Asperger? Hyperactive?

[snowyqueen]

soup:

Thank you to all of you with your tips and advice.


I am still not sure of how to help my boy. My 3.5 year old boy, after being at his preschool for the past 2+ months, is still behaving so differently from the rest. Not paying attention in class, wandering about (it's so obvious that when I pick him up, other parents ask me why he is like that :oops: ), no eye contact, no interaction with his classmates, somehow, he knows the names of almost all the teachers in his school, but not a single name of his classmates. He doesn't disturb people, is not disruptive, just wants to go into a corner by himself to read a book or explore a cupboard when everyone else is having lessons (okay, maybe that's disruptive for the teacher). He seems totally unconcerned when the teacher chides him, or when his classmates poke fun at him. Today I saw a classmate try to trip him as he was roaming about, luckily the teacher saw it and told the boy to leave my child alone. I'm just worried that as he gets older, he may become more affected by his peers' reactions to him

I've spoken to the principal who thinks that he is likely to be a special needs child, but that they would like to observe him further before they recommend a referral. She has also noticed that he is a fast learner and hence it's possible that he is just easily bored with classroom routines.

I thought of bringing him to see a paediatrician but my hubby is against this, or any intervention. He says that I worry too much, that there is nothing wrong with being a non-conformist, that we should just leave things alone.

Sigh, maybe guys don't realise the repercussions of odd behaviour in our society... or maybe I am worrying too much.

Anyway, I think I will await the school's principal's and teacher's assessment as to whether any referral is required, for now.

Thanks again, and any further feedback is appreciated.

My girl had same behaviour when she started school except she had eye contact with people. From my experience as my girl has ASD (Asperges Syndrome Deficiency), your description is not detailed to confirm that. ASD child has more problems than this. The behavioral problem inclusive of social behavior is a commont trait. She would repeatedly asked for things or requested for things until she got what she wanted, often in the form of crying, fussing pestering etc. This was caused by her rigid thinking as she did not understand what is \"compromising\". Neither did she know how to accomodate to people and enviroment. She also had no friends and often the target to make fun of. She would just play on her own if I brought her to house gathering with kids running and playing around. She wandered around in class until P1. I saw her kindergarden classmates (boy) pinched her on the cheek before, that was why I deciced to send her to girl school instead. Her K2 classmates even called her \"loser\". Nobody wanted to play with her. Luckliy she has friendly and nice classmates in her primary school education and she can make friends to her peers now. She still has behavioral problem at times.

I suggest for you to observe if your child has other beahvioral problem. Even with ASD, it is not the end of the world. Things can get better with encourgement and effort put on them. I am a good example.

I only has one puzzle which I cannot solve. How come her superb visual memory power deteriorates when her behaviour changes for the good as she gets older.

One example, my mother is teaching my sister's child Han Yu Pin Yin today and we just wondered how my girl learnt Han Yu Pin Yin when she was P1. We never really taught her but she was really good and eventhough her chinese teacher always complained about her walking around in class and not paying attention. Her \"giftness\" in learning Chinese has faded with time though she is still able to do well for Chinese but no special \"suprise\". It even took her quite some time to remember her script for show and tell. But I have no complaint. I am less stressful as compared to the past .

[en107rn.01056yahoo.01056com.01056sg]

Just want to provide an update. The 1st result I was not convinced. So I decided to go for a second thorough tests. Diagnosis... He is an asperger.


The news takes a while to sink in. I am now very much aware of his differences and fully understand why he is acting in a certain way.

I am a bit upset. But I guess life has to go on and I have to make the best of his short coming.

[mathsparks]

en, try to cheer up, k? coz life has to go on, like you said. At least with the diagnosis, you can seek appropriate and early intervention.


Regardless our kids' shortcomings, we have to accept and love them for who they are. Take care, dear. :hugs:

[en107rn.01056yahoo.01056com.01056sg]

[quote]en, try to cheer up, k? coz life has to go on, like you said. At least with the diagnosis, you can seek appropriate and early intervention.


Regardless our kids' shortcomings, we have to accept and love them for who they are. Take care, dear. [/quote]Thanks mathsparks for reaching out. I will just have to work on his shortcoming and hope he will be able to enjoy his childhood as much as possible.

[schweppes]

EN:

Just want to provide an update. The 1st result I was not convinced. So I decided to go for a second thorough tests. Diagnosis... He is an asperger.


The news takes a while to sink in. I am now very much aware of his differences and fully understand why he is acting in a certain way.

I am a bit upset. But I guess life has to go on and I have to make the best of his short coming.

Take heart, EN. It will take a while for the news to sink in and you will feel resentful and angry. But don't lose faith and don't resign yourself and DS to fate.

Looking on the bright side of things, now that you know, at least you can do something about it. Getting early intervention is important and with a holistic approach (right therapy and therapists, nutrition etc), it will help DS integrate better into society.

There will be the ups and downs, but you must believe that it WILL get better. And it WILL!! :hugs:

[schweppes]

EN:

I will just have to work on his shortcoming

You know... what we see as shortcoming may turn out to be his greatest talent and strength

EN:

... and hope he will be able to enjoy his childhood as much as possible.

Don't let the label determine his life. It's how we nurture and help our children to develop their potential and talents that will give them the best experiences possible.

:lol:

[en107rn.01056yahoo.01056com.01056sg]

Thanks schweppes for your kind words. I am not resentful nor angry. Just a bit sad everytime I heard his non-stop chatter on things that he finds interesting or when he suddenly gets upset over trivial things or jokes that he thinks are inappropriate. I am sure he will grow up fine. I think I am upset because I was shock of the result. But at least the labelling helps us to understand him better.


The CGC doesn't provide much help since ds is not disruptive or having big social issues in school or outside. So, we as a family need to contain and correct the issues at home. Yeap, love him very much still and I think it is great that he is into non-fictional stuff, mature and a very neat kid.

:celebrate:

[pingsped]

snowyqueen:

I only has one puzzle which I cannot solve. How come her superb visual memory power deteriorates when her behaviour changes for the good as she gets older.


One example, my mother is teaching my sister's child Han Yu Pin Yin today and we just wondered how my girl learnt Han Yu Pin Yin when she was P1. We never really taught her but she was really good and eventhough her chinese teacher always complained about her walking around in class and not paying attention. Her \"giftness\" in learning Chinese has faded with time though she is still able to do well for Chinese but no special \"suprise\". It even took her quite some time to remember her script for show and tell. But I have no complaint. I am less stressful as compared to the past .

hi

I'm a therapist. I also work with some children with autism.

I have also noticed this deterioration in visual skills, esp decoding & spelling. in some children who have \"normalised\".

At first, I wasn't sure if that was a side-effect of normalisation as the bulk of them were in K1-P1 (early literacy phase). All had superior decoding reading and/or spelling skills at start of intervention. However as they were all aged 5 or so, reading materials typically consisted of shorter words.

Some of them had dyslexic spelling mistakes and broken grammar after social skills improved. Some made copying mistakes.

Later I had a P2 child with Asperger. He had established very good literacy skills from reading books solely. As he interacted more with peers, his grammar and spelling deteriorated steadily. By P4, he was able to speak some Singlish and it showed in his written work. He too made unusual spelling mistakes. He used to be able to spell some of those words.

This grp of children were of abt average intelligence & had milder sensory issues. As they became more sociable and like typically developing peers, certain literacy skills showed a marked/significant deterioration. A few were non-verbal initially but were able to decode words.

It appears that as the brain is \"re-wired\" to perceive social and pragmatic cues, the child loses his near-perfect & automatic (effortless) visual perception skills. Decoding, esp multi-syllabic words, are now effortful. The prevalence of Singlish also affected the child's grammatical processor as he is now attuned to multiple sources of language input.

Most retain at least 1 asd trait but lay persons tend to perceive those behv as quirks, or being quick-tempered or awkward.

not too sure if the \"normalisation\" is stable or long-term. some say very stressful events/high anxiety may cause regression in adulthood.

I haven't had the time to read thro the research papers since kids' discharge.
Hope it helps.

[Blobbi]

pingsped:

snowyqueen:

I only has one puzzle which I cannot solve. How come her superb visual memory power deteriorates when her behaviour changes for the good as she gets older.


One example, my mother is teaching my sister's child Han Yu Pin Yin today and we just wondered how my girl learnt Han Yu Pin Yin when she was P1. We never really taught her but she was really good and eventhough her chinese teacher always complained about her walking around in class and not paying attention. Her \"giftness\" in learning Chinese has faded with time though she is still able to do well for Chinese but no special \"suprise\". It even took her quite some time to remember her script for show and tell. But I have no complaint. I am less stressful as compared to the past .

hi

I'm a therapist. I also work with some children with autism.

I have also noticed this deterioration in visual skills, esp decoding & spelling. in some children who have \"normalised\".

At first, I wasn't sure if that was a side-effect of normalisation as the bulk of them were in K1-P1 (early literacy phase). All had superior decoding reading and/or spelling skills at start of intervention. However as they were all aged 5 or so, reading materials typically consisted of shorter words.

Some of them had dyslexic spelling mistakes and broken grammar after social skills improved. Some made copying mistakes.

Later I had a P2 child with Asperger. He had established very good literacy skills from reading books solely. As he interacted more with peers, his grammar and spelling deteriorated steadily. By P4, he was able to speak some Singlish and it showed in his written work. He too made unusual spelling mistakes. He used to be able to spell some of those words.

This grp of children were of abt average intelligence & had milder sensory issues. As they became more sociable and like typically developing peers, certain literacy skills showed a marked/significant deterioration. A few were non-verbal initially but were able to decode words.

It appears that as the brain is \"re-wired\" to perceive social and pragmatic cues, the child loses his near-perfect & automatic (effortless) visual perception skills. Decoding, esp multi-syllabic words, are now effortful. The prevalence of Singlish also affected the child's grammatical processor as he is now attuned to multiple sources of language input.

Most retain at least 1 asd trait but lay persons tend to perceive those behv as quirks, or being quick-tempered or awkward.

not too sure if the \"normalisation\" is stable or long-term. some say very stressful events/high anxiety may cause regression in adulthood.

I haven't had the time to read thro the research papers since kids' discharge.
Hope it helps.

You know what? Was reading about brain experiments which studied savants and autistic people with \"supernormal\" powers like drawing in great detail after looking at a photograph for 10mins, or even reading two books at the same time with perfect recall. The researchers tried to alter the minds of normal people with mind altering drugs to produce the same brain activity as savants (MRI scans allow for accurate measurement). These normal people started to have savant-like qualities, ie photographic memory. But the powers faded as the effect of the drugs wore off.

The conclusion is that the brains of savants and autistic persons trade off perfect memory with understanding. So when there is less understanding, the memory recall is superior. But once understanding starts to creep in (perhaps the brain is now busier with making connections), it has less capacity for memory.

This is really interesting stuff!

[Busymom]

EN:

[quote]They also watched her during \"play\". to look out for prominent behaviour. One of the traits as I had shared before for AS child is repetitive movement/action. Also, my girl liked to line up her toys and flash cards in a straight line when she was two years old and this was one of the symptoms as well.

Often I have seen he line up his cars, lego too. The psychologist repeatedly ask me if my child does play pretend. [/quote]OMG! My DS loves to line up his things or toy cars in a straight line since very young (2?) too! Does that mean something? He does pretend play a lot, but I am not sure when he lines up his toys, is that part of his pretend play or just that he likes to do so without a reason.

He is generally well-behaved, especially in school or in a class, but he can be a terror at home or with his sister. He can also be very stubborn and obsessed about certain things. I call him a \"man\" (boy) of habits - when he was younger, it used to be so difficult to get him to wear new clothes/shoes (nothing to do with discomfort as I had made sure it wasn't due to that), among other things. On the other hand, I haven't seen that he has any socialising issue with other children. He's 3.5 years old. Need I be concerned??