Hi everyone! I'm so glad I found this forum; I'm hoping some of you are smarter than me and can give me some tips.

I have an almost 3 y/o who was recently given an educational diagnosis of autism. We are on the waiting list to get a medical diagnosis.

My little guy has some language delays, but he is verbalizing some. EI (he's had services since September) has been very helpful in getting him going on PECS and he now can say "I want..." I'd guess that his language is at about 1.5 years. He has always had a lot of the typical austim spectrum characteristics besides the language delay, including lack of desire to be social with other children, lack of eye contact, a strong need for order, a strong need for cleanliness, inflexibility, fixation on certain objects (like puzzles), etc.

Now here's my question: what he has never shown until recently is hand flapping, tip-toe walking, and repetitive vocalizations (uhh...uhhh....uhhh). This all appeared in the last couple weeks and has been increasing in frequency. Is this typcial for kids with autism? Do new symptoms constantly appear? I just had myself adjusted to reality when reality changed!

Thanks in advance for any input.

:) Cindy

Hi Cindy, Welcome to the board. I have been coming on here since February and have found a lot of comfort and knowledge here. I hope it does the same for you. My son was dx in March with PDD/NOS. He has made many improvements in all areas of his development since I got involved with early intervention. One thing I have found is that new behaviors crop up and sometimes disappear through his stages of progression. I find Autism to be very mysterious as the typical day to day predictions just aren't predictable. Is the school system treating your son as Autistic as far as services go with out a Medical Dx? If not, the official DX will open the door to intensive services which will help these new behaviors as they creep up. Best of Luck and again welcome

Hi Cindy,
My name is Bunny and I have a 12yr old son w/Autism. He hand-flapped since he was a baby. Through the toddler years he started the vocalizations and humming along with the hand-flapping. He cycles his "self-stim" behaviors as well as the food he eats, and his overall mood. This, for some reason, happens to be the worst time of year for him. I went through the same thing with him when he was first diagnosed. I thought the hand-flapping was the full extent of his behaviors and was surprised when the others started, no one warned me that other behaviors would begin to emerge. Hope that helps! ~Bunny

hi cindy, my son is 16 dx since age 3.he shows new behaviors all the timeand he will rotate them out.like non stop eye blinking he will do that for month and then change it to licking his shirt collar. then he will roll his fingers, and on and on it goes. and the 1 habit that he has done since birth his tweaks[pulls] his penis and jewels, he doesn't masterbate he says he is adjusting.but he does every 10 second he says it is in the way. so hopefully your son won,t do that a lot of autistic boyz do that.

Hi Cindy, Welcome to the board. I have been coming on here since February and have found a lot of comfort and knowledge here. I hope it does the same for you. My son was dx in March with PDD/NOS. He has made many improvements in all areas of his development since I got involved with early intervention. One thing I have found is that new behaviors crop up and sometimes disappear through his stages of progression. I find Autism to be very mysterious as the typical day to day predictions just aren't predictable. Is the school system treating your son as Autistic as far as services go with out a Medical Dx? If not, the official DX will open the door to intensive services which will help these new behaviors as they creep up. Best of Luck and again welcome

Yes, he has an educational dx of autism spectrum. He is currently getting 90 minutes 3 times a week in a structured TEACHH class.

Thanks for the welcome. I was so excited to find out that there were other parents online with similar circumstances.

Hi Cindy,
My name is Bunny and I have a 12yr old son w/Autism. He hand-flapped since he was a baby. Through the toddler years he started the vocalizations and humming along with the hand-flapping. He cycles his "self-stim" behaviors as well as the food he eats, and his overall mood. This, for some reason, happens to be the worst time of year for him. I went through the same thing with him when he was first diagnosed. I thought the hand-flapping was the full extent of his behaviors and was surprised when the others started, no one warned me that other behaviors would begin to emerge. Hope that helps! ~Bunny

I know! Here I am thinking "Oh, this isn't that bad, and new stuff keeps appearing!"

Is your son in public school? I teach 6th grade in a public school. :)

hi cindy, my son is 16 dx since age 3.he shows new behaviors all the timeand he will rotate them out.like non stop eye blinking he will do that for month and then change it to licking his shirt collar. then he will roll his fingers, and on and on it goes. and the 1 habit that he has done since birth his tweaks[pulls] his penis and jewels, he doesn't masterbate he says he is adjusting.but he does every 10 second he says it is in the way. so hopefully your son won,t do that a lot of autistic boyz do that.

:eek: Oh my! I really hope he doesn't pick that up!!!! I'm glad to hear that the new behaviors aren't abnormal.

I'm wondering...do you parents try to train your children to NOT display socially inappropriate behaviors while in public? At the school I work at, we have an autism room and the teacher there says they train the kids to do the stimming stuff in their own spaces.

Hi Cindy,
My son goes to a private Develepmental Delays Program, he's been there since he was 3. If you don't mind I was going to try and answer your question about training our kids not to display inappropriate behaviors while in public. For my son, right now he's going through puberty (let me tell you this has been hell) He has been able to learn to touch himself in his room, under his blanket. As far as stimming in public, I don't see this as an inappropriate behavior because he has no control over it. Sometimes he's calm in public and sometimes he's not. People do stare but you learn to deal. I actually heard of someone who made up business cards that said: "I noticed you staring at my son's bad behavior, he has Autism, what's your excuse?". I thought that was funny.~Bunny

i too had thaught of business cards, but didn,t to me my son is who he is, we tried to stop tweaking and he doesn,t get it and he is hfa and verbal, the other habits oh well if people don,t like it they don't need to look at him. the only thing that makes me mad is when he takes off and i can't find him police will ask him if he is on drugs if he gets lost and will ask for help. then he makes poor choices and will hitch hike. he thinks everyone is ok.sometimes i want to put a sign on his back with info. so people won't hurt him or thinks he is on drugs, he is a big boy at 5'10 and 240 lbs he looks "normal' but as soon as you speak to him u realize that he has autism and is slow.but a lot of people mis understand and thinks he is on drugs. he is also a behavior problem although in my new neighborhood we sent out fliers about him and it worked people are more understanding, at 16 he is very active and it is hard to keep up with him due to health problems but on a good note he will finally be getting services thru the state after 13 years on the waiting list he will have a personal assistant 44 hours a week yyyyyaaaayyyyyyyyyy.

My son is 18 with a clinical diagnosis since age 8. Some behaviors that showed up with him came and went and never came back again and some never left him. He never did the hand flapping or lining things up or some of the other typical things you hear in autism. He did avoid eye contact and still does but not to the extent that he once did. He had a strong desire for sameness which he eventually was somewhat able to overcome by learning some coping skills. He had a lot of difficulty screening out noise and would sleep with a pillow over his head at night and in loud situations he would often cover his ears. He no longer covers his ears and his room now is in a very quiet part of the house so noise while sleeping is not the problem that it was. A noisy classroom does give him problems and sometimes he needs to leave the classroom to go to a smaller room with less students and more quiet time. We have that written up in his IEP. He did develop a sensitivity to light in his teens and will often retreat to his room where he keeps a very low lit bulb and has black curtains to block out the outdoor light. I guess each kid is just so very different. It's difficult to compare one to another on what to expect.

I love the business card idea! That is too funny!

Right now we are being told that it looks like he'll be high functioning. I do realize that a lot of the behaviors can't be helped, but I'm hoping that we'll be able to train him to contain them in his space. We have an autism classroom in our school (for kids from the entire district), and that teacher has told me that she works with her kids to contain their stimming behaviors in their spaces.