DS just turned 3. He’d previously always been very independent but this has completely disappeared. He won’t do anything for himself. Won’t brush his teeth, won’t put his shoes on, won’t turn the tap on etc. It’s reached the point where, if he wants to play with a toy, half the time he expects to actually just sit and watch us do it (like watch us complete his puzzles or watch us draw shapes/letters on his blackboard). Even if it’s something he wants to do, he won’t do it. Like, if he wants sweets then he still won’t open the packet by himself. Or, if he wants to go upstairs, he won’t open the door himself - he’ll just stand and scream. Often, he won’t even ask for help. He just screams. Nothing that we’ve tried motivates him to do anything - we’ve tried both carrot and stick (star chart, stickers, naughty step…).
The part that’s really grating is that he has no resilience at all. If he’s doing something on his own and fails just once then he has a complete and total meltdown. He screams and screams and screams over it. For example, he’s doing a puzzle and one piece doesn’t fit where he tries it on the first attempt? Complete disaster. He won’t be pulled out of it or distracted from it. This even continues after it’s fixed (for example, if he’s watching TV and an advert comes on then he’ll scream and scream and scream long after the show has come back on). He’s never been much of a crier, he bounces straight up if he falls over etc - but in the last couple of months he started this screaming and it’s unbearable. If I hear the words “I can’t do ittttttttt” one more time then I’m going to walk out.
It’s so horrible to be around. I can’t remember the last time he was actually happy.