# can children show autism symptoms and not have it?



## SoBlessed (May 17, 2006)

Just saw Jenny McArthy on 20/20 and she revealed three early symptoms her son had of autism that our 17 mos son has displayed. I then looked it up on the internet and found that he has displayed a few of these symtoms:

*Not responding to name (so much that his MDO teacher has advised getting his hearing tested...I've done some of my own testing and sense that his hearing is fine).
*Opening and closing doors repeatedly (loves this)
*Waving his hands in front of his face (this is new, and he often says "heddo" (hello) at the same time)
*Fascination with fans (thought this was "normal")
*Fear of loud noises such as vacuum (presumed this was again, "normal")
*Tantrums

I intend to talk to the pediatrician as I have read early intervention is best. Do kids ever display these symptoms and NOT have it?


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## steph66 (Jul 7, 2005)

I saw her on Oprah the other day and was wondering the same thing, it seems like its hard to tell where "normal" ends and autism symptoms begin...


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## loriforeman (Aug 18, 2007)

you have to take the symptoms as a whole...and look at the severity of each.

i would, however, have his hearing checked. a child can have high frequency or low frequency hearing loss and be missing several sounds...it can screw with his speech later, as well as his reading and comprehension and such.

i know from experience...my nine-year-old is asperger's and deaf...and it took SIX hearing tests before they scheduled a hearing screen at children's...turned out it was on the neural level instead. she shouldn't even be ABLE to talk, but does with only a slight lisp.

since getting hearing aids and such...she's improved dramatically across the board.


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## sbgrace (Sep 22, 2004)

It takes a ton of courage to ask these questions. I couldn't do it when my son was that age. I'll say first off that I don't know whether your son has a spectrum condition but I think you've got reason for concern. But it will be ok if indeed that is the case.
My son is on the spectrum.
I want to be honest with you--not responding to his name is a huge indicator. My son was very inconsistent in responding to his name at that age but he could hear....I mean if I said something he wanted to respond to he was right there! A hearing test might be a good idea.
I would not rely on a pediatrician to give you a good assessment. A few are probably ok but most are terrible at picking up autism--at least when it isn't severe. There are many moms (me included) on the special needs board who were told over and over by pediatricians and others that our children were fine--too social, or affectionate, or whatever else. All those stereotypes.
Autism is not the worst thing ever. I don't know how it was portrayed on that show but it really is ok. And there are fun things you can do to help a child in his weaker areas.
Does your son point to show you things--say pointing at an airplane while looking at you? I did a post in special needs recently on 18 month signs. I'll see if I can dig it up.


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## sbgrace (Sep 22, 2004)

A copy and paste of my post to a mom on the special needs board with similar questions about her kiddo.
Pediatricians are awful at knowing what autism looks like in kids that aren't severely affected. I can't count how many times our pediatrician told me my son was fine and I was concerned for no reason--9 months, 12 months, 15 months, 18 months, 24 months....all the way to when my son was diagnosed with pdd-nos. Other people (early intervention therapists) told me he was ok too. He's been diagnosed from experts 4 times--all agree he is on the autism spectrum.

What makes me upset about it still is if I wasn't getting all this reassurance that because my son was too social, too smiley, had too good of eye contact, etc. etc. I would have done more for my son early on. I listened because I really did want to believe he wasn't autism spectrum. Because autism scared me--actually it terrified me.

The hard thing about signs is that it really is different in all kids.
Well, by a year a typically developing child should be consistently responding to his/her name and pointing to show you things.
Some things (not all present in all kids) that would be of concern at 18 months:
1. not consistently responding to his name (big one I think)
2. missing some gesture communication (like pointing to show things to you is a huge sign. My son was doing that at 18 months however he was not consistently waving on his own and he wasn't shaking his head yes and no). Some kiddos have trouble following where someone else is pointing. My son doesn't but he does have trouble following where someone else is looking/noticing when you are looking to draw attention to something. But basically in a lot of kids some aspect of gesture communication is impacted. The pointing things to show you things is important as that shows joint attention I believe. My son does do that as I said but I think that is unusual and likely because of floor time therapy I did with him on my own--that definitely helped his joint attention and desire to share things with us
3. Play--repetitive play or playing with objects in unsual way; noticing details of things rather than the whole. Lack of pretend play. Again, this varies from child to child. My son pretends and has a good imagination now but he definitely notices details on things and he has some repititive play patterns--my son likes edges. His pretend play is much different than his twin brothers (and other typical kids).
4. Imitation or ability to imitate is something else to look at. My son was and is a great imitator and so I used that to reassure myself that he was fine. Now I realize, though, that it is weak in him. Stuff like he didn't naturally watch us and pretend to do what we did. I noticed his twin would be standing watching daddy and do exactly what daddy was doing--learning through his imitation. Andrew didn't do that at that age. He could stick out his tongue in imitation but young babies can do that; Andrew was able to imitate but he was missing that learning through imitation. I'm babbling. Sorry. I mention this one because it is usually mentioned on early screening tools. But in diagnosing autism it has never been mentioned to me so I'm not sure whether this is a solid sign. (and my son was an imitator and loved/loves to imitiate) He was also always quick to return smiles and initiate--much more so than his brother. Emotionally he's much more everything than his brother! He laughed and did back and forth stuff. I know his back and forth ability is affected but I sure didn't see it back then..I know now as I see it in therapy and we're working on it. But it sure was subtle or seemed to be!

Here's an article to look at that might help. http://www.bridges4kids.org/articles/1-03/EP12-02.html Notice concern in any areas is reason for evaluation. Not all are present in all kids.


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## MonP'titBoudain (Nov 22, 2005)

A friend of mine and I were talking about early intervention screening today. I was observing that so many folks seem reluctant to go ahead with the screening when they obviously sense that something is a little "off". I really think that the benefits of contacting Early Intervention and having a screening done outweigh the risks (which I really don't see what the risks are? labeling? incorrect diagnosis?) At any rate, if you are beginning to suspect something, trust your mama's intuition. You know your child and you have your intuition in order to help protect your child. And what can you lose by going ahead and contacting Early Intervention? good luck as you make your decision.


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## jennnk (Feb 6, 2005)

My best friend's older sister worked for Early Intervention for a while and now teaches preschool to at-risk and special needs children in North Carolina. She has said that _everyone_ has some symptoms of Autism, it's the combination and severity of multiple symptoms that points to a diagnosis. For example, I'm quite mesmerized by both light and motion, and will "zone out" when doing something that requires focus and/or motion, such as knitting or reading (it's one of the reasons I avoid driving at night, if at all possible), to the point where I don't hear what's going on around me and you have to physically interrupt me if you want my attention (i.e. I don't respond when someone says my name). My best friend can't stand certain sounds, to the point of getting the heebie-jeebies and feeling physically ill if someone crumples paper. But the presence of one or two symptoms, without a multitude of others, doesn't mean one has an ASC. I don't see any harm in going to Early Intervention & discussing your concerns, but I also wouldn't jump to a diagnosis on my own just because he doesn't always respond to his name - sometimes someone is just too focused on what s/he's doing to realize someone's talking.


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## eepster (Sep 20, 2006)

The symptoms you describe just sound like normal toddler behavior to me. and I wouldn't worry about them at all. Now if you have a gut feeling that something is wrong get it checked out, intuition can tell you a lot more than a long list of vague behaviors.


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## ewe+lamb (Jul 20, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *eepster* 
The symptoms you describe just sound like normal toddler behavior to me. and I wouldn't worry about them at all. Now if you have a gut feeling that something is wrong get it checked out, intuition can tell you a lot more than a long list of vague behaviors.

ITA as I read through your list I was like yeah - both my kids have done some of this, I think these programmes are great for raising our awareness but at the same stage we have to remember not to see spooks in the cupboard as such. If your instinct is saying to you that there is something wrong by all means go ahead and trust that and have your dc checked out rather than, as eepster said, follow a list of vague behaviours.


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## flapjack (Mar 15, 2005)

Also, the other thing to remember is that everyone exhibits some autistic traits to some extent. The rise in people being diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders has been confined to the last 60 years or so, and it is a societal issue as well as a health issue.


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## JBaxter (May 1, 2005)

If you question get an evaluation

I know a family who's child at the at of 2 would spend an hour+ ( or as long as they let him) opening and closing doors and over the next 3 yrs had issues with interacting with other children could resite anything he read had issues with all toilets except 2 learned to read in preschool but only books without bent pages and couldnt peddle a tricicle had all kinds of intestinal issues < bleeding diaper rashes>. All these things her ped said he would grow out of







: the preschool finally asked her to get him evaluated so at age 5 he was diagnoses with aspbergers . Beautiful child who got NO benifits of OT and other therapy when he could have for 2+yrs.

Please dont take no for an anwer if you have any mommy instinct. Early interveniton is so important with children on the spectrum even slightly on the specturm


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## nataliachick7 (Apr 3, 2007)

i think all of them are normal except not responding to their name. my son responded to his name at around 8 months and i think they *should* be doing this by 12 months.


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## LilahsMama (Mar 16, 2007)

I think having an evaluation is harmless and may help put your mind at ease. If it does turn out that your dc could benefit from therapy early intervention is best, like you said.


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## veganf (Dec 12, 2005)

Yes, you can have lots of the characteristics of autism and not be diagnosed as having autism...like my second son and I...however our extended family has 3 people with autism, 2 on my side, 1 on my husband's side. I really agree more with the "autism spectrum" diagnosis which allows for varying degrees of autism...but at some point there is a minimum of characteristics you need to have in order to qualify as having actual autism or similar pervasive developmental disorders.


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## loriforeman (Aug 18, 2007)

there's many degrees...frequency and duration of these symptoms also have to be taken in consideration.

a normal child might like to open and close doors, while an autistic one might do this FOR HOURS. my child has asperger's...and she'll get engrossed in an activity...and won't even know you're around. literally.

when she was tiny, our biggest give-away was that she did NOT like to be held. she'd let me hold her just long enough to nurse, and then would scream until i'd lay her down...at which time she'd be happy and not make another sound. she also rocks. lots of rocking...mostly at night, now.


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## sbgrace (Sep 22, 2004)

And my spectrum kiddo was very cuddly and huggy (still is..he's a contact craver).

I'm mostly replying because I want to subscribe to this thread in case the OP has further questions.


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## bettysmom (Jul 28, 2007)

Here's a question I often have -- and I ask it honestly, not meaning to offend anyone: If every child I know seems to have some behaviors that would put them on the spectrum, and if many seemingly functional adults had or still have behaviors that now would be considered on the spectrum -- but went untreated, because no one knew about the spectrum when they were children -- then ... just how meaningful is the spectrum? Where does it end? Toward the admirable goal of catching some disorders early, is it possible that the net is now being cast a bit too wide?


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## gnutter (Jan 5, 2006)

Iwill add that while my 16 mo knows his name-he studiously ignores me when I call him because usually its to draw him away from whatever thing he is getting into.
I think that some behaviors in toddlers are going to be hard to judge because toddlers get into doing some silly things. repetition of those behaviors is part of the learning process. If you have him checked out maybe the early intervention program in your area would be a place to start. They really helped a friend who's son had major speech delays. They caught it early and now he is almost completely fluent and easily understood. The early intervention programs really take a look at whatever it might be without assuming anything outright too. This is of course from what I heard about the local one here in my area.


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