My son is doing something weird.

Do you know the signs of autism? One of them is refusing to make eye contact. There are many signs and you need to go to some websites about autism and read what the signs and symptoms are.

This is very important through drs being able to identify it early, the children will do much better because then the parents can then know how to help their child.

Before one decides what the problem is you have to rule out any medical problems first. While I know this has to be scary, I'm sure like anyone you would rather think it is something mystical, something he will grow out of, but the reality is it might not be.

This might actually be autism. You really need to go to this website, place your mouse over the contents to the top left of the page where it says, all about autism, and look for symptoms video, read up on this.

I sincerely hope it is not anything serious, but it is best to know the signs and evaluate your child and rule out anything medical before you think it is mystical which seems to be what most people here want to believe.

www.nationalautismassociation.org...

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[edit on 31-7-2008 by AntisepticSkeptic]

reply to post by goose


jeez, read the thread, shes already said the doctor told her it WASNT autism.
It's not like this is a 100-page thread that would take days to read, it was only 6 pages before you posted, you could at least take the time to read it before saying what 10 peopl have already said, most of whom said it AFTER she informed us that wasn't it.

I scanned the thread and missed the reply about a dr. saying it was not autism, no biggie because what I wrote I still stand by and think it applies.

I don't think I would feel too secure with a regular pediatrician or a regular dr. telling me it was not autism, the child is very young, two years and two months and still might not have displayed all of the symptoms associated with autism, so he might be difficult to diagnose at such a young age, especially for a dr. who is not a specialist in this area.

Also, I think everyone is aware that sometimes you are just going to run into a quack who should not even be practicing, so I think if I were the mother, I would pursue knowledge on the subject of autism and I would also pursue this with another doctor who specialized in this type of illness to be sure.

If you read what I said, it was to read and study up on this for future reference. a child that age sitting and staring into space for a period of time and totally withdrawing from her during this time and not making eye contact with her ever, means there might be something seriously wrong.

If you read about Jenny McCarthy's experience or watched her interview with Larry King, she had taken her son to many drs. for checkups and it was only after taking him to a specialist that she got a diagnosis of autism.

I wouldn't be too concerned unless you are woke up with him standing at the foot of your bed yelling REDRUM, REDRUM!!

your son is meditating... grasp this talent and teach hi8m to further it. food for the brain.

In my personal opinion I believe once a child is labled "autistic", the world behaves a different way to that child which only hinders his development as a normal little boy. For example, changing how you communicate, sheltering him, being overprotective, telling him he is different, and so on. That may be the reason why even a child who isnt autistic, yet is diagnosed actually grows up to be autistic - due to the way he was raised after d-day (diagnosis day). I believe "autism" can be learned due to environmental factors, as well as inherited.

I say raise him like a normal little boy and dont worry about it. If for some reason that fails, then seek help, but dont go looking for problems when there isnt one.

reply to post by hawaiigurl


Interesting story...I have a related question that you mention at the beginning of your thread. I am a speech-language pathologist and I'm wondering if you've been given a diagnosis as to why he's non-verbal? At 26 months old he should be speaking in 2-3 word phrases and making valiant effort to communicate, and should have about 250-500 words in his vocabulary. Anyway...just wondering...

reply to post by optimistic skeptic


No, no one has given me a specific reason to why he is slow in talking. I have brought this issue up with his pediatrician who reffered us to the easter seals program, I have spoken to the WIC program about him and I have also talked about it with my grandmas cardiologist (I had to take her to her appointment and my son was with me, he noticed that he didn't talk and asked me a bunch of questions). The basic answer that everyone has given me is that he is slow and he just needs a little help, so we are getting him help. But he hasn't seen a specialist about it, never heard of any speech specialist that work in the area that I live.

reply to post by hawaiigurl


Thanks for responding to my question. It's definitely not something to be alarmed about, my nephew was a "slow-talker" as well and now he doesn't shut up! Some kids (especially only children or children who have 2-3 older siblings) just need a little more time. I'm just a little more conscious of it than the average person because of my experience.

However, I have treated children with speech and language delay who were labeled under the Autism spectrum at first, but their slow development in language was later attributed to traumatic events that were unknown at the time by the family....this is why I find your story so interesting...

Anyway, thanks for the story. I'll be interested to see if you get more helpful responses, or other parents with similar experiences.

When I was but one or two, I decided that drinking eight ounces of mercury was a great idea. I died, well, clinically anyway, and was resuscitated at the hospital. A month after that I consumed some of my grandmother's heart medication and "died" again...ironically on the same day my grandfather passed away due to a heart attack. I was resuscitated yet again. Those hospital visits are among my earliest recollections. Especially the bloody lights on the ceiling that do naught but blind you. However, after those incidences, my parents confessed to me that I was changed. I did odd things similar to what your son is currently doing and just actions that considerably "freaked out" my parents. One of the events that stand out was my "presence" at my grandfather's funeral. I was not physically there, but to this day I can vividly recall the songs that were sang, what attire people were clothed in, the color of the coffin, the flowers, etc.
I like to think that now, as an adult, I did not turn out so bad. I'm in not ill health, nor do I have any other infirmities. I do nut suffer from psychosis either. Other than an odd love of Oriental Culture, an obsession with kung fu, a preoccupation with Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism despite my Christian upbringing, and being a vegetarian...I am a normal Western college student.
I think your kid is going to be alright. Lao Tzu once said "Darkness within Darkness; the Gateway to Understanding," maybe your kid is going to gain enlightenment someday.

reply to post by optimistic skeptic


As of now I'm not too worried about his delay in speech, since he is getting help and he is making progress. I just think that he doesn't want to talk, he will try to mimick cartoons with talking and singing but he doesn't do that with our family, unless he wants to. He has his moments where he will grab a book, bring it to me and point (this is his way of letting me know that he wants to try and learn what it is) so i will say what it is and he will try and copy me. But if I grab a book and do the same thing, if he doesn't want to try and learn, he won't. Unless he stops talking, or doesn't "learn" in his own way, then I will start to panic, but as of now, I am just letting him learn at his own pace while "pushing" him a little.

reply to post by hawaiigurl


You're doing everything right. (Not that you needed me to tell you that
) And, the fact that he brings books to you is a sure-fire sign that his development is coming along, just maybe at a slower pace.

Good luck. I hope you find others with similar experiences that can offer you some advice.

There is such a thing as a window of opportunity in treating children with autism, and getting treatment during this period of time will make a difference in the outcome.

So while I sincerely hope all you guys are right and I am wrong, I am still going to list this website in case the Mom wants to go there and arm herself with some knowledge about this. Learning about it will not hurt anything.

This is one of the websites with Jenny McCarthy's story on it, also if you go to the CNN website and then to the Larry King show you can find her interview with King. I hope you have better than dialup if you decide to go there, it is taking forever to load, I wanted to read up on it too, as I have grandkids.

www.talkaboutcuringautism.org...

[edit on 1-8-2008 by goose]

reply to post by goose


While I look up the signs to check on autism I just wanted to post that Jenny McCarthy thinks that she is an Indigo and her son Evan is a crystal child. So is he autistic or is he a crystal child. Are all autistic children crystal childs and are all crystal children autistic.

www.childrenofthenewearth.com.../mccarthy_jenny/article1

reply to post by hawaiigurl


I have no idea, I know that I watched a special on psychic children the other day and the words indigo child and crystal children came up a lot.

My oldest daughter could see auras when she was little, I was not aware of it, and she thought everyone could see them and it was not until she went to kindergarten and mentioned to a little boy that one of their friends had pretty colors and he had no understanding of what she was speaking of, did she realize that not everyone could see them.

She did not tell me until one day when she was twelve, she told me I was very spiritual because I had a lot of purple around me. She used to make my niece really mad because she always could tell when my niece was thinking about sex, because her aura would have a dirty red color around it. She always got it right.

Scary thought when she was six she told me how old I woud be when I died, she said 53 years old, I am 52 now. In the last five years my health has went all to heck. As she grew older she said it gave her a headache to view the aura and she had to work hard to see them, also she lost some of psychic ability due to not wanting to deal with it and basically did not cultivate her skills. This kind of ability comes with a price, no doubt.

My son knows when someone dies, he says he hears the ringing of a bell similar to telephone ringing, but different enough to where he knows it is not the phone ringing, of course he checks just to be sure.

Several years ago a favorite uncle of his died, it was my son's birthday and we were in another state at the time of the death, my hubby called and told me, no one was even in the house but me, and the house I was in was not the house my son lived in at the time and again he was not there.

Later that night while we were sitting together sipping our drinks, he asked me if I knew about the uncle's death. I said, "Who told you?" he said no one had told him, and then he proceeded to tell me what time the uncle had died. This was something even I did not know, and the only family members who knew the phone number where we was, was my hubby.

So I immediately called him and demanded he tell me why he had told our son when he promised he would wait until I told him after his birthday. Hubby said he never spoke to him at all. Then I asked what time the uncle had died, hubby did not know, but said he would find out, he called back later to give me the exact time my son had given me.

To this day my son says he was not told by anyone, but he knew when he heard that ringing, he said he hears it and knows who it is that died when he hears it, he says that even as a child he heard the ringing and knew what it meant. He has also been able to see the dead and talk to them. There have been times he has been able to tell people who the ghosts are in their homes and what happened to them, when they check they find he had details that were correct.

But here is the thing, like you I was a pretty observant mother, I was with the kids, 24/7 and it was not until they told me about these things did I know that they had any abilites. If my middle child ever had any such abilities similar to her brother and sister, she is keeping it well hidden.

From what I saw in the show I watched, often times the parents seem to push their children toward this, though others seemed truly genuine.

I know this is a horrifying thought to a parent in this age of overstimulated Spongebob and sugar addicts and TV zombies..., but the boy is probably just THINKING. Maybe even "meditating" is not too strong a word? He has probably just begun to develop a conscience and is tremendously enjoying the novelty of simply being completely lost in thought.

I have a weird feeling that he will grow up to be an extremely intelligent and brave (since he's not afraid of the dark) man. I hope you don't cave into your fears and wind up drugging him with some horrible chemical that stunts his intellectual development.

I wouldn't worry too much either. But the first thing that occured to me is that he was getting away from stimulation audio and visual.

What is it called when someone can't go out in crowds because there is too much going on and it makes them dizzy or ill ?

Anyways you did mention that after dinner? he went to the closet or somewhere. Maybe after a family gathering where a lot of things are going on.. it bothers him... he gets too much stimulation and he has found on his own that being quiet in a dark place calms him.
'
Have his ears checked.

That isn't "Normal". Your son may be displaying mild signs of Autism, and I would definitely ask a child psychologist for assistance. Does he sit on his own and rock back and forth sometimes, not smiling or enjoying it but seemingly lost in his own world? If so, that could be a specific type called Asperger's syndrome.


Either way, it could lead to learning disabilities later on, so it is best to find out what it is now so you know how to cope. Depending on how severe it is, you may have to learn to "enter his world" to be able to successfully communicate with him. It all depends on the circumstances.

I can't say much except I did this as a kid too.

I'd just wake up in the middle of the night and not move. Though I didn't always stand up like your kid, and I only went into the closet once in a while.

Now as to why, I can't remember, I was too young. I guess there was something about the unknown in a close known place (my room) that interests me.

I can recall my dreams then. I thought a family of boggy monsters was in my closet, and that my closet was a portal to their swamp world. Kind of imaginative for such a young kid.

I can say something else. The dreams stopped after a while, but years later after I'd forgotten around 11 or 12 years old, I had a dream that the boggy monster family came out and said... "sorry"... for creeping me out and scaring me as a toddler.

hmm, odd how dreams are.