Zen Scanner - I am taking the spectrum diagnosis with a grain of salt BUT ... there are couple red flags we have had for a long time that make me believe he is somewhere on the spectrum ... such as not being able to have eye contact. You can even hold his head, keep telling him to look at you and his eyes are all over the place but he can't look into your eyes. And a complete lack of empathy ... he can tell from the tone of voice when someone is sad or angry ... but just from a look of someone or their face he cannot tell anything. It's really hard to explain but it is very strange. If he thinks someone is angry or sad from their voice, he will ask about it "are you mad/sad mommy? I need to make you happy." ... he basically asks for reassurance either way because he can't tell himself and it is as if he has learned that people are supposed to be happy and mommy is not supposed to be sad or angry. But you can tell it's all learned behavior for him but he doesn't understand it at all. He just knows that is how it should be. It's really hard to explain. There's a lot more of these rather strange behaviors he has but these two are very noticeable. That's why I have to agree with the psychiatrist. Quite honestly, I think the most important difference will be with my husband who will most likely put more effort into being patient with our little guy!
DS2 on the other hand, I do believe he could very easily be misdiagnosed. So we'll have to be very careful with him when the time comes.
