Helen

there is no way Matt has autism,

in comparison to Hannah ( who we think has got mild traits of autism from when i went to this DSA conference last month ) he is head and shoulders above her in development and he is 12mths younger

his communication is fantastic

I just think that he is slowing down as he was just so advanced and just taking time out to explore a few things that he missed on the way up ( if that makes sense )

and to Lydia too, your Matt says 90 words at 3, that is brilliant

Hannah is 3 1/2 and she says about 5 words ( and even then we have to prompt her to say them ) her most consistant one being bye bye and even then she doesn't always say it

I would love to hear her say mommy but alas she isn't there yet. She has said daddy once or twice but again she hasn't said it for a while

Matthew is going to intervention center in the last 2 years and the teachers there have suspected him to be autistic. They said because of his behavior (pushing other kids, not gentle touching kids and prefer to play alone) shows traits of autism. They said that his cognitive level is better than other DS kids level (this thing I don't believe it). My husband doesn't convince at all. I am going to call my ped to get her opinion on Monday. I am very sad today and feels helpless.

You are doing exactly the right thing by calling the ped. And as upsetting as any new diagnosis might be, you can then make a plan for your son.

He pushes other kids so he has "traits of autism"? I would imagine everyone on the planet has at least one trait of autism! Perhaps he has ADHD.

Tom is right, but I still think you're wise to run it by the doctor.

Ellen is 100% correct.

Lydia, sorry to hear you are down about it

I can't believe that they say he has autism just from the fact that he pushes other kids around

there are children in Hannah's nursery class that haven't got DS or autism that push other children around. I don't think this is enough on its own to say he has autism

I think that his speech is brilliant with 90 words I really do

Run it by the paedrician, thats what we were told too. Hopefully they will be able to put your mind at rest

Hang in there

I would say he's playing on his own because, developmentally, he's not reached the age where kids start interacting with their peers. Typical children only start to do this around 2 or 2 1/2. Matt prefers to play on his own too, but I've always put that down to his developmental stage. Even though he does 'repetitive' behaviours, his not really playing with other kids his age never worried me. With our kids, age-appropriate rules have to go out the window!

[Edited by helandy.cop on 24-04-2006 at 09:27 AM]

I don't mean to be nosey but when did an "intervention" service become capable of making/suggesting any diagnosis. They can recommend you to see a developmental ped but as for making/suggesting a diagnosis, I am sure that is not allowed.

You are doing the right thing, bring any worries up with his pediatrician.

You know it's funny. I thought the same thing as Stephanie about them not making a diagnosis. But with my son who eventually diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, nobody ever mentioned anything on the autism spectrum. I would ask them what they thought was going on, this didn't look like plain old ADHD and they never sent me in any other direction. Now they might not have known much about it at the time, and he was getting some of the right help anyway, but it would have explained things a lot more thouroughly and sent me in a better direction for help. So I think educators need to word things very carefully, but if they have concerns they need to make them known to us so we can follow up.

I do know schools often diagnose and should not. We were just burnt by the opposite problem.