Hi everyone.
Reaching out here for a bit of advice.
My son Is 2 years old, 3 in December. Since January he has been attending a private nursery twice a week. The nursery approached me to say they had concerns about a few of his behaviours and would like him to be assessed by the education psychologist.
I agreed of course. And after the assesment was carried out I was called in to discuss what was found.
The general theme of the meeting was that my son has 'immature speech' for his age. As well as this they noticed some other language problems. He has been refered to speech & language therapy but at the moment we are on a waiting list. However, the psychologist went on to say that although he is very bright and clever, he is almost certainly 'going to struggle in life' infact he used the label 'special needs'. He said he thinks there are signs of possible autism but that we cant diagnose this untill closer to school age.
So at the point we are on a waiting list for speech and language therapy, and the nursery have also contact camhs
I think im just reaching out for advice if im honest as im quite confused. I wasnt exactly surprised by the diagnosis but certainly felt 'special needs' was a strong term to use.
My son is a bright happy boy. Very clever (which i know autistic children can be) but there are behaviours i had already noticed myself. I am just having difficulty working out if these are possibly related to autism or something completely different. Or if its just normal 2 year old behaviour. If it IS autism i want to know how best to support him and help him in the best way.
The behaviours which caused me concern are...
Not fantastic in social situations. Prefers the company of older children.
Cant sit at peace. Not the kind of boy who would really sit down for story time or for snacks with the rest of the class. While the other kids all sit together he is happier run around on his own.
Repeating something once its in his head. At the moment he is obssessed with a farm near by and hes often repeating 'farmers house, farmers house, farmers house' to the point when its no longer what you would consider 'normal'
Doesnt seem to like places that arent familiar. New shops, small enclosed spaces usually send him into a kind of panic. he gets quite worked out and will hold his ears.
Holding his ears and cowering away a lot with any situation where he feels uncomfortable. Be is a noise, a person, an object, a tv show. And when this happens it can be impossible to reassure him that everything is ok. Example, a bouncy castle at a fete. I basically had to leave once he seen it and nothing would convince him otherwise.
Biting and hiting. Again it could be the terrible twos but no matter how many times he is told not to, no matter what practice we use to correct it... hes straight back for another bite.
Tantrums. Extreme Tantrums. Nothing settles him. He can sometimes look filled with rage. Ive found the only thing to do is ignore it completely. move him out of the room and let him go for it untill hes ready to stop.
Eye tic. Comes and goes but sometimes he blinks A LOT and rolls his eyes too.
He can get extremely vocal and frustrated if he doesnt get his own way, which i know any kid can, but there just seems more to it. More so the fact that its very hard to settle him when hes like this.
But on the good side he is fantastic at puzzles. Loves Jigsaws, can count quite high, knows all his colours. The alphabet. Point to any letter and he knows it. Fantastic memory too.
Anyway... all advice or opinions are very very welcome Concerned mummy here. Single mum too so want to make sure im doing everything he needs
