Is this related to autism for a little girl?

[maritinatk]

I have a problem for one week now with my 21 month year old daughter. SHe has been tantruming every night for one week someti,mes for hours for no reason. It gets to the point where she is so tired so the tantrums get worse but we dont know what to do becuase she doesnt even want us to look at her and when we do she gets so much more upset. She is about to be tested and evaluated for autism as she has been already screened and evalutated by early intervention. Currenlty she has screened as showing signs of autism however she has to be high funtioning as she plays and has good eye contact (expect when tantruming or going into that state of dont bother with me). She is currently receivng speech and special instructin therapy becuse of her langauge and cogntive delay. Can someone plese tell me if these are behaviors common associated with autism?
I am pretty stressed out as the these test will be a duration of two months and I cant figure out what is going on with her. She seems so smart sometimes and now she is showing some imaginitavie play too.

[maritinatk]

ok I have added you. Look foward to speaking live.

[Jaylor24]

hi, yes i am aim/aol...its Jaylor924.

easier to talk that way then through here,lol

talk to you then

[maritinatk]

Hi,
Do you have yahoo or AIM ? maybe one day we can chat live. I had her evaluated by early intervention school psycologist, speech patologist and OT. Then I got her screened by a pediatric developmentalist and se said she needs more testing so that is happening in te next two months.

[Jaylor24]

Yes...I am glad to I met you too.  It can be very lonely when most people cant really understand what your going through so when you meet someone who does its nice to have someone to talk about it with.  I found that you will be very surprised what you find they CAN do.  Believe me I have alot to learn but I also feel like I have learned so much and I see how much he changes and I am proud. You are her best assest. My son never sat with me to read either up until recently.  First I bought his a ton of picture books and we would label the pictures..."whats this?"  Now he can label everything.  But he would never sit and read with me until recently he came over to me and said "sit down, read to me" so give it time alot can happen.  Did you get her evaluated by  a psycologist?

[maritinatk]

This the first time I posted and I am glad I met you. I am very stressed and so is my husband. It is diffiult and it sounds like you have gone through sooo much and I am really sorry. It is not easy. I sometimes wonder how can she haveanything wrong when she is soo smart and repeats words i tell her to say. Even today i told her to put her tongue back in her mouth (she sticks in out alot) and she took her finger and pushed it in. She is so fiesty too and playful (mostly physial play) she hardly sits with me to read for example. I dont know what it is and I hope we get an answer soon.

[Jaylor24]

I know how you feel, I have twins.  My Son and My daughter.  I run into the problem even though I try to do special things with her, my son has been getting therapy for a long time and now goes to school and its always like becoming a jealousy thing I think...she acts out alot for attention. I know its hard for her too because she does not understand it really.  ANyway that is what I was trying to tell you like you said she started hang flapping and now stopped.  Last year about oct my son started licking the palms of his hands, constanly having his fingers in his mouth, he would always put toys in his mouth...then about march he stopped, now he started it again.  Another thing now is his speech has greatly improved by he started to repeat things.  Like if I say to him "pick a movie" he will repeat it, its called echolalia.  Taking him to a store used to be EXTREMELY hard for me, if he saw something he wanted it caused an unbelieveable seen.  He screamed and hit me and would fling him self in the shopping cart.  At first I would avoid any ailse where I knew there was something he would want.  HE LOVES cars.  But then it began to be rediculous because sometimes something ends up in an unexpected aisle.  So for example Target has hot wheels cars at every register and he knew this and of course I cant avoid going to the cash registers, so I would get him one every time.  But that turned into he didnt want ONE he wanted the whole rack so everytime we went I wouldnt buy him one and he would scream...eventlually I would buy it and I would give it to him when he finally stopped crying and I would say "you were a good boy, mama bought you a car"  so of course we still have our days but he got much better.  I found that even though there are days I am tired and sometimes I cry, I do as much research as I can, I found alot of the "professionals" weren't so good so I had to really work hard with him until I found what works for me and him and its a long road but he is my life so I will keep working and keep fighting for him.  I mean there is no garentee buy my son used to never come to me to show me something with excitment, he never pointed out to something and was like "look" until about a month ago I was sitting on the couch and he came over to  me with an apple and said "look mama a red apple"  and hes been doing it ever since.  He tells me hold my hand, sit down, give me a kiss...he also rocked when he was younger but completely stopped that.  He never did hand flapping.  If I could also tell you one thing it would be to make sure you are completely happy with her therapists if your not get another one.  By the way I used to live in Queens and recently moved to long island :)

[maritinatk]

I am from NYC where are you from? It is exhausting because I always said that fo my daughter from early on. I do have a three year old son and it is hard. I see how her behavior stop and thenstart again and it confuses us alot. For example she used to do repetatve play put things in something and take them out. THen she stopped doing this somewhat and now she is back again. Her definat behavior lately has gotten much worse. She started hand flapping and now stopped. She always rocked and when she was younger she rocked alot side to side. She has a langauge delay and cogntive delay as early intervention said. She doesnt point and she doesnt show empathy although she has once or twice showed some reaction to someone crying. And pointed the other day. Besides all this i have to deal with the tantrums. Thank you for listening to me and your support.

[mjthewriterdad]

There are no blood tests nor reliable brain scans for    It takes observation over a period of time.  At 21 months there is not much time to be observed.  For my daughter a diagnosis gradually unfolded.  The  need to be consistant over a period of time.

If you and professionals see some develomental problems you can address this with therepy to get something done.   With Diabetes we can take a blood sample and compare to a normal range and say with some certainty with just one test butta-bing. What they do is observe  over a peroiod of time  and compare to a normal range.  To make things more complex,  the normal range keeps changing as well with society expecttions.  This is not as easy as it looks.

As of yet  brain scans of a FEW samples of persons with differ from persons without autsm.  But. the is based on limited sample sizes and is still in development.  Genetic differences have been found for SOME persons with autsm but not all.

As soon as children are born, we test for PKU with a blood sample taken from the heel of newborn babies because we see absense of certain enzymes BAM.  We can also see downs syndrome easily.

Autsm/PDD takes time to unfold and reveal itself.  Cogngitive delay is currently the best they can do at thois point in time. The good news is that the early intervention has a lot in common with similar GROUPS of children with develpmental delays.

  This means that you are doing the right thing with with speech tx and instruction.  If se had an exact dx of at 21 months, I don't think this will change the therepy in any way.

In fact, I'm gonna stick my neck out a bit and say if you get an autsm spectrum type of diagnosis at this early age, I'd suspect the competence of the diagnosis and seek a second opinion, then wait another year or two and re-diagnose.  

Now as she gets older, say, 4 or 5 years, this is when treatments and therepies start to change a little.  

[Jaylor24]

hey i just noticed you are from NY too...where about?

[Jaylor24]

Hi Well for me yes it is a bit complicated but I have done so much research that I am beginning to understand it better.  PDD is really having certain characterists of autism but not enough to be catorgized(look up PDD and you will see).  THe types of behavior vary though.  Sometimes he does something for a while and then stops but starts to do something else.    Some times he has tempertanturms that he just cant get himself out of but academically he is advanced, his speech has improved TREMENDOUSLY...I also work alot with him at home...His eye contact is much better now where before it wasn't really good actaully now it isnt even a concern...now my problem with him is he hits me, he also bites and pinches but I know its from fustration when there are certain things he cant say.   He has learned how to ask for most of what he wants, a certain movie or juice or whatever it is.Another problem I have is for the last year he HATES brushing his teeth or getting his haircut, really to the point where it is almost tourterous to him.  Where a year and a half ago he would hold is own toothbrush but he is so loving and affectionate.  I dont know,lol its so exhausting.  All I know is work hard and dont feel sorry for her ebcause I did that in the beginning and it was almost like I was holding him back.  Who knows though you have to wait and see what the say when they evaluate her she might not have PDD.  AND I will tell you through Early Intervention and now that he is in school...I switched therapists over and over until I found someone I thought was what HE needed and who cared.  I have been through 4 ABA therapists alone and finally found someone who is great and it made a difference.  I hope I didnt ramble on too much.  I will tell you also its very exhausting,lol.

[MJIthewriter]

"Is pdd so complicated?"

It seems to be... From my personal experiance with it...

[maritinatk]

Hi,
thnk you for your reply. My daughter was seen by early intervetion who stated that she has problems like PDD and a bunhc of other things too. Because she was only 17 months old and to young they didnt dagnose her just said sh is showing signs of these disorders. My daugter has gone on to show otherthings too but a the same time she is talkin more, she pointed yesterday for the first time too! I am taking her to do a few more test to find out what is rally going on. some days i seems like she is showiong signs other days nothng. Is pdd so complicated?

[Jaylor24]

Hi
My son was receiving speech and occupational therapy through early intervention.  After discussing certain issues with our speech therapist she had asked me to research PDD NOS and get him evaluated by a psychologist who through early intervention came to the house and it was no cost to us.  It turned out that is what he was diagnosed with. My son is 3 now and goes to school 5 days a week for 2 and half hours and receives ABA therapy at home.  When he first started ABA, the discrete trial form they were using wasnt working for him he needed more of a play therapy and everyday communication skills therapy and its working out great now.  Academically he is extremely smart, he is advanced for his age, it is more of a behavior issue and communication issue.  My son will throw a tantrum of course sometimes he can be brought out of it if i hug him and calm him down and others there are days when I just have to let him have a fit until he is done.  I just make sure he doesnt do anything to hurt himself.  Was your daughter seen by a psychologist or neurologist?