What is your 7/8 year old boy like? And what does he like to do?

[Barrenfieldoffucks]

I know all kids are different, but what are your 7 year old boys like?

Mine is non stop movement and noise. But not just chat, quite often repetitive nonsense questions and statements, like “do you know what your name is” (cue some silly answer) “can I throw this out of the window” (even if there is no window) everything gets replaced with the word poop or poo. Odd noises, bending, twisting, flipping, jumping.

There is a fairly large age gap between him and his siblings, 13 and nearly 15, so he is on his own a lot. I think he struggles to know how to engage sometimes, or what to play with, so he bimbles around.

Everything is felt deeply, the majority of the time super happy, life is very exciting. But when something goes wrong, it is very wrong. He’s quite sensitive to being wound up or criticised by a sibling.

Given the choice he’d want to watch something on a tablet or whatever most of the time, but isn’t allowed to.

What are yours like, and what does he they like to play with?

I’m absolutely not an expert but your post seems to describe someone neurodiverse. Maybe ADHD? The big feelings, constant movement etc.

You just word for word described my son of the same age! Now his older brother has ADHD and his younger sister is being assessed for ADHD and autism. I have had suspicions about my son possibly being the same as his siblings but a milder form hence why health visitor when he was younger and now school don't see him as "severe" enough to get referred. he's more described as "sensitive" by the powers that be but yeah my son is exactly like you described and I'm convinced he has additional needs like his siblings

You’ve described my now 9 year old.
Similar age gap between him and his older sibling too.

We have some ND in the wider family, and had been seriously wondering not only about whether he had ADHD, but were weighing up the benefits/costs of diagnosis. He’s been noticeably different to other kids.

But since he turned 9 he seems to have leaped on developmentally. The huge emotional outbursts have settled, his concentration has improved. He’s still a happy soul who can entertain himself for hours with his imagination. But he’s suddenly not the one kid in the swimming lesson spinning around underwater while the others listen, or lying on the floor having a tantrum at sports. (Though we did have to give up the ball sports!).

He’s different to his older sibling, and letting him forge his own path seems to be helping. In an ideal world he would have started formal education a little older, as is done elsewhere in Europe. Though he’s been able to read very well very early, he wasn’t ready for proper sitting-down learning until recently.

My point is… give him time, they don’t all develop at the same pace.

Thank you all, that's interesting. There is ND in our household too...I have ADHD, I suspect DH does too. My eldest (female) is very likely to be on she spectrum in a very mild way, so it wouldn't surprise me. But often I describe this to people and they say it is totally normal.for a 7 year old!

He's an utter delight, just 'intense', feeling wise. He is great at school, no behavioural issues or similar. Not that there are at home either really.

My eldest was a force of nature at his age...there was no telling her what was what. She too was just intense. At nearly 15 she is a mini adult, organised, calm, kind etc.

My son has just turned 8. Your first paragraph about the random questions, statements, words etc really sounds like my son. I do have suspicions my son has mild autism although I’m aware kids that age can be total weirdos.

my son:

loves watching TV/youtube

always moving around, doing handstands etc (he is a gymnast)

plays lots of imaginary stuff with his sis

gets loads of stuff out and doesn’t put it away

talks a million miles an hour about his interests
which I have zero interest in and don’t fake any interest. it doesn’t bother him

says a lot of random crap and pointless questions he knows the answer to eg ‘what’s your name’. Not sure if he’s attempting humour, seeking attention or what’s going on with that really.

is kind and sweet, particularly if people are upset

he’s not overly sensitive to criticism but tbh he gets told off quite a bit so he’s pretty immune