Hi!
(names changed)
Hope I am posting in the right place- could really do with any advice as I'm feeling a bit lost!
I am mum to 5 year old twin boys. The boys have always had very different personalities.. William has always been very sociable and Eric less so.. Eric has always had little 'quirks' that are his and we love him for it.. however in the last 18 months or so these differences have become more apparent - The boys started school in September and since then Eric really has struggled.
Over the last few months I have realised that a lot of Eric's quirks are typical behaviours of children with ASD. I don't know if this is the case or not... I have no diagnosis. I am happy to deal with these things myself. I have spoken to his teacher- who agreed with me.. she has suggested putting some basic support in place- asking the SENCO to come and observe him and she is going to observe him for the next few weeks/months.
Eric has mild speech delay which he is currently having support with. He finds social contact difficult- for example, he doesn't ask to play with friends when his brother asks to have friends round he will stay with me in the kitchen rather than join them.. he might run into the room and knock something over or possibly be in the same room but not join in with the play. He doesn't play imaginatively... he will play something like jenga with me or his dad.. but we normally have to suggest activities.. he rarely initates them.
He gets fixated on one thing for long periods of time. and can become very repetative. For example- his advent calender- at the moment he spends a good 1.5/2 hours per morning carrying his Calender's around and asking what number he should open - just focusing on that and nothing else. He can get upset very quickly about something which seems minor but it can upset him to the point that he will sit on the stairs repeating the same thing over and over.
He can be very anxious... if something unexpected happens he has problems coping/adapting.
He becomes upset if the routine/plan changes.
His teacher says he doesn't engage with activities at school without adult support.. and then will need extra support to move to other activities.
He hasn't made any friends at school.. he doesn't really talk about other children and doesn't seem interested in making friendships.
Christmas has been difficult over the last few years and birthday party's are very difficult.
He has a strong dislike of animals particularly dogs. He will tolerate our cats.. but has no interest in them. don't know whether this is relevant?? he is the same with babies...
His teacher said his phonic awareness and number knowledge is good- in fact better than his brother.. and he has a good memory and mind for detail.
He doesn't understand that certain things make people sad.. if I tell him something he's done has made someone sad he laughs. we also really struggle with any kind of behaviour management as nothing seems to work!
I guess my question is- if he does have asd -- I'm thinking its pretty mild? I'm happy- as I say - to support him at home.. and his teacher is putting support in place.. but should I be doing more/being more pro active (eg..going to GP etc?)
Any advice welcome!
Thanks for reading
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