Originally Posted by DeeDee
Originally Posted by Mk13
He's not "withdrawn" ... he's NOT INTERESTED! there's a huge difference!

Not having met your DS, I can't speak to that specific situation, but in general, there isn't always a huge difference.

A person with autism tends to be drawn intensely to their own, often limited, topics of interest. Until they learn how, many are not capable of getting interested in something simply because someone else is interested.

Most typical kids will easily get interested in things if another person demonstrates an interest-- that social pull can drive the intellectual engagement. For an autistic person, the lack of interest can be in part due to a lack of social perspective-taking-- not being able to appreciate what the other person finds interesting.

DeeDee


I know we talked about this a little on my tread regarding putting DS4 into special ed preschool ... you gave me a lot to think about back then already. I am not dismissing the possibility of DS2.5 being on the spectrum, more specifically Asperger's, especially since now we're looking at DS4 being officially diagnosed with Asperger's in the near future knowing there's a good chance for it to run in the family. But with DS2.5 I just don't get that vibe I've always had with DS4. I can tell he's just bored. His Speech therapist laughs every week how he's playing games with her. He pretends to be completely ignoring her and not listening at all from time to time, and then at the end of the session or even not until next week ... he does exactly what she wanted him to do ... just on his own terms. He sometimes has this sparkle in his eyes saying "I'll show you who runs the show!" lol ... but still, even though I don't think he'll end up with a diagnosis we're continuing with the therapies just in case. It's really such a tough call with kids this young and I wouldn't want to regret someday dismissing something just because I didn't think it was right.

But back to the "not interested" issue ... When his Developmental Therapist noticed he's a lot more advanced in some areas she started bringing him more challenging puzzles and toys and he is a lot more engaged in all the activities she has for him than before. When she treated him as the 2.5 year old he is, he was bored and would run away to do something more fun. Now that she brings him stuff for older kids, she gets his attention.