Lisa in Indiana

Hi and welcome! This is just my story...other ppl will have other experiences...

My daughter is 3 yr 5 mths. She has been diagnosed with ASD (in April of this year), but high functioning. My main concern was she was not talking. In fact prior to the diagnosis, I had taken her on 3 different ocassions to her physician asking about her "not talking". Each time I was given the old "now Momma" routine. It was always written off as the following: she was the baby, we did the talking for her, she was stubborn, she would talk when she was ready, give it time, all children are different, don't compare her to your other children and blah, blah, blah.

At 2 years, I knew something wasn't quite right, I just couldn't put my finger on it. I wish I had INSISTED at that point for some testing. It was just easier to deny it than to deal with it. And it was easy to rationalize that in my head because she had so may endearing qualities as well.
She is also extremely bright. In fact before she even turned 2, she knew her entire alphabet (upper and lower case) and could count to 20 with ease. we never taught her these, she just seemed to know them from somewhere. She had a very good rote memory, and was able to memorize a video after watching it once or twice. She memorized routes to schools, stores and homes of families and friends. We thought maybe she was a genius, lol!
She was very affectionate when she wanted or needed hugs. She loved to be babied when possible. Her eye contact was dependant on what she was currently involved in. If she was watching the WIGGLES, forget..she would act as if no one else was in the room. She would not respond to being called by name. It was hard at times to get her to look you in the eyes, and other times she would do so right away. She could sing every word of every song on the WIGGLES video, but not being able to ask for a drink. It was perplexing to say the least.

There were however, some small things I kept tucked away in the recesses of my mind that she was not like other children...
She didn't play with toys very much. She liked to line things up though and often by shape, color or size. She usually had a few favorite things and instead of playing with them, she would just carry them around all day, even napping with them. You couldn't pry them out of her hands for anything. She loves to swing for hours to the point of either falling asleep or becoming motion sick only to vomit. She loved to spin in circles and would do so until she was drunk with dizzyness and laugh like a maniac while doing it. She became very rigid in her routines. She had to have the same thing for breakfast everyday for over a year (Cheerios) and the same for lunch w/ some variety. She would eat a hotdog, grilled cheese or chicken nuggets. She snacked all day on gold fish crackers...I swear I used to think she had a tape worm b/c she would eat those non-stop.
She insisted on wearing the same pair of pj's day in and day out, even seeking them form the dirty clothes hamper. She would only wear one particular pair of shoes even though she had several to choose from. The list goes on and one as far as the need for extreme routiness went.

She also had MAJOR meltdowns when she wasn't able to communicate her needs to us. She didn't speak our language and when we spoke to her, it seemed just as foreign to her as hers did to us. She became increasingly aggressive with me to the point of slapping, hitting, biting and spitting on me. She would also become very remorseful after a blow-out often showing it by crying and needingto be soothed and assured that it was OK. It always seems as if she just could not control her own behavior.

These are things that prompted us to get some kind of testing. If you have any doubts in your mind, then please do the testing NOW. Early Intervention Programs offer all the testing for FREE before they are 3, after that it goes through your local school system. The quality of your treatment goes down at that point b/c the schools never want to fork over the cash for what your child is entitled to. Early intervention is the key. I kick myself over and over for not getting her tested when she was 2 and I knew that not talking was not right. In my state the program is called First Steps. It may be different in yours. If you contact your local Division of Children's Services, they can direct you to the right place. Remember it's all FREE, the testing, therapy, it's all free.
Your daughter may just be a little speech delayed and if that is the case, speech therapy will get her on the right track. But, there are specific tests that can be done to determine if she falls somewhere on the spectrum. There is no one test that says "yes she has autism". No two children have the same symptoms. SO, it is diagnosed a lot of times based on what the parents report.

Sorry this was such a long post. Autism is just hard to explain.
Good Luck and I hope she is only speech delayed.
God Bless!