Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Ever been questioned about autism?

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?

No, but DD8 used to line up her stuffed animals in a seemingly systematic way. I did think it was odd, but didn't know it was a considered a trait of autism.

At this point I don't think anyone would be concerned the girls could be autistic.

Also, I think a LOT of three year olds play independently and don't make a lot of eye contact, especially with adults.

I never had anyone ask questions about autism, but my neighbor did tell me that she thought dd9 had ADD. DD9 does not have ADD. Just another case of a misunderstood gifted child.

DD9 also has a photographic memory. Her pre-K teacher was the first person besides myself to notice this. I did not realize that it was unusual because I also have a photographic memory, though it does not function as well as it did before I had kids.

Fortunately nobody ever asked about it and I don't think anybody would think so now. I must admit that I googled hyperlexia when he was 3 only to find out that the list of gifted "syndromes" fit him much better


We never had problem with eye contact but I agree it's quite common. When our older son turned 3 he didn't care too much for playing with other kids. He preferred to observe and played a lot on his own or with his brother. That changed once he started attending preschool.

I wonder if part of it is the culture today? And maybe his age had to do with it too....I think lots of autism diagnosis is done at around 3 years old.

Autism is a pretty big "buzz word" diagnosis there these days and the incidence of diagnosis somewhere on the autism spectrum is through the roof. Not that it's being over or mis-diagnosed...I don't even play a doctor on TV so I can't comment there, but I thought it was funny that faced with a very-much-outside-the-norm three year old, those are the questions she would ask and that is the causation she would first want to rule out.

It shows that she probably doesn't get to see too many kids like your son It makes me wonder if she would ask the same questions if you had a girl.

She probably felt that she should rule it out just in case. At the end you got a support from somebody who doesn't really know your son too well, but who didn't take long to realize that he sure is outside the norm.

I think you are lucky that your son is so open with people he doesn't see on daily basis. That will make it much easier for you to advocate down the line. My son will answer Doctor's questions but won't add anything beyond that. He used to read quietly in the exam room, but you couldn't tell if he was reading or just looking at the pictures. KWIM?

LOL! Never stopped me before!!!!!

I don't think it's wrong to have an intelligent opinion on a medical issue, even if you aren't a doctor!

With that in mind, it seems as if the spectum has become so vast, the word autism is beginning to lose it's meaning!

I guess the question is what is worse: Some kids incorrectly being incorrectly diagnosed and have the diagnosis corrected later. Or kids who really are autistic being diagnosed later out of concern about mislabeling. If I understand correctly the medical evidence points to better outcomes the earlier it is diagnosed!

I really am not trying to imply one is better than the other, to me it really is a question!

Wow, that is excessive use of exclamation points! I must be in a good mood today!

A teacher asked me about ADD once! In a 5 y/o kid who would sit still for almost an hour doing math or reading! I told her he was probably feeling underchallenged being asked to identify the letter B!

I think the exclamation marks are great!

:>)

Val!

My impression is similar to yours, incogneato - that for autistic spectrum kids, the earlier the intervention, the better the outcome. I'm happy that pediatricians are now screening for these disorders (perhaps due to more awareness in the medical community, fear of malpractice, or both). "Screening" for any disorder is designed to be sensitive, so false positives should be common and are the price to pay for fewer false negatives. That said, I am very familiar with the distress of aggressive screening when, nearly every year, I get called back after an "abnormal" mammogram.