Expert: Catherine Ridenour - 4/20/2006

Question
Catherine: My son just turned 2 and is not talking yet. My son got autism diagnosis from a specialist Recently. Here I summarize some key issues: He appears normal,smart,lovely and affectionate in daily life, He likes interacting with family members, like new things and going out, no repetitive behaviors, no sterotyping, no serious routine problem, no obvious sensory problems; However, he seems very strong-willed, stubborn, very ofen appeared obsorbed in something if he is interested in that, then at that moment it's hard to switch his attention. Because of this, his eye contact is not as often as average kids. For example, in public play space, he seems to know exactly what is the next thing he wants to play so he doesn't watch the strangers around and just played one thing after another. When he is very interested in something, even if we use hands to block his eyesights to that stuff, it's still hard to make him looking at us---Instead, he will just like to use his hands to push our hands away from blocking him and stick on looking at that thing. However, he does have many good, long, emotional eye contacts with us in home if he is in that mood. He also look at strangers when in mood; He didn't pass M-CHAT at his 18 month, but we feel he can almost pass M-CHAT now at his 24 months (it's hard give a clear answer to certain items though);  He was in a very isolated environment (with one baby-sitter all 5 weekdays who didn't speak to him too much) from his 13 month to 21 month. However, he has obviously made faster progress after we gave him better environment.He is in a bilingual(almost tri-lingual) environment; He appears smart like average. For example, he can now point out digits 1-9 if we say; We noticed he did like to get close to other kids and do the same things that they are doing, but normally he didn't show strong interests to other kids themselves and or looking into their faces. He appears to be below average on this; Before his 20-month he didn't point. He pushed our hands to request something instead of pointing. Now after training he can point to lots(handred) of things(in home, outdoor, body parts) if we say the names. He is shy, cautious, timid, never bumped himself while learning walking. My husband said he was like this when he was a Child. I know that my husband didn't like to speak when he was a kid and he started talking (maybe late also) only after he could speak clear sentence. When my husband was young he sometimes was difficult to get into what other kids playing, and sometimes were bullied by others. My husband was also clumsy at playing some toys when he was a kid. However, my husband is quite smart, is an engineer with Ph.D. He also appears to be a normal person in social, although his social skill is a little below average.

can you tell me: by your feeling, do you think he is on the spectrum like the specialist diagnosed?

Answer
Hi Lisa,

Autistic disorders may well be hereditary.  Many on spectrum are very smart and being an engineer might well be a profession that someone on spectrum would choose.

Your son does sound like he has a spectrum disorder to me.  As you can see by your husband, it's not the end of the world.  We now know how to help many of these children learn better social skills.

Do get him into therapy so that he will not fall behind his age mates before school starts.  I think he will do well in life.

Best wishes,
Catherine

PS Here are some links to good information:

http://www.patientcenters.com/autism/news/resources.html

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/asperger/asperger.htm

http://www.autism.org/temple/meds.html

http://groups.msn.com/TheAutismHomePage/toilettraining.msnw