Ana spent the day with some ripped-up paper.

[conuly]

She declared it her hammer, and "fixed" the ceiling in her room several times.

Evangeline spent the day smiling at me and trying to get me to sing various fingerplays with her. Oh, and saying "ba" a lot. Ba for book, ba for ball, ba for "a bird outside the window!", ba for bowl/plate/fork. She hasn't said ba for butt yet, but I'm sure Ana will think it is hilarious when she finally does.

What's funny is she *will* sign all those "ba" words if I ask her to... but she's never spontaneously signed them, and won't even if I honestly have no idea what she's saying and make this clear by going whatwhatwhat a lot. She'll sign other words, but not ba words.

Comments

[miss-boots.livejournal.com]

hi there, i'm here to bug you for any links you can dig up for me.
autism has crossed my mind quite a few times, but i've never really been able to find anything helpful online. so anything you can find is greatly appreciated!

[conuly]

Bear in mind that my idea of helpful might not be anybody else's :)

The most useful thing for you right now, I believe, would be a list of the diagnostic criteria.

This is a different set. It's criteria used by different doctors to diagnose autism - not all people/places use the exact same rules.

There is a Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, which you can ask your doctor to give to your kid at the next checkup.

Of course, I'm not qualified to diagnose your child. Neither are you. One way or another, you do want to talk to your pediatrician about this.

That said, I know, there's a lot of scare sites out there. I think I made it clear what I think about those. The best thing to do would probably be to read what adult autistics and parents of autistic children are saying right now. I like, myself, autismhub, which is pretty well-oriented towards my views on neurodiversity (um... different isn't bad, basically). However, in the interest of fairness, I'll also direct you towards autism here on LJ, which is primarily parental, with a focus I don't necessarily like. And there's many other communities on LJ about autism. People in them can answer questions even better than I can - it occurs to me now that most of my links are most appropriate to adults wondering about themselves.

One thing to note is that, one way or another, your kid will develop, grow, and change. All children do that, and autistic children are no exception. Even if you're looking at him now and saying "He doesn't do this! He doesn't do that!", that's no predictor of what he'll do as an adult.

I'm running out of steam here, it went from a busy morning to a long day :)

Comment back, I'll see if I can answer any specific questions, or direct you to somebody who can.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I was *just* this weekend looking at a "Craftman tool set" for kids...

[(Anonymous)]

hi there, i'm here to bug you for any links you can dig up for me.
autism has crossed my mind quite a few times, but i've never really been able to find anything helpful online. so anything you can find is greatly appreciated!

[conuly]

Bear in mind that my idea of helpful might not be anybody else's :)

The most useful thing for you right now, I believe, would be a list of the diagnostic criteria.

This is a different set. It's criteria used by different doctors to diagnose autism - not all people/places use the exact same rules.

There is a Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, which you can ask your doctor to give to your kid at the next checkup.

Of course, I'm not qualified to diagnose your child. Neither are you. One way or another, you do want to talk to your pediatrician about this.

That said, I know, there's a lot of scare sites out there. I think I made it clear what I think about those. The best thing to do would probably be to read what adult autistics and parents of autistic children are saying right now. I like, myself, autismhub, which is pretty well-oriented towards my views on neurodiversity (um... different isn't bad, basically). However, in the interest of fairness, I'll also direct you towards autism here on LJ, which is primarily parental, with a focus I don't necessarily like. And there's many other communities on LJ about autism. People in them can answer questions even better than I can - it occurs to me now that most of my links are most appropriate to adults wondering about themselves.

One thing to note is that, one way or another, your kid will develop, grow, and change. All children do that, and autistic children are no exception. Even if you're looking at him now and saying "He doesn't do this! He doesn't do that!", that's no predictor of what he'll do as an adult.

I'm running out of steam here, it went from a busy morning to a long day :)

Comment back, I'll see if I can answer any specific questions, or direct you to somebody who can.

[gingembre.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I was *just* this weekend looking at a "Craftman tool set" for kids...