I was. Yesterday. At G-man's 3 year old well kid visit by my pediatrician who hadn't seen him in a year (we see a nurse practitioner for "sick kid" drop in sorts of visits). She was so dumbfounded by what he does/who he is, she started asking me a whole lot of questions regarding autism red flags...does he stim? Does he make eye contact? Does he interact socially with adults and other kids well? Does he play by himself a lot? Is he obsessive about anything, lining up toys, etc.?
I'm glad I have friends with truly autistic kids and know enough about it not to have been thrown, but had I not known, her questions would have really freaked me out.
G-man is not autistic. I know that. His pediatrician agrees. She theorized that he may have photographic memory. His reading especially is so fluent and effortless, that she feels that he may have an extraordinary memory that catalogs all words and letter combinations. We talked about the math and number obsession as well.
She wanted to know what our plans were for school and she's on board fully with my idea of a K/1st grade combined year then, if appropriate, skipping into 2nd. She offered to write up anything we needed to help us get there with the school, but I don't think it's going to be much of a battle. It's just pretty obvious, I think.
Anyway, it was a weird visit, in that the autism thing threw me for a loop, but it was also pretty cool to have her be so blown away...in a good way. I mean, DH and I can know the truth, his teachers who deal with him daily can know the truth, but it still feels good to have a professional who sees literally hundreds of newly minted 3 year olds per month confirm what we know.
So...when your kids were small, did anyone ever suggest autism as a "reason" for high IQ/quirky behaviors?
Last edited by CatherineD; 08/06/08 07:32 AM. Reason: Becaue I need to remember to de-identify. :)
