autism and puberty

[blue daisy]

If you have a child with ASD, did he/she have more struggles or more pronounced autism symptoms at the onset of puberty?  Thanks.

[MomatHWTK]

I would say symptoms reach their peak at this age.  But, I've not made it past that age with mine yet. I hope this is the peak.    

[MomOfABunch]

A definite yes here. Not to be a downer or anything, but the 2 years before DD started her period were really, really hard.

[Guest]

nm

Edited February 10, 2016 by Guest

[blue daisy]

Thanks. My son is almost 11. He's on the spectrum but generally pretty high functioning. He's a pretty easy going kid and we rarely have issues with him. In the past few months we've noticed that he's more tired, eats more, etc so I think we're in the beginning stages of puberty. Lately, he's had more trouble with getting confused, getting "stuck" and unable to figure out what to do, unable to articulate his needs, etc. I figured hormones may be at play here but I think I'm going to talk to his Dr next week to see if I'm missing anything.

[sbgrace]

My son has definitely had more issues with the onset of puberty (he's 11, almost 12 now). I felt that ages 4/5 were hard. This is harder and similar in some ways.

[Tiramisu]

I know that most girls with Aspergers aren't dx'd until they are in their teens. That seems to be the point where the differences become more apparent. 

[Tanaqui]

As an autistic individual, I can tell you that my teen years were really rough on my whole family - but then, that puberty coincided with middle school and my father dying, two very stressful events (and I'm still not sure which was worse), so who knows what the ultimate problem was?

[Tiramisu]

I'm just reading Temple Grandin's Thinking in Pictures and she mentions that the puberty years are very hard in ASD.

[blue daisy]

Tanaqui, thank you for sharing your perspective. Do you think schooling at home vs public schools would make a difference in navigating those years?

 

As an autistic individual, I can tell you that my teen years were really rough on my whole family - but then, that puberty coincided with middle school and my father dying, two very stressful events (and I'm still not sure which was worse), so who knows what the ultimate problem was?

[Tanaqui]

Well, I've specifically chosen to homeschool because the kids are zoned for the same awful middle school I was and I don't think it's changed even a little bit, so... yes? I mean, homeschooling can hardly be worse* than my particular middle school experience!

 

But it's possible that your own zoned middle school is super terrific and has no problems with bullying whatsoever and has lots of special assistance for autistic kids (I wasn't even formally diagnosed at that age, because back then you pretty much couldn't get one if you could talk, much less if you were female and "bright" and had a large vocabulary) etc. I don't want to gainsay anybody who believes that school, even in those awful years, has been a huge help for their autistic kid. Every child is different, whether they're NT or not.

 

* My mother was suffering from depression during those years - again, she was recently widowed, though it's worth noting that virtually every adult member of my family has struggled with depression off and on throughout their lives - and of course she was a single parent at that time, which has got to make homeschooling tricky, and I still think I would've been better off at home, sitting and watching television and doing a little math in the evenings, than attending school. As it was, I consistently skipped one day a week from the sixth grade onwards. My grades didn't suffer from this, not in middle school, anyway.

[MyLittleBears]

I would say definitely yes. My ds  is for the first time, at least from what I remember, has started removing himself from crowded situations.( sits in a corner and puts his fingers in his ears when overstimulated) He never did this as a child and seems more "autistic" to me in some ways than he did before puberty. He also gets more visibly agitated and angry in certain situations, though exercise and naturopathic therapies seem to be taking the edge off.

Edited January 27, 2016 by MyLittleBears

[freeindeed]

I'm wondering about the possibility that my special needs daughter is going through early puberty or if she's at least only a couple of years from starting it. Recently she has been lethargic and having more meltdowns. She'll be 8 in March. *Sigh* It's been really tough already. 

Edited February 2, 2016 by freeindeed

[Tiramisu]

I'm wondering about the possibility that my special needs daughter is going through early puberty or if she's at least only a couple of years from starting it. Recently she has been lethargic and having more meltdowns. She'll be 8 in May. *Sigh* It's been really tough already. 

 

Mother of four girls here. In all of mine, the mood changes started at 8. They were not early developers and were right on target for all the physical changes. How hard it got depended on the underlying temperament. The intense ones became more intense. But it was also hard with the easy ones because I always expected them to be easy and when they weren't it was just harder for *me* to deal with. Not all are on the spectrum; only one has an official dx.