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Is my 4 year old autistic

         I have a 4 year old girl. My daughter has been showing some signs of autism and im so worried. She just turned 4 and she cant hold a conversation. She repeats everything out of context. Anything she hears she repeats out of nowhere. She is very bright, she can count to 100 and count to 20 in spanish. She knows all her colors, shape, letters, and numbers. Shes not sociable tho she doesn't  even go to my mom sometimes. She throws extreme fits.
         On the other hand she answer to her name gives eye contact and she is very loving to me, my sis, and some friends at daycare. everything ive been reading on the internet about this has been no help at all. Ive taken her to the doctors and he said he wasnt sure and want to enroll her in a child study team program but their not telling me anything either.
          The things that worry me the most is her repeating bc its constant and her not being able to converse with me as well as a 4 year old should. i just wanna know and no one will give me an answer. Any help or advice.
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Avatar universal
She very well could be. Numbers, shapes, colours could also be a sign.  We are dealing with a 4 year old girl
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1 Comments
Hi Judylaurin.  Welcome!  I have a son who has sensory issues that many kids with autism have.  We have come a long way, he's now a teenager!  We did a lot to help him progress.  Tell me more about your daughter. I'd love to help.
973741 tn?1342342773
Hello.  It is really confusing and hard to figure out what is going on with little ones because there is so much variability amounst that age group.  Have you had your daughter evaluated by a speech and language pathologist?  There are three parts of speech----  articulation, and expressive and receptive speech.  The last two are the areas that would affect a conversation.  I would have this checked first.  Your pedicatrician will be happy to give you a referrel for this.  Having difficulties in receptive and expressive speech would surely cause some social interaction problems especially with age mates.  

While I wouldn't rule out autism, it sounds more like a speech/language issue as she can interact with you so well.  Lots of other things can affect social skills.  My own son has sensory integration disorder which affected his social skills.  We had to teach him the skills needed to interact and play.   Motor plannning is also part of sensory integration disorder and this can greatly affect speech.  Articulation can be affected due to motor issues, obviously.  But the more pragmatic areas of speech (organizing thought to say what you want to say ---- expressive and taking in what someone else has said to you--------  receptive) can also be affected by motor planning.  An occupational therapist evaluates for sensory integration disorder.  But speech and social skills can be affected by this (and it is not autism but a nervous system issue).  

So, please talk to your physician and I'd start with a speech eval.  Then I'd go for an occupational therapist eval.  

Lastly, if you live in the US, the age 3 to 5 early intervention preschool program through your local public school can also evaluate your child.   She then could attend preschool there is she qualifies and receive services as needed.  good luck!
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Avatar universal
This must be very frustrating for you.  There are so many variances in Autism  it's imperative she get a full workup to determine what is going on.  If you took her to the pediatrician and he/she doesn't know, take her to a specialist. Autism have a varying degree of symptoms and severity and the sooner anything is found with this, the better the outcome.  I'm not qualified to say if she is autistic but her repeating of words, and lack of being social would concern me also.  It may be nothing, but I'd want to know for sure.  Find someone who specializes in child behavior/ child psychology and go from there.  Nobody can say one way or another without a thorough evaluation of your daughter.  Take care..
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