babys

Hit all milestones very early.smiled and cooed at 2 weeksFound foot at 2 monthsHeld rattle at 2 monthsRolled over both directions at 3 monthsSat unsupported at 5 1/2 monthsCrawled at 6 monthsThrew ball overhand at 9 monthsFirst steps at 9 1/2 monthsWas running by 11 monthsPretended to feed stuffed animals at 14 monthsAsked what's this (then shortened it to just this?)and wanted an answer from 15-19 monthsDidn't really talk too much (except for when he wanted and very few words) until he turned twoOne months after he turned 2 he was up to over 250 words that I could understand. Saying 2 and 3 words often. Sometimes saying 4 or 5 word phrases.I believe he can identify a ton of letters...upper and lower case (but not sure exactly what as if I ask him he won't tell me), but I have caught him flipping over the number 3 and saying E. And flipping the letter P over and saying d. I know he knows upper case D,O,N,C,Q,L for sure because that is what I was able to get out of him. And I am pretty sure he knows way more then that. He will actually physically count items, but yet doesn't know how to say them all. So, he will usually say two, two, two, three. I believe he knows all of his basic colors including black. He for sure knows what a circle is. And will tell you watch...circle, moon...circle, ect. And I know he knows the star shape. As for the others...not exactly sure, because he is so stubborn. He understand emotions...sad, scared, and silly. At 14 months old he was watching Monsters Inc and the little girl was screaming and his lower lip came out and was extremely sad. I thought it was a fluke, but he has done it since with anything that is sad. He now will tell me what is going to happen in a movie before it happens or with only hearing the music coming from another room. His interaction with children his own age or lower is horrible. He will interact and share all day long with a 6 year old. His imaginative play is ridiculous! He pretends the couch is a piano, the arm of the couch a cash register and will swipe a card on the stitching, he pretend he is wearing a tool belt and will grab imaginary tools out and do the task of the one he pretended to grab. His memory is really good. I asked him to tell his papa about how he painted that day. He told him...paint, brush, walls, and tape (for the painters tape). He has been obsessed with the computer since before he could walk. When he crawled, he crawled straight for the remote. He knew how to work a DVD player without us ever doing it in front of him. He has known how to work anyones digital camera since he was 15 months. He properly understand how to use a computer mouse and has known how since he was 18 months. He was able to crack and separate an egg by himself without me telling him what to do since 20 months old (the first time I let him). His love for cooking is high! He loves all animals and has known all the sounds of the basic animals since 18 months. When I buy him a wooden puzzle, I give it to him and he does it in less then a minute and will never play with again. He can do one of those basic 9 piece puzzles with the object under it (if you understand...not sure what they are called). He also just painted an object with just a little out of the lines (I have never told him to do that...he was at the table by himself and just did it). he also has a great sense of humor!!! Laughing at the tv maybe around 18 months.These are some of the problems we have with him...head banger from 6 months to 15 months (only when angry)extreme tantrumssleeps very little, like 9 or 10 hours (sometimes 6.5 if he has been over stimulated)when he is sleeping he has vivid dreams and will wake up telling me while he is screamingpicky eater (never ate baby food)refuses to wear clothesrefuses to brush teethwill not ever become on any type of routinelines itemsconstant need of my attention 24/7We thought he had a speech problem since he wasn't saying anything on a regular basis, so we got an evaluation done on him. He was slightly below normal. But, they also did an OT evaluation and determined he had sensory processing disorder. All of his doctors keep leaning toward autism, b/c all of the major problems started at 15 months old (which happened to be after a bad car accident we were both in). He was evaluated by 2 OT's and they both said he is not autistic. And if he were...very low end. I always thought he was injured in the accident and the doctors did nothing to check (which is changing now) to make sure. But, after reading the info on some sensory processing sites, I now wonder if he is gifted. I would say all of the characteristics are there, but I am not sure. He has never been a "normal child". I am wondering if any of you have seen your children go through the things I have. I have not been around a lot of children through my life and really don't know what is normal or not. Please I am in need of some real people that have gone through gifted infants and babies to tell me their opinions. I am exhausted from lack of sleep (I have gotten woken up for an entire year 3-20 times a night)and I am so tired of talking to doctors. Thanks!ANSWER: Firstly, the question is not whether he is gifted OR disabled - many children are both. It sounds pretty clear that your son is quite gifted. The big question is whether his problems indicate an additional disability, or are within the range of 'normal' for a child as gifted as he is.It's hard to tell, because he's very young, but a lot of those behaviors are common for autistic kids. Another complicating factor is that some of those traits, such as sensory sensitivities (picky eating, refusing to wear clothes, refusing to brush teeth) and reduced need for sleep are also seen in non-autistic highly gifted children. But his lack of speech, his tantrums, his lining up objects, etc are more typical of autistic kids.If he is autistic, be aware that predicting the development of autistic kids is very difficult. There's no way an expert can look at a young autistic kid and say how they will turn out as an older child or adult. A fairly common occurance is for an apparently severely autistic preschooler to suddenly have a developmental spurt around 4-5 years old and end up high functioning. A few autistic kids (though this is less common) loose skills in adolescence.As for the car accident, that could be related in two ways. One is that he experienced some degree of head injury. Not knowing more details about the nature of his injuries, I can't say how likely that is. The other possibility is that his worsening behavior is due to stress. This is an area that has not been explored enough, in my opinion, but stressful events can cause regression and increase in autistic behavior in some children (who usually seem to have preexisting differences, as in your son).Lastly, although this does not completely rule out autism, his pretend play and understanding of emotions are atypical for autism. Most autistic kids (with the exception of a subtype called Pathological Demand Avoidance) show reduced or completely absent pretend play. His understanding of emotions is even more atypical for autism - I'm not entirely sure what's normal, but he's certainly not delayed in that area, unlike most autistic kids. The only way he could have that kind of emotional understanding and still be autistic is if he has obvious social problems in other areas. He does have trouble with same-age children, but that's typical of gifted kids.---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------QUESTION: Do you think his lack of speech, could have been because he asked what everything was from 15-19 months (I believe this is early for that age)? It seemed like he was learning what everything was before he wanted to start talking.Also, do you think lining up objects could be him counting them? I have lined up items before and counted them previously to him and I wonder if now he is just imitating me b/c he never did it before.Also, I did want to tell you that he is a huge control freak. Everything has to be done when and how he wants it. As far as the car accident, they are going to be doing MRI's on his brain and neck. We finally switched doctors and we were sent to a pediatric neurologist. Just waiting on insurance to go through, so hopefully more answer with that to come. Doctors have also said possible post traumatic stress and he will be seeing a pediatric behavioral specialist next month (it took 6 months to get the apt., since there are only 3 in our state). I feel like all of his behaviors in the past were caused by the accident as it is now happening less often. We had given up on all doctors and took him to a Chiropractor a few months ago for just an evaluation. He said he is out of alignment for sure and when he just felt my sons C7, my son freaked out. That was the last straw in my head and made the apt. myself for the specialist and went over the doctors head.I have never heard of the Pathological demand Avoidance before. I looked up some info on it. Some things seem like him, but others do not. It seems like everything I look up doesn't really all fit in place. But, I am glad you brought that up to me as I will keep that in my head and watch for those things as he gets older.I was also wondering what else I can possibly start teaching him. I really wonder if working with him with letters, colors, numbers, ect all seem boring to him now. And I am wondering if that is why he doesn't want to tell me what he knows and answer me. I feel like I can't give him enough new information, but really don't know where to go from here and not giving him too advanced material. Also...when I am working with him he is always doing something else, but is retaining the information. Could this be boredom or hyperactivity?Thank you very much for all of your input. You have been very helpful.
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