Autism Support Group

My now 14 year old daughter was an outgoing, social, calm, loving, affectionate chilld until the end of her third grade year (about 9 years old). She suddenly became withdrawn, didn't want to be touched, started engaging in repetitive behaviors. We took her out of school and she has done very well with the homeschooling classes that we are a part of. But she still doesn't like to be touched, is uncommunicative to most people outside of her immediate famkily, has gradually reduced the number of her friends to one, likes to talk about herself as weird, eats a limited diet and only one food at a time -- don't mix anything up. I haven't found any information on autism that starts at such an age and am wondering if any of this strikes a chord with anyone else.

I'm no Autism expert, but I don't think this is the case with your kid. I would try and find out what happened to her around that age that cause these changes. I would consider therapy as well in order to find the reason for the change in her behavior.

Hope this helps.

David.

I would definitly talk to her doctor about your concerns and see if he could get her to meet with a therapist and see what they believe could be causing this change in behavior that would be where I would start

that's good to hear and good luck with that!

Don't forget to us posted, it's very interesting to me.

D

Hi, Leidabeth. Surely strikes a chord with me, I was complaining not too long ago of the same problem with my son:

http://www.mdjunction.com/forums/autism-discussions/general- support/2699-very-late-onset

I still don't have a definite answer about late-onset autism (how late it can actually be), but from what I've heard so far, if it occurs in adolescence, it's most likely a teenager mood, or depression, and not autism. Autism occurs in early childhood, and if the kid is normal throughout his early years, it's unlikely that he would develop autism so late. Or so I'm told, cause I too was thinking the same when my son started to display similar behaviours.

You know how teenagers are... sometimes they can become very strange, and very uncommunicative, and full of moods and mood swings and hormones... we were the same, some of us more, some of us less... I don't think it's a coincidence your daughter started to behave like this at puberty. The more I thought and researched on my son's condition, the more I realized it's not as bad as autism, and not as incurable. Teenage years. Takes a lot of patience, listening and patience, patience, and patience again.

My sister started to behave similarly when she first got her period. For months she thought she was dying, didn't let anybody touch her, didn't want to talk to anybody, and nobody understood what is wrong with her. She was too embarrassed to talk to anybody about this. Finally, my aunt discovered her "secret" and it all went back to normal. But she was really-really weird back then, very crazy.

Maybe she likes a boy at school, or maybe she has some troubles with her friends... Did you try to talk to her about it?

And, most importantly, don't postpone a visit to a psychologist!!!

Please check back, I'm also extremely interested and concerned.