Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello
I have a nearly five year old son. He is bright and lively and we would never have even considered he had aspergers until his nursery teacher mentioned something and I have been concerned ever since and am almost waiting for the school he has just started to call me in for a 'chat'.
My son is very outgoing and has no problem with social interaction - but I sometimes wonder if this is appropriate. He is very excitable with people and gives them huge hugs, invading their space. He also loves washing machines - asking about them when we go to peoples houses. This is something the nursery teacher was concerned about. He tends to have other attachments to other subjects as well, although these tend to be 'phases' that he has grown out of - except the washing machine one. He told his school teacher that his daddy had two new washing machines put in in his work, he tells everyone this, and often mentions it several times to the same person. This appears to have faded at the moment. But he is now interested in who has school lunches and who has dinners at school. He does have other interests however.
He has very good speech and appears to have no trouble reading, but poorly developed fine motor skills - he doesnt hold a pencil correctly and does not draw. He is beginning to write numbers though and can write his name. He appears to be good at maths. He was also quite late in processing information. Up to the age of about four if someone asked him a question I knew he didnt understand them. He likes rules but doesnt get upset at change, although can be bossy when others break the rules. Generally he does not have meltdowns or get anxious in stressful situations.
I think it is the washing machine issue I am particularly worried about. He does make friends easily although sometimes he is the one willing to do something 'silly' for a laugh while everyone else shrinks back- at the end of nursery term he started weeing near a tree to make all the boys laugh for example and they all knew that this wasnt appropriate.
The nursery knew I was upset about what the manager had said and said there was no need for an assessment and got a glowing report at the end of term but I cant help but wonder.
Im sorry if these issue seem mild, I just dont ever want to be unprepared for a conversation like that again and am just worried the school will say something. I spoke to my health visitor but she was pretty useless, just said they could do an assessment - but this may mean labelling and be an unneccessary process when it seems he may have some traits but not enough to have intervention?
Any advice would be appreciated.
Many thanks.
I guys,
I have a five year old son also who has just gone into P1 he has a twin sister who has settled well. He on the other hand has no he runs away from other children except she he wants to play lashes out for reasons he can always explain thoroughly - athough the reason is never good enough for unacceptable hitting.
he refuses to listen and pay attention in school and he has been placed in a focus group for language but I always thought these skills were good.
he is obsessed with volcanos and knows pretty much all there is to know about them, he has klioptomanic tendencies but doesn't see it as stealing just sharing. He has a particular interest in money and not even for the value he likes to play with it and feels it and line in up in a certain way and no one is allowed to touch it.
he can busy himself with what he calls smash work which is him rhyme ally smashing small stones inot fine sand type texture with a larger rock and you can't go near him during this time as he is so engrossed in what he has to complete.
He has recently been complaining about the sound of colouring pencils on paper and it is hard to get him to engage in these sort of activities.
if he gets frustrated he will growl rather than speak although will never lash out at me he will sort of go into himself and make growling sounds to indicate he is not happy.
he is very affectionate but it's always on his terms not mine, if you ask for a hug he might give you a kiss instead or vice versa but rarely both, he knows his phonics for school and has excellent recall of books and stories even if he has not read them in a long time and seems to have a good imagination in that he drifts off into his own world Ina regular basis and can tell a long protracted story about what he was thinking.
we had an incident recently with the volcano thing were he worked himself up due to believing clouds were volcanic ash and he was going to die! He is very sensitive and dwells on negativity
I met with the school today and they have him on a behaviour management plan and do not agree with me that he exhibits any thing which could be seen as autism or aspergers yet I'm starting to think I'm crazy! Could this be autism or am I just mad?