Or just a sensible one...I tend to think we're pretty quick as a culture to want a diagnosed label.

That's not to say that all labels are bad or that there aren't some kids who need intervention and get missed. Both are true sometimes. I think Greenpalm should seek help from someone who knows more than we do, and I have great sympathy for what Lorel has been through. I agree with what Lorel has written about the benefits of evaluation. In short, if your "Mom spidey-sense" is tingling, then I am 100% convinced that you should act to get professional help. You just should. Moms know. Trust that. See an expert.

But as a culture, in general, I think people have become much more comfortable with diagnosing and much less comfortable with quirks, and I find that troubling.

I'm with your doctor, 'Neato, if it is quirky but not problematic, then why meddle? Sometimes the fix is worse than the quirk. And why does everyone have to be the same anyway? When did we vote on that? I like quirky!

LOL!

I find this conversation absolutely fascinating! I'm in the middle of a very interesting book called, Misdiagnosis and Dual Diagnoses of Gifted Children and Adults by James T. Webb et al. (the subtitle is "ADHD, Bipolar, OCD, Asperger's, Depression, and Other Disorders.") There is a 10 page discussion about the primary diagnostic criteria for Asperger's Disorder and the similarities between Asperger's Disorder and Gifted Behaviors. I got the book through an interlibrary loan, and highly recommend it. (at least what little of it I have read!)

I'm one of those moms who continually picks up and reads all of the books I can find on Asperger's, trying to find something that explains my son. He has never flapped his arms or done repetitive behaviors, although he would occasionally bang his head against things when he was really small. We found out that he had several food allergies (wheat, corn, dairy, soy, and eggs) and those behavior stopped when we adjusted his diet. This is very interesting since some autistic kids improve on a gluten-free, dairy-free diet. Oh and BTW, we had blood work done for food allergies, and my son always came back as negative. They seem to have a high incidence of false negatives. I have a really interesting article called "In the Dark about Corn Allergy" from the Living Without Magazine 2004. (unfortunately their web site only goes back to 2005). It explains how food allergies strongly effect kid's behavior. They don't always break out in bump or hives, or wheeze when they have an allergy. Corn in particular seems to make my son aggressive and angry, to the point where he lashes out at the world. Keep him away from corn (which is in everything... toothpaste, baking powder, anything with an adhesive like tape, most art supplies at school, and even toilet paper!) and he is as happy and content as can be.

He is an only child who continually has his nose pressed against a window, looking for someone outside to play with. But then he doesn't seem to fit in with the neighborhood kids. They are more inclined to ride their bikes or scooter up and down the driveways and not use their imagination. My son gets bored with sports and would rather invent complex stories and imaginative games. It makes for a very lonely childhood. The school psychologist thought that he had "sensory seeking behaviors", so I am intrigued by the comment about sensory integration disorder. Any one have any more info on this?

I also wanted to point out that I believe there is a wide range of behaviors in this world that can not be placed in any one category, perhaps because there are so few numbers in the population that exhibit them. My DH and I both exhibit a characteristic or two of Aspys, or are we just gifted, mathematically inclined adults who happen to be introverted or shy? What makes one gifted person highly social and other one socially inept? How do you separate out the personality traits of a fidgety, squirmy gifted kid and one who is ADHD. And what in the world do you do when your fidgety, squirmy, gifted kid might also be ADHD or an Aspy? It is hard enough trying to find out what to do when your kid is just highly gifted!!

I'm new to all of this and love to hear about the characteristics of all the gifted kids. I am learning so much from you. Hope the book tidbit and the food allergy comment help.

ebeth

Yes, my friend's DD is gifted w/ ADHD. Certain foods (dyes etc) just send her spinning around the room. It's tough to maintain the diet especially when they go visit other people or go out to lunch w/ dad. But the behaviour changes are significant.

In addition to red dye #40 my son is sensitive to something in Cheetos, so I try to keep him away from this stuff, especially when we go out somewhere. He usually checks food labels before eating anything, if he has the chance to.

I just found an interesting article at www.autism-in-the-christican-home.com/stimming.html about stimming. It says that it is commonly found in autism, but also found in other developmental disabilities.

I was surprised to see that tapping fingers is listed as an example of stimming. It also said that all of us engage in some of these behaviors occasionally, especially when we are stressed. I know this is true for me. My son pointed out that I often tapped the steering wheel when I am nervous about driving in traffic.

I have even done the "shaking my hands or flapping for whatever you want to call it" thing similar to what my son does, but only when I do something like walk into a spider web in the dark because that definitely activates my "fight or flight" response. My response is automatic and I am not thinking of how it looks to other people or anything else, so I think I can kind of understand how my son might be feeling when he occasionally does this--like when he was extremely nervous after looking at the stage in the huge university auditorium where he would soon be competing in the spelling bee. I felt like pacing the floor--another stimming behavior, accoring to the list.

When I told the OT about the stimming at the spelling bee she said he really needs to do something like running or push ups or something before he does something like this and it should help. Before the spelling bee all we did was stop by McDonald's where my son got a coke and sausage biscuit. The caffeine probably didn't help either.

I think a lot of people think that reading at 2 plus talking like an adult plus occasional stimming has to equal Asperger's.

It may not be a false negative in the strict sense, but an indication that your son has food sensitivities or intolerances rather than true food allergies which are IgE-mediated and can cause anaphylaxis. It is an important distinction because when sensitivities and intolerances are referred to as allergies, it becomes difficult to convince people that food allergies are a life-threatening condition. This is a subject near and dear to my heart since both my children have food-induced anaphylaxis.

Oh yes... the dreaded red food dye #40. We finally figured that one out when he was four and got a single, red, heart-shaped sucker after dinner on Valentine's day. (about the size of a quarter!) He changed from his normal, active self to this latte-fueled energizer bunny. It was serious like someone had given him a triple shot of espresso! He was chattering so fast that he stopped pausing between words to breathe and his sentences began to run together until they were jibberish. Then he started running laps around the dining room table. He could not stop moving. Four hours later, he was laying in bed, twitching at 11 pm, completely unable to get to sleep. He kept saying, "Mom, my head is spinning too fast!"

There is also a preservative in most processed food called BHT that my son reacts to in much the same way. That might be what is in the Cheetos?

I'm really curious about this stimming. (I've never heard of this before.) My son's teacher found that he had to have something in his pocket to fiddle with during the day to get rid of some of his nervous energy. I will have to read up on this. Thanks for the tip.

Just as peanut allergies are on the increase, I am hearing a lot about the red dye and also, now, the orange dye used for Cheetos, cheddar crackers, orange soda, etc.
I wonder if food sensitivities are on the increase or if we have better tools to measure them, thus the increase in diagnosing them.
I found out two years ago that I have a gluten intolerance. It is difficult to totally cut out gluten without spending a fortune at Whole Foods.
I also have a sensitivity to a natural preservative that is commonly used in foods. The thing that stinks is that since it is naturally occurring as opposed to synthetic, it can be grouped under natural flavors instead of being listed outright in the ingredients.
Concerning stimming and autism and the spectrum.....I think in the next 10 years or so, we are going to see a lot of nuerological explanations for spectrum type issues. As well as, many things such as empathy/lack there of, inability to read social cues/intuition, deja vu, and many others.. Referring back to the previous compensation discussion- I would guess there are adults out there who are mildly on the spectrum who don't have an official diagnosis and who have high compensating skills. I would guess there are a small number of people out there who intuitively compensate for atypical nuerology as well as physical impairment similar to what they would achieve in PT or OT. In mild cases anyway.
What do you think?

Interesting discussion. I have a friend with a 3.5 year old DD who currently has her on a gluten/dairy free diet (and yes - costs a fortune!) for borderline autistic behaviors. It's hard to say what is going on with her. She definitely prefers to play alone and have her own space. She seems probably at least MG. But she likes me a lot! It takes her a long time to get to trust people. My DD4 and her don't play together at all, and my DD really loves to play with other kids.

It's funny, my mom and I were just discussing this today. Why are so many more children being diagnosed with allergies today, and not just minor allergies, but life threatening ones? Maybe part of it is better diagnostic tools. I saw a story on the news of a child with a severe peanut allergy who jumped into a pool where someone else in the pool had eaten peanut butter at some point in the day and the allergic child immediately went into anaphylactic shock. The mom was trying to educate people on how serious these allergies can be. Cathy, I feel for you!!! I hope your kids aren't this allergic.