Autism/worried.

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Expert: - 7/5/2008


Question
Hi. I was watching tv today and saw that a little five year old boy was having a hard time speaking and they diagnosed him as autistic. I too have a five year old step son (five this october) who i can barely understand. I have been looking online all day to see if the answer could be autism. He doesnt display the stacking or rituals, but his speech is very very poor. Speech is the only thing he is lacking. He knows his alphabet numbers and can even recognize them. However he is kind of withdrawn, never fully looks you in the eyes the whole time you are talking to him (but do most kids that age)? He didnt potty train until he was four. And he rarely likes to be touched, hugged cuddled and if he does only by his mother and usually i see him play fight with her instead as his way of showing affection. His mother had his ears checked and said his hearing was fine, thats what leads me to autism. So my question is i guess am i off base with this? And if not how do i bring it up to his mother that i think he may need to be tested? Also, can you just have one sign of autism and still be diagnosed? more specific there are many types i read so im guessing theres not one perfect mold. Thank you any help or advice on this would be greatly appreciated, he starts school soon and i just want him to have the best start.

Answer
Hi Cristin,

as I said in my disclaimer, I'm not a doctor and I cannot give you a diagnosis. His mother (or even you and his father) should take him to a specialist to get him evaluated. He might "just" have speech issues but these should also be evaluated and he should get therapy. If his father also thinks he could be autistic probably the two of you together can convince his mother to go and see a doctor with him. You maybe could print out some pages from the internet for her, and hand them to her when you see her next time, or "accidentally" leave them on the table at her place where she'll see them and eventually read them.
I'm sorry, I cannot help you with this question.

C.  

Autism

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*DISCLAIMER*

Please note I am not a healthcare professional or a doctor.
I cannot provide a diagnosis or give any medical advice.
Therefore I cannot answer questions like "is my child autistic ?" other than by telling you to go and see a specialist
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Please be aware that if you are in the US it will usually take at least 24 hours until I can answer your question, as I'm in Europe and don't have access to my email during the day. I also cannot answer questions concerning the US educational or law system (other than by looking up things on google, but that's probably not the expertise you need), as I'm not in the US.
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Please also be aware that I'm a person with autism. My answers may sometimes be very blunt and direct and I may tell you things you won't like to hear. Diplomacy is certainly not among my talents. I'm never being rude on purpose, and I always try not to hurt or offend people, but it has happened before and may happen again. It's NEVER on purpose. I just want to help.
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What I *can* do for you is gather information on any aspect of autism and therapy of autism you're interested in and give you my personal oppinion about it (if you want to hear it) or, if it applies, tell you about my personal experience. I can answer all questions about what life is like for an autistic person.

I can also answer questions asked in German or French (but will have to answer in English to questions asked in French as my French is a bit rusty).

Ich beantworte gerne auch Fragen auf Deutsch.

Vous pouvez poser des questions en Francais, si cela ne vous dérange pas que je responds en anglais.

Experience


As I'm not doing well right now and am not in the shape of answering questions well - I recieved a few low ratings lately - I'll take a break from AllExperts for the next few weeks/until I'm doing better

I am an adult diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/High Functioning Autism and ADD.

In the past years I have also read a lot about autism and its comorbid conditions and related subjects (as I am experiencing symptoms of most of these or know others who do) , so I have accumulated a lot of layman knowledge in this area (AD(H)D, Tourette's Syndrome, OCD, sleep disorders, allergies, sensory integration dysfunction, learning difficulties, left/right-brain, giftedness, Irlen Syndrome, prism glasses, executive dysfunction (aka. "inertia"), "special" diets).

Education/Credentials
None in the field of autism, apart from being autistic myself !

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