What do you think? | Autism PDD
Jean As far as I know there is no scientific or medical data to back that up. That being said........ I suppose for SOME people that may seem possible. The reason I would think many would feel or believe that is this......
Many if not most of us did not find out our child was indeed on the spectrum until they were 3 or darn close to it! Alot of our kids regressed so by the age of 3 they were pretty far behind. During the next 2 years (from 3 - 5) Parents have learned of the diganosis (generally speaking) and begun to educate themselves about the disorder, they begin to learn things to do to help as far as therapies, consistency, routine, predictability, sometimes medications, and the child begins a specialized preschool which helps. The first bit is chaos, trying to understand, educate, remember everything..... the child is usually at this point significantly delayed and because they are older (3, 4, 5 years old) and act more like a 1 1/2 year old at 3 years - 3 year 3 1/2 year old at 5.... these years would appear to seem to be the worst WHILE you are trying to play catch up and get your kid to a developmental age closer to their own cronological age.
I don't think autism is worse during this time and then fades away or improves because of the age,.... I feel the reason them seem to do better after age 5 is therapies have begun to help and they are learning to appear more typical, hide autistic characteristics etc.
Example: Speech...... many at 3 are non verbal or close to it, but once diagnosed and speech therapy begins, many start regaining speech in a matter of a few months making them appear less autistic....
hand flapping,..... at 3 they may flap over everythign all day long and with the whole arm and hand going as if they are a bird taking off for flight.... with diagnosis you understand what it is and you start trying to teach them more socially appropriate ways to handle their feeling of being stressed, excited, overwhelmed, anxious etc. So by 5 instead of doing it ALL the time maybe they only do it SOME of the time and instead of the arms all the way out and the hands going maybe its just flapping the hands infront of their body so its less noticable.
Also with age kids mature... and although our kids need special assistance or help in learning they also progress with maturity. think of a baby and how it awakes to feed every few hours... as it grows older it begins to sleep for longer periods at a time..... The same with our kids.... although sleep remains a large problem for MANY, our kids do start to sleep better as they get older.
I do not feel time / age alone is going to make an autistic child progress and become less autistic unless they child is SO EXTREMELY HIGH FUNCTIONING to begin with they hardly meet the criteria for a diagnosis. (I have heard many people on this board say they think they or their spouse may be on the spectrum but never diagnosed)
I also don't feel just therapy is the difference because even a NT child at 3 can't be taught to read unless they are gifted they need to reach the maturity levels to begin to understand in order to be taught.
So I think a combination is probably the factor keeping in mind each child is different. The kids who are less severely affected may seem to improve n their own or in minimal time. The kids who are most severely affected may never seem to show such minimal improvement throughout their life.
One of our therapists recently told me something kind of similar. She said that children under 5 may show what appear to be more behavioral problems up til 5, then kind of plateau, then show behavioral problems again once they hit their teen years ... kind of like how NT children are more defiant until they're around 5, then are easier to control til they hit their teens, then ... WHAMMO! And we all can remember what the teen years were like!
She says it's just the nature of growing up, more than being anything
related to autism. Like, that it's just a normal part of maturing
(young children are learning to asert their independence, then are ok
until they think they know it all as teenagers and need to further
assert their independence to break away from childhood). I'm perpetually sleep deprived, so sorry if what I wrote reads like blather.
michelle you always make so much sense!!Thanks guys! I appreciate your comments. Sleep? What is that? Something that Non-Parents do? I am trying to remember, I think it is like vacations, reading a book, watching something beside Elmo on TV? I just cant..............Y A W N...remember.
I talked with a Mom of a 12 y/o DS with autism. She said something that I want to ask all of you, if you have ever heard before?
SHe told me that 3 to 5 (age) is when a child is his / her "most" autistic. SHe said he will have more behaviors, more sleep problems, more tantrums, more SPD symptoms, more transistioning difficulties,.....more of everything and anything related to his autism, during this time frame than at any other time. Has anyone ever heard of this? Does anyone think that it is true? She made this statement because I told her that everyone keeps telling me things with my child will get better, but they just seem to keep getting worse. She told me that she spent those years living on 2 and 3 hours of sleep a night (on GOOD NIGHTS!) and going from one crisis to another with issues involving her son.
To those who have children older than my 4 year old, do you think that your child was 'more' autistic during this time frame? If so, do you think it was age / time or therapy or a combination that changed things?
Thanks so much, I look forward to your input.
Hi, I just want to tell you that it is true, my son is now 8 years old and I remember that when he was from 3 to 5 years he had a lot of problems with sleep. It was very bad, waking up in the middle of the night with night terrors, crying, running up and down the house, screeaming and hitting however was trying to comfort him. I didn't know what to do but they went away, like you I though it would last forever but they don't it usually gets better well at least with my son it did. Now once in a while he might wake up or have problems going to sleep he usually stays up late but I take that better than what he went throug (actually right now when I was sending you this message he helped me to spell some words because he likes to help mom a lot) keep the faith
helen I agree with Michelle and Luvmyboyz. What I have heard, and it makes sense to me, is that the adolescent years are the next (other than the early years) big opportunity for a lot of brain cell/synapse growth. Autistic children tend to get better or worse than they were before adoescence. But this is a good time to make a big push for improvements. Big opportunity for progress (but risk of regress). It's what I've been told by professionals I trust and literature I've read. pat Thank you all, it makes sense to me. I know think I was misinterputing what she was trying to tell me...again, that sleep depravation (or at least I will blame it ALL on that) I appreciate your input! I don't think that applys to all autistic children. I know a few people who had worse problems w/their chidren when they were in their teens than preschool aged. Matter of fact. One women freind of mine told me her son behaved pretty typical but it wasn't until he was older before he was diagnosed w/autism. He evetually went to a facility to live because they couldn't manage him but now he is an adult w/adult services and works through local programs. So I don't know if there really is a worse stage...just stages. SOme better, some worse. Most of all we just get through each stage. (: mary Your right Mary. I know that we cannot ever say ALL ASD children do anything. Thanks for the reminder. Our children have enough in common to meet the criteria for an ASD diagnosis but indeed, it is a spectrum and as the Ped Neuro told me (also the parent of an ASD son), our kids can test up and down and on and off the spectrum. I guess I didnt express myself well, I was only asking for opinions and expieriences of others, while I know that my child may follow the EXACT path of another child in this area, I also know that he may not. All people are like snowflakes-unique and alike but different. This is no great revelation, but I thought I'd add my two cents!
I've also heard that at adolescence some kids 'symptoms' tend to improve and some get worse. Our sons got worse. That's actually when we got the diagnosis. Prior to that, we just thought he was a strong-willed child with some quirky personality traits! Thanks for the insights! I have been just soooo busy trying to cope with everything. It helps to KNOW that others are always tired all the time, too! IF I can take a nap, I WILL. This is sooo unbelivably draining. It is hard enough just trying to do as much as we can to help our children. Then having to deal with teachers and FIGHT for their rights on top of it...Ugh! Sometimes I feel like I can't do this, but I KNOW my son NEEDS me. Sure would be nice to get a break. Hubby THINKS going to the beach is the answer...pffff Right Roy! It is harder taking AJ places than it is to stay at home. Sure it is relaxing for hubby cuz he aint the one running around and around and around. I am sorry ...just really tired here.
, well let's just say he is a real teenager (stuff everywhere).
His speech has improved because of speech therapy over the years, he
has wonderful program at his school for children with autism, they have
taught him and myself so many things. I don't think it is a
matter of being "more" autistic when you are younger.
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