Posting here to find out if anyone can relate to this as it's keeping me awake at night. Sorry it's a long post.
DD (5) in Reception is generally a very happy child. She is social, adapted very well to her nurseries, started at age 2 and didn't need any settling. Same with school. Loves learning (top reading group in her class, having not read before starting school), very well behaved, very kind, empathetic etc.
She had a very typical development, hit all the milestones on time and was quite an early talker with very clear speech and great vocabulary. Potty trained very quickly at 2.5 yo. Great eye contact, she was smiling and waving at strangers since she was a baby.
She never meltdowns (last meltdown was probably when she was just about 2 yo), just the odd emotional outburst which lasts a few mins, then she is happy again.
She doesn't seem rigid in her behaviour, usually when we have playdates she is always the easy going one and we tend to follow the other child's lead.
However, since the age of about 3 she is flapping her hands a lot, usually when she's excited or thinks about something, followed by strange grimaces. I thought she was only doing this at home, turns out she is doing it at school a lot and the teachers are not sure what it is.
Another thing is she is sensitive to noises, but not all noises. Usually toilet related, toilet flusher, sometimes hand drier. This again started around the age of 3 and is getting worse. She is fine in crowded places, noisy soft plays.
She is a bit in her own little world with an amazing imagination and all sorts of stories come out and her friends look at her like she is a bit odd. She talks obsessively about her cat (occasionally talking like a cat) and she does tend to get obsessive about things for a while...then she moves on.
We are moving her to a private prep school (less children and less noise in the class room), however on her taster day the school has picked up on these unusual behaviours (hand flapping, covering her ears in the toilet, talking like a cat). I'm quite nervous now about how she is going to 'present' herself at the new school and whether we need to look into some sort of support?!
I should mention I did speak to a pediatrician about it (informally), someone we know and she knows DD and she said because she's not struggling in general, she seems to make friends, she is learning, she is adjusting well to new situations, she doesn't need special support, then pursuing a diagnosis will not achieve anything.
But I'm a bit worried about her little obsessions and her hand flapping and that she'll get picked on when she older.
Can anyone relate to this? I've read a few thread on atypical ASD but none of the kids seems to be similar to DD, they tend to have more obvious ASD traits.