Observation at school today

[Rainbowscarf]

There was an observation on my son’s tapestry app today. He’s 4.5 years old.

He’s not got a diagnosis of anything yet but I suspect Autism (or Asperger’s as it used to be called).
Am I right to be concerned about this? He wants to know everything about numbers and more. Knows all the names of the planets in the solar system and the order they go in too.
If you don’t know the answer to something he finds it really hard to understand why.

DS(5yo) loves numbers, especially large ones. He has autism and ADHD

Sounds very like my DS (8) although he isn't exceptionally gifted in any way. He was fine at school up until the beginning of Y3. I think it is only now that the other children are starting to notice that he is different and friendships are becoming a big problem. It is only in the last month that we've finally got him onto the waiting list for an autism assessment. The current waiting time for this in our area is 4 years so if you think there is an issue, the earlier you act, the better.

We had this situation in the family where the parents thought their child was a genius but he was in fact HFA.

My autistic husband loves telling me random facts, however, his most annoying habit is constantly answering the phone to the large team he manages.

Would you be concerned if he wanted to tell everyone about football teams, trains or aeroplanes?
One of the beautiful things about arithmetic is that it follows reliable rules rather than subjective ideas that have accrued over time.

I know this isn’t the point to your post, but for future reference, this isn’t necessarily true. I was told the same regarding my autistic son but after court proceedings, did manage to get an EHCP. What matters isn’t how bright your child is, bur whether their social
communication difficulties (or other aspects of their disability/impairment) have a significant negative impact on their ability to access the curriculum.

Sorry if I've missed it - but have you spoken to the teacher / TA who wrote the observation? I agree the language "talked at" is very carefully chosen. Observations are obviously not just for parents either. If this was me, in the first instance I'd be speaking to whoever made the observation, and ask them about it

Ds was diagnosed with a “subtle presentation” of autism, and wasn’t a problem in school until late primary when he became dangerously anxious.

Looking back we were too complacent, and mistook him not being a problem as him not having problems. He actually needed more support and accommodations than we realised .

I’m glad he was diagnosed early because we were able to get supports in place relatively quickly when tshtf. By then he was masking so well in school that I doubt we’d have got a diagnosis. The anxiety was obvious but the autism isn’t.

Interesting and could fit asd but the fact he got some wrong would be unusual for an asd child so he could be just trying to copy someone who said that and getting it wrong. On its own its nothing. If there's lots of instances then it would build a picture.

Autism doesn't negate giftedness

At 4 many children are just learning to interact socially rather than just playing alongside. With these interactions he will hopefully either learn to make numbers so exciting that other people get interested or learn that even though family are interested not everyone else is. There is commonly a male family member who everyone avoids at weddings because they bore on eg about cricket/antiques/politics . You could chat to him about how to avoid doing this if it seems to be a problem by age 8 or 9 and how to show interest in other people eg ask questions etc

🙄😂🙄😂

Do most 4yos know multiples of 16 then? 🤔

Sorry but what does that mean please?

He sounds really like my son, he was very obsessive about numbers. For us the wheels really came off in year one and he ended up being diagnosed age 7

Exactly I fact a lot of genuine geniuses are in fact autistic

I'm not keen on some of the language the adult used. 'Proclaimed' and 'talked at'. 'Said confidently' would be nicer than 'proclaimed'. And I'd ask them about 'talked at' - it sounds snide.

He could just be gifted? Look at the overlap with that and autism there's a lot of common traits

yes, children tend to know what they have been taught, if someone has taught them this, then yes, I don't see why this is a concern in any way

Yes. I wondered if there is someone close who works in the computer sector , where 16 (hexadecimal) is very prominent. Or is it with other numbers, too?

OP, This was me. Always had a head for facts and figures and would tell others about them constantly whether they wanted to hear it or not! Didn’t receive an ASD diagnosis until I was 35 but that’s largely because it just wasn’t a thing when I was at school. Same with your DS I was a stickler for rules, well behaved etc apart from some disruption due to me being incredibly bored in class.

My ASD does come with its struggles but I do manage to have a great life alongside those little quirks! Oh and love pulling out my Mensa membership card to show people 😂

@Rainbowscarf just a heads up, I’ve just seen a post of a Facebook group about this under, presumably, your real name.

They’re two completely separate things 🙄

Yes I'd keep an open mind here. My DD is neurotypical but definitely knew all the planets in order at age 4 and would "talk at" people about her specialist subject even if they weren't interested. She's 6 now and still does to be honest!

Knowing multiples of 16 at age 4 if he hasn't been taught them is very unusual though. It could be ASD, it could be that he's gifted. The social skills sounds pretty normal for a young child. I'd probably ask school for a meeting and see what they say or advise.

OP does he watch number blocks ?

@Sugargliderwombat yes he does