I am starting to become extremely concerned with my daughter who will be 4 at the end of this month. We took at her to a psychologist at the age of 3 because of her behaviors. She had already been diagnosed with SPD but she also had problems with temper tantrums that would last for hours, the inability to snap back to "normal" after her fits, short temper, auditory stimulation by using a monotone hum when doing anything that requires concentration, and very rigid and routine behaviors like having to count her steps every night from the exact same spot before she could go to bed. She also had an intense obsession with the color yellow and if anyone touched something yellow, she became very upset because that was her color and they might ruin it. Those are just a few examples. The psychologist, to our surprise, gave her an IQ test and sure enough, her scores put her well into the gifted category. He explained that many of her behavior could be attributed to her giftedness and that at that time, he did not see ASD but wasn't ruling it out either. Just a little sidenote, my son (2.5) was diagnosed with Autism and Hyperlexia by the same psychologist.
Fast forward to now, almost a year later. Some of her former behaviors, like counting her steps and obsessing over yellow have gone away. She still has the monotone hum and some sensory issues, especially with what I'm thinking may be hyperacusis. Her fits are still horrible and actually worse as they are starting to become more violent and verbal. She is unable to pull herself together and will shut down for hours. Sometimes we cannot even talk about the problem that set her off until the next day. Generally the things that set her off are minor but she has everything sequenced out in her brain if the sequence is broken, she loses it. It can be something as little as putting the left shoe on before the right. She has control issues as well and gets upset about things like people not walking orderly on the left or right sides of hallways or the sun not coming up at the exact time she wanted it too. No matter how hard I try, I cannot convince her that it's going to be ok and we cannot control everything in our world. There are days it's just too hard to leave the house because I fear the world will be too chaotic for her that day and not only do I have to deal with her meltdown, but I've also got my Autistic son to deal with which is stressful in itself.
When her IQ testing was preformed, there was some concern in her scores indicating there might be an issue with listening comprehension. I would have just chalked it up to age but she really does have issues with understanding what is being said to her. I took her in for an eval with an SLP who said she did have some auditory perception issues. She is currently in therapy for that.
Every therapist we have seen has said she is too young for an Asperger's dx but that it cannot be ruled out. What has me and everyone else thrown off though is how overly social she is. When I say overly social, I mean the kind of kid who smothers you and won't shut up for two seconds. She is so social, that it's actually awkward. If you have ever seen the movie Autism: The Musical, she is much like Wyatt in how talkative she is. She sustains eye contact, at least from what I can tell.
At what point does it go from just being issues stemming from giftedness to something more? Any clue what is going on here? Or is this typical behavior for a gifted a preschooler? Having a young gifted child is isolating but having one who is gifted with extreme behavior issues feels like living in a dark cave. I am so desperate for help.
