My Green Family. ramblings of one family's journey to green living

One of my biggest hopes for this blog is to raise awareness for autism. I feel like we where blindsided when Tristan was diagnosed.

A lot of the behaviors we now know to be typical of autism we thought were just part of who Tristan is, and to a certain degree they are, but they are also because of autism. There are definite warning signs but you won’t read about any of them in your “baby’s first year” books. And unfortunately for us our family doctor was less than helpful to say the least.

Early intervention is so important for kids with autism which makes it critical to recognize possible signs and get them checked out. I am by no means a medical doctor and if your child has some of these behaviors it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a problem, what I’m writing about here are our experiences.

Here is the link for the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for autism. The three main areas that people with autism have difficulties with are social relationships, communication, and restricted and repetitive behavior.

1. Speech delay

This was our first hint that there was some sort of problem. He said his first recognizable word at 10 months: ball. He continued with peas, cheese, mama, dada, up, go, stop, no. When he stopped saying these words I thought he was working on another skill and talking had taken a back seat. But the words never came back. Now Tristan is almost 3 years old and he is just starting to regain his words. Tristan also used to wave hello and bye but same with the speech, it just stopped. Don’t let anyone make you believe that your child is just going to be a late talker and let that stop you from getting speech looked at. That may just be the case but why take the risk.

2. Any type of sensory issue

Many kids with autism also have sensory disorders. They process sensory information differently than neurotypical people. Some have really low thresholds for stimulation. For example noise, lights, seams on clothes and certain types of food textures are too much for them. They can’t wear certain clothes and won’t eat certain foods.

Others have very high thresholds, they can’t get enough stimulation. Tristan is in this group. He is a sensory seeker primarily for visual and movement stimulation. Tristan has always lined up his trucks and I had always just thought it was part of his uniqueness. He craves that visual input. He also likes to watch the wheels of his trucks spin. Tristan also craves movement. When we visit an early years centre that has a gym converted into an indoor play area Tristan wouldn’t play, he would just run. Run around the gym for a full hour just to get that movement.

3. Eye contact

Before we started the gluten free/casein free diet (more on this topic in our next post) Tristan had very little eye contact. I would hold his face and get down on his level and he would not look me in the eye.

4. No pointing or not following your pointing

Tristan is just now starting to point. He wouldn’t point at pictures in books, at things he wanted, nothing. If I tried to point out something of interest to him he would not follow my point.

5. Not sharing enjoyment

This sounds a little weird. But Tristan doesn’t show us things. Things that he’s proud of, things that he’s interested in, things that he wants us to know about.

6. No Joint attention

Joint attention is when you’re sharing your attention between a person and an object. So if your child reaches for something and then looks back at you expectantly for you to help get the item, this is joint attention. Also, if you’re playing tickle and you stop, they will look at you as an indication that they want to continue the play. Tristan didn’t exhibit this and this is the foundation for learning to communicate.

7. Need for routine

Tristan has a real need for his routine. I can’t sleep in and let Odum get the kids up in the morning because Tristan is so used to me doing it (although I don’t think Odum minds this too much). Bath time is also a huge routine in our house. All hell broke lose when Odum had to leave us for a few days for a conference. It took almost three hours to get the kids settled and asleep.

8. Does not respond to their name

Pretty self explanatory, but this was one of the reasons we had Tristan’s hearing tested. We could stand steps behind him and call his name loudly and nothing.

9. Inappropriate laughing or crying

Also self explanatory. I just thought when Tristan had a little smile or giggle it was some sort of private joke.

10. Really great at independent play

Tristan is so great at amusing himself. It’s amazing how well he plays on his own. I thought this was a good thing. I had read a few books on parenting that said it was really important for your child to be able to play independently. So I encouraged him to play on his own and really praised him. But like the sharing enjoyment thing, he would never actively seek us out to play with him.

11. No imaginative play

Any toy we bought for Tristan he didn’t really play with it. He would line it up with other toys or just leave it. We got him the Little People garage for Christmas and until recently it just sat in the living room literally collecting dust. Tristan wouldn’t put cars up the elevator or down the ramp.

12. Social interaction

When I first started writing this post I originally had 11 autism warning signs to look for but after Maya’s birthday I wanted to add this one as well.

Now I’m with Tristan all day everyday so it can be hard for me to stand back and look at the big picture. My stepdad (G-Pa) who hadn’t seen Tristan since December was floored by Tristan’s social improvement. When he saw Tristan last it was at our family Christmas party and G-Pa commented that Tristan didn’t really care when people came into our house, he just continued to play, didn’t interact with anyone and didn’t care if anyone came to play with him. Looking back Tristan has been like this for a while.

At Maya’s birthday party however Tristan was so excited to see everyone he ran to the door to see who was here, he went down the line of lawnchairs and shook everyone’s hand, twice! He then went and sat on everyone’s lap in turn to see who’s was most comfortable, he even played chase games with people. It was amazing. I guess I just didn’t really realize how antisocial his behaviour was until I saw how good it could be.

Here are a couple of helpful links to more warning signs to watch out for:

Autism Society Canada

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Of course there’s a fine line between some of these behaviours and typical “terrible two” behaviour. And as I’ve found out denial is not just a river in Egypt, it is so easy to write off behviour as just terrible twos or boy’s being boys. My best advice is to take your head out of the sand (if that’s where it might be) and trust your gut. Don’t let anyone downplay your fears or concerns, go with your instinct, you know your child best and you are your child’s best and only advocate. Wait lists for therapy are so long it’s criminal, and even the lists just to get a child assessed for something like speech are long (we waited 6 months). I can’t stress enough how important it is to recognize problems early.

I truly think our family doctors need to have a more in depth developmental screening process to perform at our baby check ups. Autism is an epidemic affecting 1 in 150 kids. Just like during pregnancy we get detailed ultrasounds at the 20 week mark, we need to have more detailed examinations of our children’s early development. I would much rather go through an extra 10 minute assessment process than wait until its too late. How about you?