Hi TheTeds,


Thanks for your sharing, after reading your comment I feel so much better. I do hope my son is slow just like your boy.
Just yesterday I let him do colouring of a Bat picture and he written “BAT” on the paper (tho not very clear). I were both happy and worried haha.
I had spoken to a ABA Therapist over the phone yesterday, she told me that children who is able to read and write at young age is very gifted!
And from what I share with her, she also feel that my son isn’t on the ASD side but of cause I want to give the a benefit of doubt to get him to go thru the assessment in case if he really face issue to socialise and communicate.
Your daughter is very smart and gifted, I hope she has already outgrow this phase. My son does not line up toys too but same as your daughter he is unable to wait and very bad tantrums. Does she communicate with you all now?

Prawny\" post_id=\"1874800\" time=\"1537628033\" user_id=\"171886:

Hi everyone. My Son is 21 months now and we noticed some red flag for autism. We are just wondering if we should be worry? As his mum I am very worry and kind of getting paranoid on this as there’s no answer whether he is having ASD or not. We have been to child development unit the Pediatrician who access him told us it’s too early to tell if he has ASD and currently we are seeing a speech therapist for his speech delay... twice a month. We use to let him watch youtube on tv with phonics and nursery rhythm Everyday (approx 8hrs) But recently we had stop and reduce to less than 1 hr a day. He also goes to childcare from 9am to 5pm on mon to fri since July 2018.

Things he doesn’t do which is red flag for autism:
1) don’t call us papa or mama. Speech delay, know less than 3 words.
2) he doesn’t point at things he wants.
3) he doesn’t react to us when his name was called most of the time.
4) haven’t seen him play with other children before but occasionally will go and touch them.

Things he does:
1) love playing peekaboo and will follow by using his hand to cover his face
2) he wave goodbye occasionally when he want to
3) he will bring toys to us or anything that he need help with.
4) he able to clap when we sing “if you happy and you know you clap your hand”
5) he also gave eye contact.
6) he likes to hold on to his fav car on one of his hand. But can do without it if we hide it.
7) he point at alphabet or numbers or fruits on poster pasted at home or animals/pictures in story books.
knows how to say “mum mum = food” and understand mum mum is food.
9) flapping arms at random time. Notice he flap a lot when we bring him down to playground.

I really hope anyone can share your exp with me. I have been reading up online and seeing video about ASD. Sorry for the Long post. Thanks!

Hi Parents,

I am back. The journey hasn't been easy as we still do not have any assessment outcome from the specialist at CDU, we are living with anxiety every day.
My DS is 34 months now. We definitely seen a lot of improvement in him after trying what we learn from the ST and execute at home as much as we can.

Things he does not do last time he does now:
- like calling us mummy, daddy, even grandparents and my sisters to other people he sees often and remember their name and would call them when he sees them.
- Point to everything he sees now and tell (i.e “Oh cat, I see cement truck”)
- Wave goodbye to people when he knows he is leaving the place or when the person left.
- Will go to neighbour house and shout for the children name and look for them.
- Able to tell us what he wants or when he is angry (i.e I want biscuit, I want drink water, etc, I angry.)
- if we take his fav things he will say “my car, my …..” and will answer yes or no when asked about something.
- can read A to Z, count 1 to 30, name animals, colours, able to read some words etc.

However recently we started to notice he is unable to contain his emotions if we don’t follow/give things his way.
He will throw tantrum shouting and crying. He also doesn’t answer our question like “What have you done in sch today?”
Sometimes he just repeat the qns we ask.

So recently we met up with his school principal to understand more about his progress:
-\tVery smart boy, can read and name a lot of things, even K1 student is still struggling with.
-\tWill participate in class if he is very interested in the topic
-\tAble to understand what the teachers instruct but when they ask him question he dosen’t reply or will repeat what they ask sometimes.
-\tBad temper, impatient always want to be the first to get things, having him wait will lead to shouting and crying
-\tShort attention span in class, can sit down and pay attention for 15mins after that will walk around.
-\tDoesn’t play pretend with his friends in school, he will sit with them but he just play his own toys.
-\tStill don’t understand what is friends or have preference to who he wants to play with.
-\tThey are concern about his social interaction.

The principal suggest we observe him until 4 YO, if still no improvement then send him to EIPIC. As she has seen children like him but bloom into very talkative kid after that.
But I feel too late to wait until 4 YO leh and worried after hearing what she feedback yesterday. I went to google and found this Hyperlexia (very similar to my son)..end up worry until cannot sleep whole night haha.

Any recommendation what to do next? Continue CDU or seek private?
I went to check private consultation so expensive S$380/Hr. hope to hear from you all~!
thanks!

ImMeeMee:

Prawny


You may also want to gather feedback from your son's teachers about his behaviour in school, given that children may behave differently at home and in school. While school's words are not be all end all, it does provide another source of information for you to possibly place the puzzle pieces together.


I can totally understand the anxiety of is it or is it not and having to wait to get an answer. Grit through it.

MeeMee, yes the wait to a definite answer is haunting me Everyday haha. People around me now thinks that I should not think my Son may have autism. They say something is wrong with me to think that way.

We did talk to the His form teacher. Her feedback to us is that it is too early to judge and so far she say our Son is just like how other kids in his PG group. I also ask her about speech.. she told me it’s pretty normal some of his Sch fren also don’t talk but babbles and is older than him. She told us to monitor first and don’t be worry.

tyeogh:

Prawny,

Autism is a spectrum. Your son could be on the mild end, or not at all. If it is, don't despair. My boy is on the mid end. He exhibits patchy and variegated traits of autism. Like yours. At 8 now, my boy operates like any other NT child. Friends and relatives tell me he is normal. Keep your doctors appointments. Check for developmental milestones. Increase/force the human interactions. Read more about early interventions - thats your best defence.

Edit: I don't want to give you the wrong impression about my son. He didn't become normal \"naturally\". My journey was as tough as other parents here. What I was trying to say is, It is not the end of the world. If it happens, stay positive and work through the challenges.

Tyeogh, can you share more on what are the challenges you went thru? I am trying my best to stay positive. Same as you my relative, friends and colleague all told me my boy is normal and just slow. But I don’t want to be complacent and miss anything if early intervention can help him. Was just thinking if music therapy will help?

slmkhoo:

How do your parents interact with him? Do they do to-and-fro interaction, or do they mostly do all the talking and giving instructions? More to-and-fro is better - asking questions and waiting for an answer (can be an action, not necessarily speech), turn-taking, making him ask for things rather than pre-empting his wants etc. Childcare may help, but if the adult to child ratio is low, you can't expect much. I also feel that the 8 hrs of TV a day may have something to do with his behaviour, and you may need to wait a while for the effects to wear off.


At his age, most kids don't interact with other kids much, so it's quite normal. They only start to interact at around 3yo, I think.

Non-ASD related, but I think that TV during meals is not a good idea. The child should be aware of what he is eating, and not just eat while his attention is on the TV. He should participate in meals and learn to sense when he is full. Watching TV during meals enables the feeders to feed the child quickly and usually more than the child would eat of his own accord, and it builds up poor eating habits in the long run.

Hi Khoo,

Most of time my parents give in to what he wants when he throw tantrums. They do talk to him or like when he did wrong or naughty they will tell him no etc and he can understand. Some of the evening they also bring him down to food court. But mostly they do the things for him. I also ask my parents to let my boy self feed but they refuse and told me he will self feed when he is ready.

Right now during the weekend I will try to have to and fro interaction with him. Example when I have food in hand I demand he says “mum mum (the only word he know) then I give him the food and he will say it. And also follow what the speech therapist told us to do wait for his eye contact as indication he want more then give it to him (I.e blowing soap bubbles).. recently we taught him to throw his diaper/used tissue in the bin in just a few tries he understood.. and now we say “throw” he will bring the diaper/tissue to the bin. I’m happy that he can actually follow instructions we taught him... even when my mum tried it out at her place he manage to find the bin and Throw.

As for meals I also disagree with having the tv on. But unable to convince my parents to stop doing it and can’t say much cause they help me to feed him dinner as by the time we pick him up is already almost 7pm. Weekend we will sat him at the dining table n eat without tv.

Thanks for the reply. We are trying to cut down to no tv at all. Unfortunately as we are working full time my parents will be the main caretaker during weekdays before he goes to school and after he back from school. I couldn’t control my parents but told them not to let him watch so much tv. Right now they restrict to early morning once (15mins) and only during dinner time when he is having his meals. At times I really think he has ASD as he has all the red flags but sometimes he did something which let us feels he ok and normal. Recently, We start to bring him down to playground on weekend he doesn’t play with other kids but instead goes to those Uncle and aunties seated on the chair to hug them and smile at them. We taught him to throw tissue in the bin at home he also able to follo. Maybe I should really wait and see and continue doing all this interaction.

Hi everyone. My Son is 21 months now and we noticed some red flag for autism. We are just wondering if we should be worry? As his mum I am very worry and kind of getting paranoid on this as there’s no answer whether he is having ASD or not. We have been to child development unit the Pediatrician who access him told us it’s too early to tell if he has ASD and currently we are seeing a speech therapist for his speech delay… twice a month. We use to let him watch youtube on tv with phonics and nursery rhythm Everyday (approx 8hrs) But recently we had stop and reduce to less than 1 hr a day. He also goes to childcare from 9am to 5pm on mon to fri since July 2018.


Things he doesn’t do which is red flag for autism:
1) don’t call us papa or mama. Speech delay, know less than 3 words.
2) he doesn’t point at things he wants.
3) he doesn’t react to us when his name was called most of the time.
4) haven’t seen him play with other children before but occasionally will go and touch them.

Things he does:
1) love playing peekaboo and will follow by using his hand to cover his face
2) he wave goodbye occasionally when he want to
3) he will bring toys to us or anything that he need help with.
4) he able to clap when we sing “if you happy and you know you clap your hand”
5) he also gave eye contact.
6) he likes to hold on to his fav car on one of his hand. But can do without it if we hide it.
7) he point at alphabet or numbers or fruits on poster pasted at home or animals/pictures in story books.
knows how to say “mum mum = food” and understand mum mum is food.
9) flapping arms at random time. Notice he flap a lot when we bring him down to playground.

I really hope anyone can share your exp with me. I have been reading up online and seeing video about ASD. Sorry for the Long post. Thanks!