My girls were not diagnosed until ages 14 and 22. I only had A evaluated because both of her younger brothers were diagnosed, and I saw some similarities. She has a lot of struggles, some like her brothers, some different. A lot of OCD behaviors. M was not diagnosed at all as a child, though she absolutely could not make it in a classroom setting. She hid under her desk with her hands over her ears. No one cared to evaluate her or give her an iep because her academic scores were 95th percentile. I got tired of being called to pick her up by 10am because she was melting down, so I started homeschooling. She was diagnosed bipolar at 19, and asd at 22. She had to suffer a lot because of lack of diagnosis at an appropriate age.

It’s incredible @A MyAutismTeam Member, I would also describe my older son as mild HFA too. He is a completely different kid at school than at home. I’d never heard of masking until coming to MAT. But Christian was diagnosed at 2 yrs. old & presents the same as your little guy, it was very obvious. How old is your son? Mine just turned 8 this month.

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A MyAutis...

Yep girls are much better at hiding it or blending in the high functioning ones at least are, I've heard this several times my daughter wasn't diagnosed until she was 7 almost 8... They even told me to this day (she's 12 now) she never hand flaps at school which is always nuts to me because she flaps away at home so it tells me she has a much higher self awareness she's mild high functioning...my son on the other hand was diagnosed at almost 3 with low functioning nonverbal autism and SPD, but he almost punches you in the face with his autistic and SPD symptoms and I believe borderline Taz from looney tunes disorder lol 😂

He is 6 😁 @A MyAutismTeam Member

With my daughter nothing seemed amiss until 2nd grade when the curriculum starts getting harder...they were seeing that she could read fluently at a high school level but couldn't tell them the plot to green eggs and ham, and that she could do simple math all day but you give her a Pre-K level story problem and she was lost...she has an amazing memory but has always lagged in comprehension...so school evaluated her with the educational diagnosis of ASD...then child psychologist diagnosed her with HFA and severe anxiety disorder...it was a much longer process than my son who's lower functioning crazy how that works 🙄

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A MyAutis...

Thanks for your input, everyone. I think one of the most fascinating things to me about joining this community (as a parent of an autistic child) so far has been seeing how differently autism presents in each person, with such a variety of positive and negative traits (like anybody else, of course). Spectrum really is a good term for it. So many interesting people, perspectives, experiences, and stories. Our world has so many cool and unique people in it. I feel honored to get a window into this community of people; it is very encouraging to think of what my own child's future might be. :)