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My 2 year old daughter

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My 2 year old daughter

Postby julied925 » Tue Oct 11, 2005 7:33 pm

HELP!
My 2 year old daughter is in preschool 3 days a week. Not daycare, just a morning program 9-12, MWF for social interaction. She is very "smart" in my opinion, but I am her mother and proud I guess. No gifted tendencies in my family per se. She seems happy & healthy to me and I never questioned her social skills or lack thereof, or any problems for that matter. She has tantrums from time to time; but she is a typical 2 year old!

My dilemma is this: The director of the preschool asked me to meet with her to discuss my daughter. It seems she was concerned about her stubborness and observed her for several days. She then did a "checklist" of County-wide educational guidelines on my daughter. She explained to me that none of the other children her age were acting as she was. I find this very hard to believe, since the class is made up of all 2 year olds. And none of them were observed with a checklist as she was. Anyway, she suggested that my daughter has AS because of the checklist.

It included:
Asking her her name
Asking her how old she is (verbal or holding fingers up)
Not playing with the other children, being happy playing alone
Not responding when a chair was dropped loudly in the room.
Not wanting to change activities from one to another
Not being able to take off her shoes
etc.

Now... I am confused because at home she says her name (and all our names) , age (and also holds up fingers to show age) and everything else on the list! She does not appear to be antii-social by any means. She is however, independent and CAN play alone. But she pulls me/my husband/her older sisters into the room to play with her. She hugs her teachers & other relatives when asked to say goodbye. She is very talkative, laughs, smiles, looks me in the eye when I am talking. She knows all colors, shapes, numbers, alphabet, etc. and I am also teaching her basic Spanish- numbers, colors, etc. The teachers/director claim that she is highly advanced cognitively & academically, compared to the other kids in her class. (I know other 2 year olds that can do the same things she can). But her intelligence combined with playing alone and not wanting to sit at circle time or to change activities is their basis for saying she has AS. My opinion is ( not out of denial) is that she is being 2!!! I just don't see concrete signs of anything out of the ordinary. If she was acting this way at 4 or 5 years old, that would be alarming. But she just turned 2 last May. I am angered that this director now has me concerned and scared.

Sorry for the lengthy message, but I really would like your opinions. Does this sound strange? is it too early to be thinking she has AS and is the director out of line to imply this at her age? I am open to the possibilty, I don't think it is the worst thing in the world! But I honestly don't see very much to go on, at least not here at home.

HELP!!!!
julied925
 


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daughter with AS

Postby catmil » Wed Oct 12, 2005 4:30 pm

Is the director even allowed to suggest such a thing? Is her behavior really that out there?
catmil
 

Postby betwixt » Wed Oct 12, 2005 8:21 pm

I'm sorry, I don't know enough about children to answer you, but off the top of my head it doesn't seem like the director knew enough about Aspergers to tell. Just using a checklist and saying your daughter may be Aspergers seems pretty paltry. Just because she's stubborn? I know a lot of stubborn people who aren't Aspergers. And I don't think stubborness per se is a trait of Aspergers. Maybe what appears to be stubborness. And I also think 2 years old may be too young to diagnose Aspergers. Not absolutely sure, but I do know most Aspergers are diagnosed at an later age. Anyway, I'm only answering since you said 'Help' since I'm really not qualified to give an answer. Hopefully you've found a better site to talk to other parents. Not too many parents here.
betwixt
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