Wondering about my daughter

by Christie
(Ontario, Canada)

My daughter is 27 months and has been very sensitive since birth pretty much. She has issues with gross motor, social anxiety, separation anxiety and seems very sensitive to light and sound. She also hates when I try to play and hold her upside down and physically clings to me.

She will not go on a swing unless I hold her in my arms but does enjoy the slide. She is afraid of most children her age, especially ones who are loud and boisterous but will sit alongside another child and share toys with them if they are quiet. She has some issues with eye contact but not all the time. She also loves to rub her face on soft blankets or our cats and rubs her bottom and back on walls and cabinets.

She started doing some self stimulatory behaviours at 7 months and will do them until she bruises (weaves arms through crib bars and flexes so hard they bruise) although this has been decreasing, she only seems to do it before falling asleep now. Autism screenings at well baby checks came back as normal-very low risk. If she is tired/hungry/sick the tantrums will go on for 30 minutes or more.

During these tantrums she will scream for her stuffed cat and for me to hold her, she is already in my arms at this point and usually doesn't let go of the stuffed cat so she has what she is saying she wants already. She has just recently started walking on her toes, she was unable to do this before with her motor skill and balance issues so I don't know if it is related or just a fun new thing she can do.

We had her vision assessed at 18 months as her physiotherapist thought she may have depth perception issues but her vision was fine. She gets frustrated easily and is very reactive when we don't understand her. At the same time her verbal skills are advanced, when calm she will speak in 3-5 word sentences normally and even comes out with some that are up to 9 words long.

She is quite bright overall, she knew 3 colours at 18 months and knew all of them by her 2nd birthday, can do puzzles with 4-12 pieces, has a good imagination, loves reading and will focus on books above her age level for long periods of time. I did the checklist taking out things that aren't developmentally appropriate or that I simply do not know and she scored 80/182.

Almost all of the sensory seeking behaviours were checked off.