Okay, please keep it civil in this thread as I'm sensitive to criticism and personal attacks. I shouldn't have to issue a warning but some people seem to need to be reminded not to treat me like I'm a troll or like I need to be condemned for whatever happened in the past on other forums.
Anyway, I often wonder if my sister is on the spectrum or if it is just learning difficulties. She was diagnosed with learning difficulties when she started school. I know you lot aren't trained to diagnose but it still doesn't hurt to just see what you think.
I read up about learning difficulties in children and it said that behaviour and attention problems are more likely to go with learning difficulties, and all the kids at school that I knew who had learning difficulties all had attention problems at least. But my sister was withdrawn and quiet all through school and had a long attention span. My mum said my sister would often sit glued to a whole movie at a young age, without moving. She was also very tidy, her bedroom was immaculate, and she hated her things being touched. Having a tidy, immaculate room is rather unusual for a child.
She had speech delays as a toddler (I was a year younger than her yet I was talking before she was), and also some repetitive behaviours, like on a home video we have of us at a birthday party aged 3 and 4 all she did was bounce in one place for almost the entire video, without interacting with any of the other children and with just a blank expression on her face, and didn't want to participate in the party games.
I think my mum made her participate in one game but she seemed in her own world and didn't seem to know how to play 'pass the parcel'. I was trying to pass it to her but she just sat there very still and staring into space with her mouth open.
So she seemed to drift off in social situations but had a good attention span when it came to watching movies and doing her schoolwork. Yet she had learning difficulties and was almost a year behind her peers intellectually.
She was talking by age 4 but needed lots of speech therapy and extra support in the classroom. While my mum had several meetings at the school about my behaviour and my anxiety, she had to attend separate meetings for my sister's significant learning delays. Luckily for her she seemed to still make friends, despite her lack of confidence and social awkwardness that she does still display to this day. But she doesn't seem to have many emotions, despite being in an abusive relationship in the past (she was easily brainwashed and couldn't seem to pick up on the "red flags" that were quite obvious to the rest of us).
She has always been shy and lacked confidence and self-esteem, even though she seemed content and happy with barely any emotional expression except upbeat happiness.
What does this suggest? Could it be autism presenting in a weird way, or is it just the learning difficulties? Can people with learning disabilities be impacted socially to a degree? Or can people with Asperger's/autism make friends with their peers?
I forgot to mention that when she was 7 she joined a dance club but quit after about a year because she said that nobody talked to her and she didn't make any friends. But she had friends at school, although she seemed to make friends better with kids with dysfunctional home lives (even though she didn't have a dysfunctional home life).
Anyway, I often wonder if my sister is on the spectrum or if it is just learning difficulties. She was diagnosed with learning difficulties when she started school. I know you lot aren't trained to diagnose but it still doesn't hurt to just see what you think.
I read up about learning difficulties in children and it said that behaviour and attention problems are more likely to go with learning difficulties, and all the kids at school that I knew who had learning difficulties all had attention problems at least. But my sister was withdrawn and quiet all through school and had a long attention span. My mum said my sister would often sit glued to a whole movie at a young age, without moving. She was also very tidy, her bedroom was immaculate, and she hated her things being touched. Having a tidy, immaculate room is rather unusual for a child.
She had speech delays as a toddler (I was a year younger than her yet I was talking before she was), and also some repetitive behaviours, like on a home video we have of us at a birthday party aged 3 and 4 all she did was bounce in one place for almost the entire video, without interacting with any of the other children and with just a blank expression on her face, and didn't want to participate in the party games.
I think my mum made her participate in one game but she seemed in her own world and didn't seem to know how to play 'pass the parcel'. I was trying to pass it to her but she just sat there very still and staring into space with her mouth open.
So she seemed to drift off in social situations but had a good attention span when it came to watching movies and doing her schoolwork. Yet she had learning difficulties and was almost a year behind her peers intellectually.
She was talking by age 4 but needed lots of speech therapy and extra support in the classroom. While my mum had several meetings at the school about my behaviour and my anxiety, she had to attend separate meetings for my sister's significant learning delays. Luckily for her she seemed to still make friends, despite her lack of confidence and social awkwardness that she does still display to this day. But she doesn't seem to have many emotions, despite being in an abusive relationship in the past (she was easily brainwashed and couldn't seem to pick up on the "red flags" that were quite obvious to the rest of us).
She has always been shy and lacked confidence and self-esteem, even though she seemed content and happy with barely any emotional expression except upbeat happiness.
What does this suggest? Could it be autism presenting in a weird way, or is it just the learning difficulties? Can people with learning disabilities be impacted socially to a degree? Or can people with Asperger's/autism make friends with their peers?
I forgot to mention that when she was 7 she joined a dance club but quit after about a year because she said that nobody talked to her and she didn't make any friends. But she had friends at school, although she seemed to make friends better with kids with dysfunctional home lives (even though she didn't have a dysfunctional home life).
