Hi, Utkallie,

Yes, this sounds like some form of 2E. The severity of your DD's reactions to things is not typical (and if you think about it, very disabling for her)-- I'd want to follow up, especially with the family history.

This sort of thing is very difficult to sort out: for instance, autism can come with shades of OCD/anxiety and shades of ADHD mixed in, so it's hard for a lay person to make a good armchair diagnosis. A thorough neuropsych exam would help you figure it out. Girls with autism are missed more often than boys, they often present very differently, so they need to be looked at closely before ruling anything out. Can you find a practitioner who's seen lots of girls with autism? Our children's hospital does a pretty good job.

As you probably know, it is a disadvantage to postpone a diagnosis if one is to be made-- the delay prevents you from establishing services right away. I can see how the psych may not have wanted to diagnose when she was 3 if he wasn't sure, but given the severity of the behaviors, it seems highly likely to me that there is something real there that should be addressed sooner rather than later.

My DS9 is a pretty extroverted, gifted kid with Asperger's/ autism. He has trouble with maintaining personal space (gets too close or stays too far away, touches people when they're not expecting it, doesn't notice they're not interested in his interests). He loves having friends but has trouble maintaining the reciprocity that comes with friendship. It's pretty hard for him, but therapy has helped enormously.

BTW, the Asperger's diagnosis is going to go away in the next DSM-- it will be lumped in with the other kinds of autism. The idea that Asperger's "shouldn't" or "can't" be diagnosed early is just based on the fact that it usually *isn't* caught early (because of the normal to high IQ feature). That doesn't mean it's not diagnosable at a young age-- the signs are all there-- just that we have a ways to go in getting people to understand what those signs look like in a bright kid, especially a bright girl.

I also recommend the OASIS website and parent forum-- there are wise and helpful people over there. http://www.aspergersyndrome.org/Home.aspx

Best wishes,
DeeDee