Julia

I had noted over on Twitter (updates on the sidebar over there) that there are times when I feel like Julia could be somewhere on the "Autism Spectrum." There are also times when I feel like she could have OCD, ADD or Sensory Integration Disorder. So, me being me? I decided to look in to some of the symptoms of each thing and compile a list of those that apply to her. I am putting the list here for my own purposes of keeping track in a more permanent place.

OCD Symptoms:

-need to have things "just so."

An example of this (one of many) occurred the other day when I had the laundry set by the cellar door to go down to the washer. She was getting dressed for the day and as she was walking to put her clothes in the dirty, I told her to just put them in the basket by the door. She absolutely refused because the dirty laundry? Belongs in my bedroom, not by the door to go down stairs.

-need for symmetry, order, and precision.

Photographic proof (and again, just one of many, many examples).




See how the top one is "missing" a piece? We were playing a game in which we were taking pieces away by their color (find the one with the green and purple circles etc.) and she would not continue the game until we put the missing piece back. Even as I tried to explain to her that this ways the way the game was played, she was angry, almost to the point of tears.

ADHD Symptoms:

This one is a little tricky because she is a toddler and they are not expected to have a long attention span. The only thing that makes me wonder about this is her "space cadet" behavior. The speech pathologist at school notices this a lot. When you ask Julia to do some age appropriate task that by all accounts she should understand, she will either stare blankly, or talk about something completely unrelated to whatever is going on. It's really difficult to tell if she really doesn't understand what is being asked of her, or if she is just off in her own little world distracted by her own thoughts.

Sensory Integration Disorder:

Julia has hypotonia (low muscle tone), poor coordination and balance, and occasionally still does the hand flapping thing. The eating concerns she had have basically been resolved with a couple of months of intense OT. She also must wash her hands and face immediately upon eating because she hates the feeling of being sticky, or having anything on her hands or face. She is ok with something like sand, that will run through her fingers but not stay on them, but not cool with something like the remnants of a waffle with syrup, or a granola bar. These are all classic signs of sensory processing problems.

Autism/Aspergers/PDD-NOS:

-delayed motor development.
-hand flapping (occasionally).
-sameness/routines.
-unusually passive (at times).
-comprehension lacking ( again with the does she really not understand or is she off in her own world?).
-laughing randomly at something that isn't obvious.
-needs major social prompting and cues (for example at school she needs to be told and sometimes physically directed over to where the other kids are to play).
-still does parallel play (playing next to but not with her peers I would say about 75 % of the time).
-seems extremely comfortable with family, but beyond that doesn't always make eye contact with other familiar but not someone she sees regularly people.

That, I think is a pretty inclusive list. I could site about a zillion other examples of these behaviors but, I don't think I need to do that here.

It's silly for me to be worried about kindergarten now, but, I have to say it is very hard for me to imagine her surviving in such a structured setting. I am also having a hard time imagining her reading, or doing math or anything else that requires a great deal of though and concentration, at least not without major assistance. While part of this is the Mom in me going through the, "Oh my God, my baby is growing up" thing, this feeling of "Is she really going to be able to do this?" is much stronger than it was with Katherine or Emily, especially Emily, who is poised to take over the world any day now.