Confused and need help! 3 yrs old ASD boy ok in one to one therapies but huge challenges in a group

[Sanddunes]

I have a 3 yrs old boy diagonsed with autism-NOS last year. We live abroad and have been doing one to onw therapies for a while now. All his therapists have said that he is very good in one to one (stays seated and responds well). He recently started an inclusive pre-school and i received a barage of complaints from his teachers saying he doesn't participate on group activities, pushes other children etc. I am unableto understand why he is behaving like this? Anyone been in a similar situation? He is not disturbed by noises so it cant be the noise in the school. They say that he is generally happy the whole day (no tantrums etc) but he doesn't sit for too long. One of the teachers recently started doing a one to one sessions on a pull-out basis with him and commented that he is totally the opposite in one-one. any advice on why he could be behaving like this?

[2014newme]

Did you watch the tv program last night, Christmas packham talking about his Asd? He talks about how he hates being with other people

[BackforGood]

Many people on the autistic spectrum are overwhelmed by other people - especially small children, as they are less predictable than adults.
It is also fairly common to not have the same 'personal space' boundaries as people who don't have autism - this can work both ways, that the child invades other people's personal space as they are unaware of other people and sometimes will literally sit on them, tred on the, etc., but, more likely in what you say it might be that anyone within about 6' of him makes him feel like you would feel if a stranger in the street came up to you and put their face just 1cm away from yours - very, threatened and very, very anxious, with your instinct being to push them away.

[Bobbybobbins]

My son is 3 and almost non verbal ASD. He does better in 1-1 and finds group time at nursery challenging. I think this is pretty typical of many at this age. The nursery needs to think about the provision they can put in place.

[Sanddunes]

Does this tupe of behaviour get better with age? What kind of therapies can help in this situation?

[BackforGood]

IME (written with the understanding that every person with autism is an individual), once the child's support (family, Nursery, school, etc.) have been able to unpick what it is that is making the child so anxious, then they - and sometimes as they then get older, the child or young person themselves - can put strategies in their place to help them manage.
This is sometimes avoiding the triggers (so if a child is hypersensitive to touch, they might avoid certain materials, they might cut labels out of clothes, they might avoid seams, etc.,etc)
This is sometimes managing the triggers (so if they are hypersensitive to sound, they might opt to wear ear defenders for some of the time)
This is sometimes managed by the child being taught specifically what to do in certain situations (so maybe specifically taught how to look for a space on the carpet rather than just walk over other children or sit on their lap...... or, if they don't like being crowded, how to either remove themselves from the situation, or how to seek help from an adult, or what to say to other children to make themselves some space, etc.)
Sometimes, of course, as a child grows older, then the situation that makes them anxious is no longer a situation they have to be in - so an adult doesn't have to "go out and play" in a school playground twice a day. A Year 4 child is more likely to be sitting calmly at a table in a classroom, following a timetable, than a child in the free flow that is a Nursery class, and so forth.

Don't know if I've explained that well enough ?