What part of the spectrum do you think my brother is?

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Does sound sensory orientated- perhaps HFA? If that's LFA than I better get the doctors to diagnose me again...nah, kidding, seriously, from autistic people I have known or met of both types I figure HFA and LFA are more along a spectrum than categorically different- that being a 3D spectrum of course. Obviously each extremes, like a different shade of the same colour are noticeably different but they are not entirely separate entities in my opinion. I don't mean to offend, if anybody has differing anecdotal evidence (no purely emotive opinions please, they mean very little to me) than I'd like to hear.

A lot of his symptoms, particularly his conversational style, stims, reactions to visual stimuli (you should see my reactions to some of the avatars on here- I freak out at some and there is one avatar in particular that hypnotizes me) are strikingly similar to my own- the huge difference being that even at that age I was able to successfully camouflage the majority of said symptoms or at least 'tone' them down- so perhaps that is what makes others propose that he is LFA as opposed to HFA?

Unfortunately when it comes to ASDs it's amazing how my family too can suffer from collective denial/amnesia whenever it suits them. Sometimes I think I am the crazy one when it comes to reminding them about a couple of relatives...

I'm guessing he'd certainly get diagnosed as a Kanners case (if he were to have a diagnosis).

2 things: 1) what is MFA?

2) His parents don't want anything to do with autism so they won't have him diagnosed. My mom was like this. My parents, before they split, wouldn't get me diagnosed because my mom wouldn't let my dad, even though he knew I had something "wrong". Later they split, he remarried and got it right, and y step mom got me diagnosed and now I can live a happy not quite mormal life. Anyways, moral of the story, some people would rather cope with a slow child, or in my case, a gifted child, than one who has something "wrong" with them.

It definitely sounds like classic autism to me (but obviously a specialist would have to evaluate him to be sure). A NT eight year old or an 8 year old with AS can communicate much better than what you just described.

I have a 6 year old son with AS and an apparently NT two year old. The two year old can already pretend one thing is something else, and does so frequently. In a shopping mall recently, he picked up a coat hanger, looked at me and said "horse" and then started making it gallop like a horse while making horse sounds. My AS son started doing things like that at age 5 and he's quite good at pretending now.

LFA?

That's the moment when I question opinions on here.

If the kid's on the spectrum maybe - could be something else too, behavioural, genetic or another microbiological disorder, keep that in mind - I'd say it could be AS with a speech disorder (that leads to the disruptive speech and language) or HFA (if the problem is language or if there was an early delay) maybe.

I did similar things, do some TV-thing still and I'm diagnosed as utmost hf, thankyouverymuch.



Anyway, on topic:

That's atypical for an 8-year-old.

Of course I can't say much more because this is just a description, because despite what I know, I'm not a professional (yet?) and because childhood diagnosis are usually hard to make.

So I'll just tell you that the average 8-year-old who's monolingual has fluent speech that though it still is not comparable to that of an adult is coming very close to it in grammar, vocabulary. They are able to stay on topic and give a simple to moderately complex explanation. They are able to express their basic needs (food, cold, whatever) as well as almost all of their more complex needs.

That doesn't sound much like your brother from what you told us here.


The repetitive behaviour in form of watching the same video or part of TV film again and again is typical for ASDs. That's so typical, that's like something I'd tell someone to explain what repetitive behaviours in autism are haha
It is said to be atypical for AS to have such repetitive behaviours instead of a more intellectual narrow interest though. This points into the classical/HFA direction.

About language... is he stuttering, cluttering, having some other speech disorder? These can lead to disruptive, non-nonsensical speech and is taken into account by a good professional when diagnosing autism or other childhood conditions. Could be AS in that case.
But it could be his language as well. When did he start talking? How are his receptive language skills (how much does he understand when others talk to him and when he reads)? Does he seem to use fewer words or as many as other children his age? Would probably be HFA if most of these can be answered with a 'yes'.

How is his IQ? Some professionals - mine used that to sort me into AS instead of HFA - depend on IQ to determine whether a person is classically autistic, has AS or get sorted in the 'autistic but unspecified' category PDD-NOS.

How does he interact with children his age? Is he try to contact them, is he trying to be close to other children or watching them from a distance? That would all be more of less typical for AS. Or does he keep away from children, not acknowledge them and interact with them even when he's right next to them? That would be more typical for HFA.

If he's somewhere on the spectrum, it's hard to say where exactly. If he doesn't fit either AS or HFA neatly, he might get categorised as PDD-NOS.

I agree that he sounds like an autie. That behavior is definitely unusual for an 8 year old.

Is he in special ed?

He is definitely not exhibiting normal 8 yr old behavior. I have friends with kids that age and even the ones younger than 8 can hold really good conversations whereas this young man can't. I once worked in a taekwondo school so have been around hundreds of little kids. This little boy is not normal. I would suspect he is somewhere between Kanners Autism and Aspergers and definitely leaning toward the low functioning side. The little guy seriously needs to get a diagnosis and get a psychotherapist and occupational therapist.

Could the reason be because all that seems normal to you because you are on the spectrum yourself?

Sometimes autistic behavior seems normal to me because I am on it myself so I wouldn't know what normal kids wouldn't do. But I know that is not normal 8 year old behavior. No 8 year old is that way. I have been 8 and so have my brothers and they were not that way and I was not that bad. I have seen other 8 year olds and they are not that way. I am sure you have seen 8 year olds in movies and they don't act that way so what you're saying is somewhat shocking because how can anyone not now how a normal 8 year old acts? Weren't you ever around them?

I was a lot like that at his age; diagnosed with Aspergers at 10 and autism at 18.

It's unfornunate that your mom refuses to discuss your brother with you, as you seem very loving and interested in him, which is brilliant, especially considering the age difference. You know yourself that he exhibits many atypical behaviours for his age. Have you looked up symptoms of autism? Does he exhibit any of the "classics" such as hand-flapping, rarely making eye contact, extreme attachment to routine? My 4 yr old also likes to repeat scenes in movies, but only a few times, not for hours. He also frequently plays by quoting the scenes from movies, but then he starts to move on to more imaginative play where he makes up scenarios. I hope you stay involved in his life, sounds like he's gonna need his big brother.

I know it's obvious but I figure that's one of the reasons that many of those on the spectrum are left undiagnosed for so long. ASDs are of course largely genetic and in a family there may be several members with autistic traits, and coupled with the fact that autism was recently in the past even more misunderstood and didn't (at least for the higher functioning forms) receive nearly as much attention, a family may see a child with traits familiar to their family (as it's still the case for many that the family is a closed unit) and think nothing of it and even dismiss observations from outside of the family. For example, in my family it appears as if there were several more members with slight cognitive delays than who were actually diagnosed with ASD or even Aspergers and it partly explains why I was ignored for so long- as was my cousin, until they finally became concerned when she 5/6 and showing know no signs of improvement in communication development.

I think why most people said that, and it IS why I said it, is because the poster made it sound like the kid ALWAYS talks like that. YOU made it sound like you have some problems with German, etc... but even THAT didn't sound that bad. You certainly DON'T sound HFA here! I would say that EVEN if you were born in the US to english speaking parents and english was your first and only language. I know, however, that GERMAN was probably your first language, and maybe neither of your parents speaks much English in front of you.



EXACTLY!! !!



EXACTLY!



Yeah, the description doesn't make it sound like that is the case. Hopefully, it is well known that people may stutter and that is ESPECIALLY true of boys.

Autistic Disorder rather than Asperger's Disorder. The repetitive behaviours and verbal impairment makes it the former rather than the latter.

You can't really tell if it's HFA or LFA unless he's given an IQ test (this is using the research terms of "HFA" and "LFA"); you can have someone nonverbal at 8 and still have HFA (the average age of communication is 4 1/2 in HFA, however), but odds are that he has LFA, as about 3/4 of those with AD have such.

He might improve, or he might stay the same way till he's an old man.

Good observation with his hyper-focusing on single parts of things; it's the theorised reason why those with AD usually do bad on IQ tests, because they can only focus on that single thing, which uses all of the power of their mind. Those with Asperger's are less focused on that single thing (the cerebral interest isn't a single thing in this context).

People have to fuel their egos first here unfortunately.