Autism?

Does anybody on here have a child with autism? My friend has a 2 year old and my mom mentioned today that it seems like he has signs of autism. What signs did your child show?

i don't have an autistic child, but as far as I know the signs are they have almost no verbal communication abilities by the age of two, and they love to stack things. More interest in objects than in people.. hmm anyway those are a few to start with.

My friend seems to think that he is totally a normal child but when i visit he just doesnt seem totally ok. He always plays by himself. Hardly ever talks. He has a brother in first grade and a 3 year old sister. They always talk to me and my daughter. They all play together, but not him. He seems much happier just playing by himself. He doesnt even like the park.

I have no first hand experience with this either, but my cousin has a little girl with austism.

Adding on to what Azaera said, alot of times they are very unattached emotionally, dont like to be touched or held, not affectionate at all. Also, the temper tantrums are very frequent.

Tara (my cousin's little girl) also bangs her head repeatedly to lull herself to sleep. She has ALWAYS done this, ever since she was little. It's awful. I dont know if that is something that is related or not.

The signs vary depending on the child. My step son who I have custody of is almost 12, he has Asperger's Syndrome. He is pretty high functioning.
Autism/Asperger's Syndrome is a spectrum disorder, therefore the symptoms vary greatly with each child. There are certain commonalities though. The main ones are that the children are not social. Most children like to interact with people, most their parents. My son did not. I heard of stories of how he would sit for hours in his carseat quietly and never cry. His Bio mom at the time thought he was just a super good baby. A baby that never cries just flat out isn't normal. Autistic kids also have a high pain tolerance. They usually have hearing difficulties and overall have several ear infections. With the hearing difficulties, most parents will notice that a lot of noise will overwhelm them, they will avoid noise situations or act out in them.
They will be developemental delayed. Austin walked late, he talked late, he did practically everything late. With most children on the spectrum there is a point when they actually start to regress. That is always very scary. Austin has always struggled to verbalize his needs and wants. He will talk around it or talk about it, but not outright say what he wants. For instance, "that cookie sure looks good." instead of "can I have a cookie"
Also, he has never been able to do imaginative play. Ever. He would just line his cars up by color, or crash them. He'd line his dinosaurs up by size, then crash them. Austin has really struggled to learn how to pretend, we have actually had to do therapy to learn how to pretend, something most parents take for granted.
Ummm....lets see, Austin takes everything literal. For instance, if I told him to "run and clean his room" he would literally take off running and then proceed to run around and clean his room. It's kinda cute, but I have to be careful. haha!
Socially, he just doesn't get the "cues" that normal kids pick up. Like we have had to teach him how to sit on a couch next to people. He couldn't figure out how close to sit next to people. Like when a husband and wife sit really close, or when friends sit next to each other, or when a brother or sister. We have had to go through and teach him about personal space and how to respect that.
Most autistic kids don't like to be touched very much. It makes them very uncomfortable. They struggle with eye contact. They struggle with relationships. They struggle with rules and lying. They stuggle with social situations. They struggle with logic versus imagination. They stim. or stimulate (will pick at themselves or rock or repeat things. It is a self soothing behavior. Usually done when they are frustrated or overwhelmed)
A good way to describe being autistic or having Asperger's syndrome that I have heard: We can sit in a diner and eat and zone out the background noise. These kids can't. Their senses are all picking up everything, all the time. They can feel the vinyl on the seat, they can hear all the conversations at once, they can feel the silverware in their hands and taste the food in their mouth. They can smell everyone's food around them. All of this is just as strong, all at once. Can you even imagine? No wonder they are in their own little world and pull away.

Sorry for all of the info, there is just SOOOOOO much and there is so much more. Sigh. And my son does all of it and then some and he is one of the better ones that can function among society without too many problems.

Quoting MommaOfAngels:“ I have no first hand experience with this either, but my cousin has a little girl with austism. Adding ... [snip!] ... She has ALWAYS done this, ever since she was little. It's awful. I dont know if that is something that is related or not.”

My son did that when he was a baby and a toddler as well. It is very common.

Quoting Azaera:“ i don't have an autistic child, but as far as I know the signs are they have almost no verbal communication ... [snip!] ... age of two, and they love to stack things. More interest in objects than in people.. hmm anyway those are a few to start with.”

the stacking or lining things up is their version of imaginative play. The interest in objects is also very normal. My son's "obsessions" .haha, are rocks. The kid is in love with all kinds of rocks. And star wars  

Oh and you have to be careful at a certain age what you read them or what they watch on tv, they will believe it! We had to put my son on medication for that. It got really bad. He started having panick attacks. They would read stories at school and he would freak out. He thought bears could talk and werewolves were real. His Bio mom let him see Harry Potter, like all mom's did, and he didn't sleep for a week!!!

WOW there is alot that they struggle with. Thanks for all the info. Im going to keep watching him and observing. Also im going to keep researching it. I dont want to assume, maybe its nothing close to being autistic. Ive just really noticed that he seems different then the other kids. His mom does say how he she notices that he plays by himself. But if it turns out that i really do think he should get checked for autism, then how would i even tell his mom?? Isnt that something that no mother wants to hear?

Quoting Winduh:“ talk and werewolves were real. His Bio mom let him see Harry Potter, like all mom's did, and he didn't sleep for a week!!!”

Oh crap! Thats scary!

Quoting Winduh:“ My son did that when he was a baby and a toddler as well. It is very common.”

Oh no, you dont understand the severity of this! (Not being rude I dont know how to say it without being like that, but I have never in my life seen anything like it!)

My daughter will kind of do that too on her pillow for a minute or so, but Tara on the other hand, BEATS her head into whatever she is laying on. Repeatedly. You can actually hear it thump. It's not onto a pillow, it is on the hardwood floor, the side of her wooden crib, on anything.From one side to the next.She will do it for 20 or 30 minutes, and if not, she will not sleep at all. She "sings" to herself while she is doing it, that is how we know she is "lulling" herself to sleep. She has a therapist that comes and works with her a couple of times a week and they said to just let her do it. If you try to stop her, she completely freaks out. It is scary. And it cant be doing her any good at all, but they dont know what to do about it.

Quoting MommaOfAngels:“ Oh no, you dont understand the severity of this! (Not being rude I dont know how to say it without ... [snip!] ... her, she completely freaks out. It is scary. And it cant be doing her any good at all, but they dont know what to do about it.”

Oh wow! I would be scared of her giving herself brain damage! Not to be rude but should they maybe put a helmet on her when she does that?

Quoting ~*bAbYmAmA*~:“ WOW there is alot that they struggle with. Thanks for all the info. Im going to keep watching him and ... [snip!] ... think he should get checked for autism, then how would i even tell his mom?? Isnt that something that no mother wants to hear?”

My mom is a director of a daycare, so she has alot of knowledge about childhood development and such. She always thought and made mention of my cousin's baby displaying signs of Austism, but her parents didnt want to hear it and would get really mad at her for mentioning it.

It would be upsetting to hear such a thing, no one wants to believe that their child is affected. But you really should let her know that she might want to get him checked. The sooner the intervention, the better. Like someone said before, most children will regress, so at a certain point, it becomes very difficult to help them. It couldnt hurt for her to get him tested. Good luck, I know that would be tough.

Quoting MommaOfAngels:“ My mom is a director of a daycare, so she has alot of knowledge about childhood development and such. ... [snip!] ... it becomes very difficult to help them. It couldnt hurt for her to get him tested. Good luck, I know that would be tough.”

Yah i dont want her to think i think anything bad of her or her son. And i dont even really know if he has all the signs of being autistic, i just started thinking about autism today. I dont even know what i would say to her. And she is a young mom that doesnt really look at that kind of stuff (hard to explain through typing).

Quoting ~*bAbYmAmA*~:“ Oh wow! I would be scared of her giving herself brain damage! Not to be rude but should they maybe put a helmet on her when she does that?”

I know it is insane. She actually does have some cranial damage. They assume that it is from that, but they arent certainbecause she was born with ALOT of problems to begin with.

I dont know. It does sound awful, but you are probably right. It is frightening to see this. It makes me want to cry. She is 3 now, and she's been doing it ever since she was born.

Quoting MommaOfAngels:“ Oh no, you dont understand the severity of this! (Not being rude I dont know how to say it without ... [snip!] ... her, she completely freaks out. It is scary. And it cant be doing her any good at all, but they dont know what to do about it.”

no, seriously, Austin did that all the time. He hit his head hard on his crib or a wall. If you read online or talk to other parents it is extremely common, especially when they are small, it is actually a "first sign". Austin actually would get bruises. It is a stim-ing type of thing. Autisic kids almost always have a very high pain threshold.
Austin now will pick his skin to the point that he will bleed if he is in a crowd that is too loud, or he feels too closed in, like in the mall. I'll help him by letting him listen to his mp3 player or putting his hands in his pocket. Have they tried letting her listen to music at night to help her block out other sounds? She might be doing that because she can't block out her other senses, so she can't fall asleep. By hitting her head, it "overpowers" if you will, all of the other senses, and she can block them out to sleep.
You'll hear of some autistic kids rocking back and forth, other's waving their arms or flapping. Picking their skins, etc. But one of the very first ones they do is hitting their heads against things very hard.
Headphones, audio books, mp3 player.....they have been our lifesaver!!!!