Asperger's Syndrome

[concerned81]

Hi,

I hope someone will be able to advise me. My partner's Son is 6 and I am concerned that he may have Asperger's or an Autistic Spctrum disorder. He does not live with us, he lives 250 miles away with his Grandparents. He is estranged from his natural mother (she rejected him soon after birth) and it appears that she suffered from social deficiency?? He has a major dislike to being touched, he will often cry out in apparent pain when he is only being lightly touched. He is struggling in a school/social setting and much prefers his own company, or the company of adults. He has an obsession with cars, and has probably over 1000 toy cars which are set up around the lounge, he is extremely upset if any of this were touched or moved. He has an apparent hearing problem although nothing has been found to be wrong so far. He often copies actions and sounds from others, he often looks at your mouth when you are talking to him and he appears to be trying to copy the shape of you mouth. He can go from deathly shy to over the top chatty and often says very silly things. He has a MAJOR problem with food, he barely eats anything, and mealtimes are a battlefield. He requires, skin to be taken off his sausages, crusts off his sandwiches and would eat choclate all day long if he could. He will also not touch potatoes (even chips). He is a bright little boy, but his school just see him as a disruptive child and do nothing to help him. My dilemma is as he does not live with us at the moment, and he is not my child, how do I go about this? He will hopefully come to live with us in the next 12 months, but I am concerned that as this is his SATS year, we should be trying to do something now. My mother is a teacher who specialises in teaching children with Autism so I know I have support if we do get a diagnosis, but as he lives so far away and there are not the facilities to help him where he is, I am unsure what to do next.

Please could anyone advise?

He has obviously suffered some heartbreaking situations, so could his problems be because of this?

[AspieMom247]

No one online can give a diagnosis. I would leave that to specialists. Our first step in the medical field for our son being diagnosed, was through a neurologist. From there ours sent us to a psychologist, and together they formed a diagnosis after a battery of iq tests, and others. They also through this time reviewed observations made my school instructors, family, family doctor (who never noticed anything out of the ordinary and chalked him up as a regular kid for years and years).
Many things you have mentioned though sound a lot similar to asperger-like behaviors. The car obsession, the number of cars in his collection, and if they get touched or moved. That could also be a bit of obsessive compulsive though. My son doesn't get upset if we move his legos stuff, and he is under the autism umbrella for pervasive development disorder and asperger's. An obsessive compulsive person would be livid if they are moved. The copying thing and the watching your mouth could be and also the picky food eater stuff. You cannot get much help in the way of education for this unless he is diagnosed, as most states demand that now to get state funding for special needs. The hearing problem could be selective, and it could be because of seasonal allergies, best to have a professional like a specialist check him out.