Re: diganosis

[Guest guest]

Hi Crystal,

I am Viola. My youngest child is 16. He has down syndrome. and was

diagnosed with PDD (nos) at the age of 11. He showed NO autistic signs until

the age of 9. Even now he has NO aggressive behaviors to himself or others.

He too is social, not as social as he used to be though. He loves routine,

loves self stimming like dangling toys. also does NOT drop on the

floor and have fits of anger. is also verbal.He prefers at times to be

alone, I work hard on getting him out of that. takes NO MEDICATION OF ANY

KIND. hope this helps,

In a message dated 6/25/2008 5:21:35 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

savannah08119@... writes:

Hello,

My name is Crystal and I am from Maine, my son who is 6 has Down Syndrome

and I am thinking about the dual diagnosis (sorry for spellings, I am the

worst) I am wondering if anyone can tell me what brought them to think about

autisum and what I should be " looking " for. I have been reading the postings

for

the last week and some of the things sounds so much like my son Austin, but

from what I understand (and correct me if I am wrong) a major part of Autism

is the social piece, Austin has no problems saying hi to people walking up to

them and give the a hug (lets say he is a little to friendly fo rmy likings

he will walk to anyone and just this past weekend at our festival here in town

walked up to a guy and grabbed a hold of his hand and continued to walk with

him) He however needs prompting playing with kids at school, he will do a

lot of parrel play will towards the end of the year the children in his class

would ask him to join and he would try

(with prompting from his 1 on 1) He does have out bursts of anger but nothi

ng major, if it doesn't go his way he flops on the floor, kicks, screams,

cries flat out refuses to do what we ask. He is mostly non verbal but loves

signs and has picked them up pretty good and before we intruduced signs at

1year he would hit his head against whatever was near by when he was mad or

frustrated, he does try to say somethings but for some reason it seems very

hard

for him. He loves routines, performs best when he is in one. Will sit and

flicker a rubber bracelt in his hand back and forth and make a " noise " with it

or sit there and spin a car wheel making the same noice.

This group was suggested to me for answers so I would love any that you can

give me. Sorry this is so long.

Crystal Rice

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

**************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for

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[Guest guest]

My son is 5 1/2 and was diagnosed almost a year ago with asd. I think

the main thing where I started thinking something is different with

him is the stimming. He was obsessed with electronic/music toys, and

also anything dangly like belts or strings and he would just dangle

them for hours if allowed.

But on the other hand he is also very loving(mainly only toward his

family and people he knows well)and loves kisses and hugs and will

maintain eye contact with us. However, anyone he doesn't know, it is

like they are not even there, he will not even acknowledge. He also

does not play with or acknowledge his peers, although this past year

he has gotten a little better, he still does not really play WITH

them, he is just starting to notice them more. Another thing his OT

at school said was kind of related to the autism spectrum was how

much he loves numbers and letters. Anything to do with the alphabet

or counting and he tunes right into it ( this was something I

discovered by accident, I had no clue how well or fast he responded

with learning the alphabet and numbers). Speech wise he is

progressing, although defintely very delayed. He uses signs also.

The stimming is still our biggest issue, along with his lack of

interaction with his teachers and peers. He isn't so obsessed with

his electronic toys anymore(I really am surprised that he isn't, I

didn't think there was an end in sight:)-but with anything dangly-

belt, string, floppy stuffed animal, etc, he will find a way to stim

with it. Sometimes I just let him, sometimes I try to redirect him.

I had many people tell me that he wasnt on the spectrum, but after

comparing a 'typical' child with DS and my child, there are lots of

differences. Hope this helps a little!

(mom to Ethan-5 y/o with ds/asd

[Guest guest]

Hello Crystal,

I have a 6 yr old daughter who was diagnosed this past

year. I guess the first thing that brought me to think about austism is that

I noticed she was different than the other kids with DS her age.

She did not make eye contact, was not as social and preferred to be alone or

away from them. She had self stimulatory behaviors, such as stimming with

her toys and her hands. She did not play functionally with her toys starting

around 2 1/2 3 yrs. I did not know what to do with her and felt a great loss

at what to do since she did not seem interested in doing anything except

stimming with her toys or playing with music toys.

Later when she started school, she began to hit herself out of frustration

since she had dropped most of her signs and would not talk. The language loss

was a biggie because she had started using words around 17months and had

even begun to use short sentences and was very good with signing. She seemed

to

enjoy other children but did not know how to interact with them and

preferred to seek out adults to hug and would use them as her tools to get and

do

what she wanted. Hope this helps, I could go on but this hopefully will give

you a big enough picture. Also, I did have a dream in which I heard , " your

child has autism " and though I tried to fight it out of fear, I eventually

faced

it and had her diagnosed. Now we are at peace with this.

**************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for

fuel-efficient used cars.

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[Guest guest]

Interesting comment about the dream. I always say that my son diagnosed

himself....one night I dreamed I was holding him in my arms, and he turned to me

and said " I can't talk with all this noise " . I knew then he had ASD, and

Apraxia, and he was officially diagnosed at age 3. 

 

The diagnosis was hard, but the best thing that happened to us, in that we are

now getting the help he needs. 

 

 

Kim

Subject: Re: diganosis

To:

Date: Thursday, June 26, 2008, 7:20 AM

 Also, I did have a dream in which I heard , " your

child has autism " and though I tried to fight it out of fear, I eventually faced

it and had her diagnosed. Now we are at peace with this.

************ **Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for

fuel-efficient used cars. (http://autos. aol.com/used? ncid=aolaut00050

000000007)

[Guest guest]

Yeh I think the down sydrome is the loving gene!

**************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for

fuel-efficient used cars.

(http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)

[Guest guest]

Hi, Crystal. My son is 8 and was diagnosed with autism last year in

addition to DS. He too is social, loving, has eye contact, and is a big hugger.

But he is verbally delayed but has several signs. He won't play with other kids

but will parallel play. Not much imaginative play. He hums, flaps arms, flaps

and dangles objects, etc., and sometimes does this to the point he can't engage

in what's going on around him. This is called " stimming, " and that's what took

us to the dr. for the diagnosis. He is on a low dose of Abilify and that has

helped with the stimming. He's still as loving as ever.

Hope that helps.

Beth

Re: diganosis

Hi Crystal,

I am Viola. My youngest child is 16. He has down syndrome. and was

diagnosed with PDD (nos) at the age of 11. He showed NO autistic signs until

the age of 9. Even now he has NO aggressive behaviors to himself or others.

He too is social, not as social as he used to be though. He loves routine,

loves self stimming like dangling toys. also does NOT drop on the

floor and have fits of anger. is also verbal.He prefers at times to be

alone, I work hard on getting him out of that. takes NO MEDICATION OF ANY

KIND. hope this helps,

In a message dated 6/25/2008 5:21:35 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,

savannah08119@... writes:

Hello,

My name is Crystal and I am from Maine, my son who is 6 has Down Syndrome

and I am thinking about the dual diagnosis (sorry for spellings, I am the

worst) I am wondering if anyone can tell me what brought them to think about

autisum and what I should be " looking " for. I have been reading the postings

for

the last week and some of the things sounds so much like my son Austin, but

from what I understand (and correct me if I am wrong) a major part of Autism

is the social piece, Austin has no problems saying hi to people walking up to

them and give the a hug (lets say he is a little to friendly fo rmy likings

he will walk to anyone and just this past weekend at our festival here in town

walked up to a guy and grabbed a hold of his hand and continued to walk with

him) He however needs prompting playing with kids at school, he will do a

lot of parrel play will towards the end of the year the children in his class

would ask him to join and he would try

(with prompting from his 1 on 1) He does have out bursts of anger but nothi

ng major, if it doesn't go his way he flops on the floor, kicks, screams,

cries flat out refuses to do what we ask. He is mostly non verbal but loves

signs and has picked them up pretty good and before we intruduced signs at

1year he would hit his head against whatever was near by when he was mad or

frustrated, he does try to say somethings but for some reason it seems very

hard

for him. He loves routines, performs best when he is in one. Will sit and

flicker a rubber bracelt in his hand back and forth and make a " noise " with it

or sit there and spin a car wheel making the same noice.

This group was suggested to me for answers so I would love any that you can

give me. Sorry this is so long.

Crystal Rice

[Guest guest]

The DS does cloud the Autism to a point because many of our kids are social to a

point (adults) and can be very loving, huggy, etc. However, there are those

other personalities that don't belong there (head banging, flapping, spinning

objects, Echolalia, stop-drop-flop,etc.) Kids who are non-verbal, typically

have some sort of behavioral issues due to their lack of communication

skills..so this becomes doubly troublesome when you have a child with DS that is

non-verbal, then receive the Autism dx. Tori is 8.5 yrs. old, and was dxd

PDD-NOS at 3.5 yrs. She is EXTREMELY verbal, and EXTREMELY friendly to adults,

but does not (or should I say cannot) interact appropriately with kids. She

used to much prefer to watch or do her own thing. She has major transition

issues to this day, and her mood can change at the drop of a hat. She can be

whining one minute, and then hysterical laughing the next. She LOVES when

people get hurt (things blood and gooey are great!)...and hits herself when she

gets frustrated. When we watch her baby videos, alot of the Austism is so

obvious, but not ever being around someone who was Autistic, we didn't have a

clue that there was anything wrong until I worked with twins who were

Autistic...then BAM!!!

Hope this helps.

Liz

Re: diganosis

Yeh I think the down sydrome is the loving gene!

**************Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for

fuel-efficient used cars.

(http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)

[Guest guest]

I knew very little about autism, until after 's doc told us that what all

his behaviors were about 4yrs of age, then I read several books offered at the

University Disability Resource Library, and it made total sense. I remember

asking the doc what was with all the funny behaviors, cause like many here we

were part of ds groups and get togethers, and acted different than they

did, none of the other parents were able to help or relate. shawna

[Guest guest]

Hi Crystal, my daughter was diagnosed very early, right when she

turned 3 by a developmental pediatrician.

Here's some specific things our developmental pediatrician was

looking for before he gave Kayla an autism diagnosis:

Does she respond to her name?

Does she have any imaginative play?

Does she look when you point?

Does she try to get your attention when she finds or does something

interesting?

Does she notice other kids her age?

Does she make eye contact?

Does she wave hello or goodbye?

The answer for all of the above for Kayla was NO. Our dev ped was

particular concerned about her lack of imaginative play and joint

attention.

It's a year later, and she's better at responding to her name (I

think because she thinks you have food, LOL) and eye contact. She's

also very huggy, indiscriminately, unfortunately. She'll just jump

into strangers arms for no reason. Not good, and she doesn't

cognitively understand that you aren't supposed to do that!

Also she is addicted to her musical flasing toys. That's all she

wants to play with all day. If you take them away, she'll just stare

at her fingers all day. Sigh.

Kayla is also non-verbal and uses signs sporadically. Right now the

only thing she'll sign is " music " for her musical flashing toys.

Before that all she'd sign was " cookie " .

It's obvious that she is so different from other kids with DS. I

think that's when I realized there was more going on. We have a

neighbor whose daughter with DS is just 7 months older than Kayla,

but light years ahead of her developmentally.

I hope you find some answers!

Ecki

Mom to Kayla (DS/ASD, 4/5/04) and Laurie (PDD-NOS, 7/12/01)

http://oppositekids.blogspot.com/