excited about something, usually a moving object. She also goes on her tippy toes when she's excited. She does a lot of pretend play, tells her family members that she loves them all the time, hit all her milestones at the right time, is extremely social, loves going to the park and playing with other kids, is potty trained. She is a little slow with her speech but she has a lot to say. She stutters a little bit and occasionaly says odd things. She'll opoint to a stanger and tell me, "that's my mommy." She just started to cover her ears when things are "too loud." I'm not sure if I'm becoming paranoid or if things are getting worse. Does this look like autism? If it is, can she become less affectionate than she is now? Does autism get worse with age? Please help! I so worried!

[halbashes]

It's possible she could have some form of autism, but there is really no way to know for certain until you have her evaluated.  I would recommend seeing bringing up your concerns with her pediatrician, and perhaps with a pediatric neuropsychologist.

Children with autism often flap their hands when they are excited, and block there ears when things are too loud.  Other children can have these behaviors sometimes too, so it's not exclusive to autism.

By the way, I am on the autistic spectrum with a diagnosis of PDD-NOS.  I do flap my hands when I am excited, spend most of the day rocking, and sometimes block my ears.  Although I speak well, I have difficulty with some aspects of socialization such as eye contact.

With autism, no two people diagnosed are alike.  Everyone gets their own little mixture of symptoms.  While some have more severe forms of autism than others, it's by no means the end of ones chance at a normal life.  It's possible to be autistic, and still be happy.

There are also some treatments available to help with some of the difficulties associated with autism.  The most common treatments I can think at the moment include speech therapy, occupational therapy, and applied behavioral analysis.

I wish for you and your daughter the best.

[Sally44]

Alot of the things you mention come under sensory problems.  This can be a diagnosis in itself, although alot of autistic people (if not all of them) have some kind of sensory processing perceptual difficulties.  It is quite possible to have a number of autistic traits, but not enough in all the categories to get a diagnosis of autism (or infact any other disorder).  As Halbashes points out, everyone with (and without) a diagnosis is different, and from your description it does sound like your child is doing much better on the social side of things.  For example my son finds academic work hard to understand (although he is of at least average intelligence and has been assessed as exceptional in some areas of abilities), is relatively social but in an odd way, but he has no rituals, routines or obsessions apart from an occasional hand flap (about once a day if you're lucky to see it), but that one ocassional hand flap and spinning does bring him into the criteria for a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.  Again, as already mentioned, a diagnosis, although devastating for the parents, does not mean that the child will not be happy/content and will develop to their potential.  In most cases autistic people have special abilities (not to the extent of savant) that can be useful to them in terms of work.
The only way to get a diagnosis is through observations carried out by a multi-disciplined team.  So it is better if you get the ball rolling so that any support she needs can be in place for nursery/school.

[walternowotny]

The fact that she is pointing her finger is a great sign.Absence of protodeclarative pointing(using index finger to indicate interest in item or person) is predictive of later diagnosis of autism.
But talk to your pediatrician....
Johann

[walternowotny]

On the other hand covering her ears is somewhat concerning.
There are certain motion abnormalities frequent in kids with autism.One that stands out is when child places a hand with fingers separately outstretched before eyes and rapidly moves hand back and forth.
Walter(I sometimes get my real and fictitious names confused)

[888mom]

If she is social, I wouldn' t be concerned too much.  I'd bring up any issues you have with her pediatrician.   If you live in the US and you have concerns about her speech and stuttering or other developmental areas, you could ask the pediatrician to be referred to your state's 0 to 3 program.  Some states it is called First Steps.  Other states it has different names.  Anyways, the assessment is totally free.  Most states usually come to your house to do it, but not all states, so you'd have to check.  The therapy is either free or subsidized (I have a $3 session copay for example) based on your income level.

Just make sure you work with her on areas she has difficulty with, like the sensory issues.  It sounds a lot like she has some sensory issues.  Sensory issues can happen on their own.  I have a lot of sensitivity to sound, smells, and certain touch for example, but do not have autism.  My mom said I used to flap my arms as a child.  As an adult I do other things.  If I'm nervous, I pen click, twirl my hair, rock, bounce my legs if I'm sitting down.  Some noises and smells will literally drive me up the wall.  There are a lot of people with autistic tendencies who do not have autism.  My husband and I both have a lot of autistic traits but neither of us have autism.  

You could see if you could inquire about sensory integration therapy for a couple sessions or try to find a workshop or conference on it in your area.  It works with kids with ADD/ADHD and just sensory issues.  There are techniques like joint compression and brush therapy that seem to help regulate the senses.  It really has helped my daughter with her sensory issues.  If you do manage to get an assessment, you could inquire of the therapists who do the assessment what to do.  Even if you don't qualify for services, maybe they'd give you some ideas.  

It sounds like you  have a healthy and happy little girl.  Congrats.  :)

[Sally44]

Regarding finger pointing.  Although some children more severely autistic do not finger point, alot of Aspergers and higher function autistic children do.  My son always pointed and brought things to show me.  He has a sense of humour, empathy, social smile/gestures, theory of mind and can also lie convincingly.  Many autistic people say that, it is not that they don't have these abilities, they very often do.  But because of sensory/perceptual differences and language processing delays they are not always able to multi-task from a sensory point of view.  Therefore if they want to talk about something they have to concentrate to such an extent to retrieve the correct words and put them in a grammatical sentence that makes sense that they are unable to also monitor their expression/posture and also monitor the other persons reaction and expression to what they are saying (plus there can also be other additional social communication difficulties such as prosopagnosia).  In less busy environments, on a one to one basis, they usually do much better.  That is why the internet has been such a brilliant communication aid for those on the spectrum because it gives them a structure to follow, turn taking etc and there is no one-on-one social confrontation that can cause great difficulties.  You would never know who was autistic in these forums unless they volunteer that information themselves.  
However, although may parents and many autistic people are saying that they do have these abilities, it still seems that most professionals do not accept this.
However if you hear autistic adults giving seminars/speeches etc they continually demonstrate that they do have these abilities.  Indeed, if they didn't, then they probably wouldn't be able to conduct these seminars.

[mich97]

i know u posted and responded to mom76 but you mentioned that your son has an occasional hand flap and does spinning that has put him on the autism spectrum??? i am curious is that the only "autistic" characteristics he has..i thought they had to have a few "behaviors" from each group on the criteria (forget the name of testing they use)
i'm just curious how u got the diagnoses..i know we have posted to each other in the past about my son and my concerns..my son also does the occasional hand flap (i'm lucky if i see once a week) he rocks while watching tv on the couch daily (only time he does it)neurologist says b/c he needs to release his energy also he does have some sensory issues so it could be a movement proprioceptive thing he needs..  he copies noises ie the microwave beeping, has oral sensory issues w/ some food (picky eater and gags w/ new foods) language delays (improves every day) but does impact his education and will need to be pulled for xtra help in kindergarten next year..  we were not giving the diagnoses of being on the spectrum...told we are looking at a kid w/ language delays (optimistic he can catch up) mild sensory issues, and possible adhd...i know a lot of these behaviors can over lap and sometimes look a like (adhd,spectrum, sensory processing disorder) but i am just curious how your son did get the diagnoses of being on the spectrum vs other???

[Sally44]

No he has other autistic behaviours.  But the main things I notice with him are sensory ones.  It is just in the section under rituals/routines/obsessions etc that he occasionally flaps or spins.  He also finds it hard to leave things unfinished, but is improving with that.
He had some echolalia as a toddler (he repeated questions I asked him back to me) and delayed echolalia from 3+ to now (he only needs to watch a DVD a couple of times to know all the dialogue - but that doesn't necessarily mean he understands all the dialogue).  He has speech disorder eg. finds using pronouns difficult.  His expressive language is assessed at age 7+ (he is 7) and his receptive language (ie. understanding communication) is assessed at age 3.  He can also sometimes take things literally eg. the other day I told him not to do something and he went ahead and did it.  Then his dad said "Do that one more time and see what happens!"  So that is exactly what he did.  He did it one more time to see what would happen, and my husband smacked him.  But my husband was to blame for that, not my son.  But every day is a learning curve.
He has sensory integration dysfunction.  All his senses are affected but mainly he is hypersensitive to touch/sound (especially unpredictable noises).  He also cannot multi-task from a sensory point of view and can only take in sensory information through one sense at a time.  When there is too much sensory stimulation he somehow (I don't know if he can control it) closes down certain senses to limit sensory bombardment and just keeps one sensory channel open.  So, for example, if I want him to hear what I am saying I have to repeat his name until he responds, then I tell him I have something important to tell him and he must listen, then I tell him what I need to say.  I don't look at him because if we make eye contact he effectively can only look at me and loses are hearing.  Or, although he is tactile hyper sensitive, if he is watch TV I can tickle his feet or pinch his ears and he feels nothing.  If he is engrossed in doing something eg. running around he might fall and feel nothing.  He also has hypersensitive smell and taste.  He frequently asks me about things he can 'hear' or 'smell'.  He used to vomit alot when he was a toddler