I am concerned that my daughter may have Asperger's Syndrome. She is almost 5 years old and flaps her hands whenever she is excited or is concentrating. The only other symptom I see is that she is very sensitive. What should I do? Can you recommend next steps? Besides these two things she is a very bright, outgoing 4 year old.
I am concerned that my daughter may have Asperger's Syndrome. She is almost 5 years old and flaps her hands whenever she is excited or is concentrating. The only other symptom I see is that she is very sensitive. What should I do? Can you recommend next steps? Besides these two things she is a very bright, outgoing 4 year old.
You need to get her checked out by a developmental pediatrion. Or is you state has an early intervention program try them. Good Luck!
Location: I live in Canada, but my mind wanders along Carnaby Street, in London.
Posts: 6
Re: Asperger's Syndrome
I think you should get her evaluated. My Parents got me evaluated around that age, and I've done very well throughout my School Years. I've even had a Job for a few years. It wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, but I stayed and I got sick. I'm not working at this moment, but I have at least five friends that I go to my Clubhouse to hang out with. If I didn't get the early supports that I needed, I'd be a prisoner in my own Bedroom.
my neuro typical daughter flaps her hands when excited, my autistic daughter does no hand flapping at all, my neuro typical daughter is also a sensitive child, my girls are both 4, and i would think most children at 4-5 are sensitive, for children to be diagnosed as on the spectrum the have problems in three areas, communication (children with aspergers develop speech as neuro typical children do) conversations are generally one sided and tend to be about what they're interested in, social difficultys- not many friends if any at all, behaving inappropriately, too many to list, lack of imagination, not playing with toys appropriately, imaginitive play is repetitive, again too many to list, ask yourself if she has any problems in these areas if not ,good for you, if you see any problems in these areas then try to get your daughter assessed as soon as possible, good luck to you and your daughter.
Thank you for the insight Claste! Part of my confusion is that my daughter is very social; her preschool teachers say she's one of the most popular children in the class. She has a great imagination and often plays independently. The only real symptom she exhibits is the flapping of the hands and her sensitivity. My sister (who is an elementary school teacher) and my mother (who is a nurse) are the ones who keep pressuring me to have her treated/evaluated. I have not done so, for a few different reasons. First of all, the only real issue I see is the flapping. As far as her being sensitive, I'm kind of sensitive too! But my worry is that she is about to start kindergarten and I’m afraid that she will be teased by the other kids because of the flapping and this will ruin her great self confidence and social skills that she has developed. Kids can be brutal at times. I just don't know what to do. I don't want her to think something is wrong with her because she flaps her hands. Will she ever grow out of the flapping or will she do it for the rest of her life?
children at the age your daughter is are generally very accepting they may not even "see" the hand flapping, when someone came to see my autistic daughter they were greeted by my NT daughter, they thought she was autistic as she was flapping her hands and jumping! i'm very sensitive also, from what you've said i really wouldn't worry about your daughter, her hand flapping could be a habit and i'm pretty certain she'll grow out of it, my NT daughter sucks her thumb i'm pretty sure she'll grow out of that otherwise in 20 yrs time i'll have a thumb sucking hand flapping, jumping 24 yr old daughter, it's amazing what peer pressure can do and i'm sure both of our daughters will follow the examples of behaviour set by other children good and bad! autism and aspergers are a whole host of problems, your daughter sounds just like my NT daughter, god bless you x
Last edited by claste; 08-18-2005 at 12:59 PM.
Reason: spelling
