Parents of HFA | Autism PDD

Yes, we have NT moments. Long moments. But Sam is sometimes more NT
when in a new stressful situation and more PDD-NOS when somewhere safe
and familiar. It's kind of like he has to feel secure enough to "let it all hang
out", and be himself. So he can be stressed out of his head, and behave very
NT, then come home, the stress is off, and "it hits the fan". The more
comfortable he is with someone, the worse his behavior gets! I appreciate
that it's pretty cool that he can often conform, and that helps me prioritize
giving him space to just be himself, and lower the stress.
Sometimes though it's totally not fair that I get to deal with the crappy
behavior, and the strangers see the angelic side of him. my son is now looking nore NT and we have started to notice it more each day. he use to come out of the bus and didnt want anybody looking at him. now when he started in sept. he has changed completely. our doctor told us he is coming out of autism,since my son was pdd nos dx. and i do believe in what the doctor said ,because my son has changed in so many ways, he is not so shy anymore and acts NT.

Yes, yes and yes. Paul will go between showing himself to be nearly NT one minute and suddenly flapping enough to become airborne the next!

Read a book once that made a lot of sense about this. She called it "barrel full" when they hit overload and just can't cope. It's hard for us to notice the things that are starting to fill the barrel because as NT we aren't seeing/hearing/sensing the same as ASD do.

Their barrel may be full of : feeling hungry, remembering a playground incident yesterday, you made my least favorite breakfast last week, this shirt makes me itch and I smell the new air freshener you bought. You probably won't notice the "barrel" filling until it spills over.

This helped me to cope with the change between NT and showing full autistic behavior. I rack my brain trying to find out what I can empty from his barrel to bring him back.

They tell me sharlet MAY go on to "present high functioning" when she is an adult. But at the moment no, she doesn't ever appear NT to me. She has periods of being very zoned out, but even when she is being very active her atypical behaviors, mannerisms and delays are glaringly obvious. Absolutely.Yeah, I agree. One minute he is having a conversation with me and then he will echolallia into something that he saw on Playhouse Disney.comSarah wakes up real zoned out ..she doesnt talk to us or look at us but goes straight to the TV to watch on demand and sits and stares for a period of time~at least 20 minutes and then she kinda turns on her expressions and awareness for the rest of the day?? When she was <3 she stayed in this state all day long so I am grateful it is just the morning:)Thank God I am not the only one I was starting to feel a little insane.This happened at the beach last weekend. DS was splashing around having a grand time until he spotted another ASD boy older than him by 5 years (met and spoke to his parents) he stood in the water for a full 5minutes not moving or talking, just watching the boy. DH explained that he had asd like our boy. Pointed out to DS that the boy made similar sounds and hand movements to him. DS looked at DH with suspicious understanding. MIL was stunned. and said, "that was amazing! He was normal for about 5 minutes watching that boy!"

Maybe my son thought, "naw... I don't look/sound like that! "

Yes. My son appears completely NT most of the time when not in school. If all of you were watching him you'd probably pick up some subtle things, but to the average person he seems no different than any other kid. That is outside of school. In the more rigid school environment, where he is forced to do non-preferred activities and the stress and demands are higher, he presents as more affected, though still on the milder end of the spectrum.

My neuropsych had a term for this that I like. She called it "autistic stress response." When C is stressed, his autism becomes noticable. When he's not stressed, it's hard to spot. It wasn't always like this. At age 3 I would have described C as moderately affected and his autism was obivous to anyone who observed him for any period of time in any environment. The neuropsych said that C is very environmentally sensetive but as he matures and his coping mechanisms become more evolved, he should be able to deal with frustration and stress better.

My ds does pretty well at home and sometimes there are days where he
seems like your average kid and I start thinking that it is all in my head.
But then we go to the grocery store and he starts hugging strangers (he is
seven) or I see him in class where he is a mess and reality sets in again.I see that with Skylar quite often. I think my daughters often 'pass' in the eyes of the lay-public, but they never seem typical to me - there's always some subtle or not-so-subtle sign that something is off.I also will add there is a longer cycle in behavior, imposed on the short one ... you can have weeks of NT and then a sudden highly-symptomatic day or week!

Yup. We've had several cycles this morning. HUGE meltdown and in the last five minutes he has done everything he needed to do to get ready to go without even being asked!

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Mother of seven year old son with PDD-NOS, and 4 year old DD NT

YES, YES and YES.

Most of my son's autistic behaviours are also as a result of stress and being exposed to an overwhelming environment. I am hoping he will learn to self regulate and cope better, with therapies and age ofcourse.

Mary

Nice to know I am not alone. There are times when he can be so NT that I think maybe I am making it all up (as has been suggested by more than a few). Then he does something so totally off.sometimes i think the diagnosis is wrong!

when we see a new doctor and i say he has autism, they always react with
"really, i would have never guessed"

L

We were going through this daily,but ds has been stimming alot now that school is looming,and voices!!! sometime i forget what he sounds like(his real voice).

Linda

Definitely. I agree with Fred's statement. I think it applies to my dd. Well it happens when he starts speaking. sometimeshe is is right on and on
topic and once in a while he is totally out there and so off topic.

Yes. Worried so much about it when he was younger, now I just try and help him sort whatever out or deal with it.

Concernedpa.

Do you ever notice that your kids can look so NT one minute and so totally ASD the next?

Aiden was just eating breakfast, we were having a great really typical conversation. He was calm, totally in his body really focused and engaged. No stims, nothing odd at all.

I left for 30 seconds to grab a tissue for his sister, came back into the kitchen and he had a pencil that had been on the counter and was just standing there holding it. (he gets stuck on brooms, sticks pencils, anything that shape)

From that moment on he has been really Autistic. Posturing, stimming like crazy, I cant get him to even look at me or speak.

Aiden often does this, one minute he seems so NT the next he is so AS. It is just really hard for me to take at times. Anyone else notice this with their HFA kids?