Agression Towards Animals?

[shyfig]

I sympathise immensely with your situation an also advise a visit to a Paediatrician, Psychologist or Psychiatrist for a consultation. I have 3 boys with Autism and my eldest was exactly as you describe ....I thought he was a 3 year old sociopath! Having said that a diagnosis for a Pervasive Developmental Disorder is complex and just the beginning of a road that would change your life and priorities forever.

I encourage you to contact your state austism society and see if they can give you names of appropriate medical professionals that are SPECILAIZED in Autism and Aspergers syndrome. The majority are not . A forum is a good place to start also. Happy for you to PM me for any other advice.

My boys are 15, 13 and 11 and were diagnosed at 7, 9 and 7 respectively. They also have many co-existing conditions which can also change the appearance of Aspergers and Autism..

[moosmum]

So sorry to hear you going through this and hope you have family/friends support.

Agree re the autism society to get immediate guidance and supprt as a 1st call.Even if it turns out not to be autism.

In the mean time to keep your son distracted some noisy,moving parts toys might focus his interests elsewhere.

Good luck,very glad to see you getting early help,it can make an enormous difference whatever the reason.

Edited April 18, 2011 by moosmum

[luvsdogs]

I hope you get the right specialists to help you. Please keep us posted on the results of his consultations.

I had a small problem with my oldest son in comparison to your son. I used to take him to the baby health clinic's paed once a month. Maybe they can give you some advice on who to contact.

[all4addy]

Sheena - Hes an outgoing boy. Hes walked upto 7 & 8 year olds in the park before saying "wanna play?" they've looked at him like whats the baby doing talking to us? lol, but it hasn't discouraged him. Honestly his grandparents don't even want to try handling him, so I would feel immense guilt sicking him on a poor preschool teacher with 30 other students lol. Hes quite full-on. I'm about the only person who can handle him, hubby can only half do it, before leaning the reins back over to me. Anyway He's polite, happy and outgoing with other kids, but is too rough with anyone his size or smaller, I think hes made of pure muscle (hes skinny) as sometimes he can outweigh me.

Shyfig - Thank you! you have no idea how it feels for me to hear another person speaking like that. I keep having the sociopath thoughts, and then have immense waves of guilt flow over me from even thinking it. I also keep having panic attacks. Its really nice to know someone out there has gone through a similar situation even if the diagnosis may not be the same. So thank you

[Pretty Miss Emma]

Don't feel guilty about sending him to pre-school etc. Early childhood educators and primary and secondary teachers are there to help you, they will have dealt with these types of issues before. They can often also be a really good source of support and help (mind you this can come down to the individual person also!). But they will have support and stratgies within their environment. If you're worried just ask them if they've dealt with kids like this before and would they be ok with your son being there (of course legally they probably have to say it's ok, but you'll be able to tell if they really mean it). I know a lot of good educators who relish having kids like this in class as it is good for everyone (we all need to know that not everyone is the same!) and often as an educator you get so much more back from these kids in the end. It never hurts to have a chat with them and even see if you can have maybe a shorter day there where you can help be an observer just incase you are worried how he would deal with the environment - there are schools that are happy for this to happen.

[all4addy]

Thanks, but we already decided a long time ago to homeschool all our children, if we can afford to do it, then one-on-one teaching is a lot better in most cases than 1-on-30+ teaching. My kids also have their own individually tailored programs for their learning styles, they don't get "labelled" by school admin, and have lots of fun, all day And an added plus is that I get to learn new things I didn't even know - alongside them Its actually decreased my stress levels, I got CFS after a bad flu-type thing last year, after my MIL tookover and forcibly (against my wishes) enroled A in kinder/preschool. It was a very bad year for us, now things are a lot simpler. And whilst we don't like labels, it doesn't mean we ignore our childrens interactions with other children, because of the crazy-ness of last year, we are starting off slowly, so just casual outings to different places, starting next year, we have lots of camps and weekends away planned with homeschoolers.

But anyway, getting back to the subject LOL. We have a list of about 4 or 5 paeds in the local area, I have also asked someone for more info, so we will look up those paeds, make an appointment and also see about an Autism assessment as well with a local team, so I am researching all of this now, so by the end of the week, we should hopefully be set up with some appointments.

Whilst we were at a market on the weekend, we purchased one of those hammer pound the ball things, so everytime he has had a "wants to whack" look in his eye, we have talked him over to the game, and let him play that. But this morning my precious little baby girl hid the balls from the game ROFL, have been searching everywhere with no effect, so will have to wait till this evening to search further!

I will keep you all updated with future developements, and also, once I get a chance a list of symptoms/problems I have notcied, hopefulyl this will be able to help anyone in the future with similar problems.

xxxx

[dancinbcs]

Shyfig - Thank you! you have no idea how it feels for me to hear another person speaking like that. I keep having the sociopath thoughts, and then have immense waves of guilt flow over me from even thinking it. I also keep having panic attacks. Its really nice to know someone out there has gone through a similar situation even if the diagnosis may not be the same. So thank you

Talking with parents of other children with behavioural problems. like Shyfig, will be an immense help because the rest of really don't understand what it is like to be in that position.

And don't feel guilty about thinking sociopath thoughts. A lot of sociopaths do start out with problems like this and if their parents do not take it seriously and get help early they end up being a major problem to themselves and society. Your son may not be headed down that path but he does seem to have a problem of some sort and early intervention can work wonders in so many behavioural problems.

[k9's-mum]

sorry to hear you are having these problems

i too have an autistic son ( currently 9 yrs old)

you will need a referal from a gp to see a pead, and wehen you see them they will probably want to run blood tests to rule out other conditions.

they will probably then send you to a phycologist for assesment.

maybe have a look at an early intervention program in your area.my son attended for several years before starting school