Autism

Our six-year-old grandson, Carlo, has Asperger Syndrome, a form of autism but with normal language skills. After raising three kids and watching after scores more, I noticed something wasn't quite right with my precious Carlo before he was one-year-old. He was too focused and didn't respond when spoken to. Unfortunately, I shared this only with my husband.

Carlo would keep his head down too much. He would stare off at nothing most of the time. He would not look anyone in the eyes. When he was playing or watching Sesame Street or other children's program, he could not be interrupted. You would have to physically stand in front of him or pick him up to get a response. By the time he was three it seemed so obvious that something was wrong. My son thought that he just needed to get some social interaction and he began attending a private pre-school. This made a huge difference, but Carlo still would not look anyone in the eye.

By this time he was very fluent and by the age of four he was full-on reading. By age five he could read anything and was enrolled in kindergarten at a public dual-language school where he quickly caught onto Spanish. Halfway through kindergarten he was correcting his parents Spanish abilities. (They were in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua for two years and learned Spanish.) He can now speak, read, and spell in Spanish as well as English. Although he reads chapter books and has an off-the-chart IQ, he is socially lacking.

Over the summer, his cousins (Calvin, Lizzie, and Ben) were here the entire time and he came out of his shell and began interacting like a regular kid, but when first grade started, he seemed to regress and cried about missing Ben all the time. Carlo is very emotional and can become angry at the drop of a hat.

He has his own agenda about everything and often says that he knows more than his Mom, Dad, me, or any other adult. He has a strange sense of humor, as well. Everyone in Carlo's school knew him by the end of kindergarten. He's smaller than his classmates with blond, curly hair, blue eyes, and a bit of attitude. He is bored at school, but when tested for the Gifted/Talented program, he pretended he couldn't read. At three he was reading billboards!

My point: If your one-year-old isn't acting like other one-year-olds you know or have known, pay closer attention and seek help. If your two-year-old won't look at you or respond when spoken to, you might want to talk to the pediatrician about it.

If you have a child, nephew/niece, grandchild, etc. who seems different from other children, check out https://health.google.com/health/ref/Autism for some very good information.