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Autism/6 Year old High Functioning Autistic girl

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Expert: - 9/17/2008


Question
My friend's little girl has High Functioning Autism. She is able to speak and hold a fairly good conversation, she doesn't hold eye contact however, but she is usually able to tell me how she feels about something. i.e. ( how did you like the Chile? A: I didn't like it it was spicy, Do you want to go to bed? A: No lets watch a movie). She loves to write letters and draw and is very advanced for her age in school. She could be slightly "babyish" For lack of a better word, but she is quite normal in my eyes. In first grade she has an aid. She tells us what she wants to do, and what she doesn't want to do. She loves her cat, and she always tells me how much fun she had doing this and that. She loves buying new things and stuffed animals, just like a normal child. However, she does get "obsessed" with things like "The Little Mermaid". How do you think she will act in middle school and high school? Do you think she will be mostly "normal" just slightly strange, or do you think it will be obvious she has autism when she speaks and acts? I would love to know what to expect from her in later years.
Thankyou oh so much!!!

Answer
Hi Emily,

It's quite impossible to give a prognosis, really, but she sounds very high functioning, so chances are good she'll do very well and be not very obviously autistic when she grows older. Puberty is a very difficult time, and as she grow older she may develop different sets of difficulties which are not so obvious now, though.
To the untrained eye I, now as an adult, might just seem like a very shy, slightly excentric and sometimes a bit slow person if you don't know me very well. I don't think that most people would be able to tell I'm autistic. A bit odd, certainly, and that there's something "different" about me, but not exactly what it is, unless they have worked with higher functioning autistic adults before.

Hope this helps,
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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