Hi all,
I posted on here a few weeks ago after an upsetting parents meeting about my 3.9 month old son. One if the main issues they raised was that he was the only child out of 30 who had not made any friends and did not seem to want to talk to the other children. They did not imply he had Asperger of autism and my husband is a psychologist and backs that up. They did say he can be quite stubborn and struggles to concentrate. Anyway, I have since been watching him like a hawk and trying to enable social situations for him. He is perfectly able to interact with another child in the park or swimming pool but seems to find organised group activities very stressful. In fact any social event which puts expectations on him. For example a play date at someone's house whom he doesn't know well will make him very shy and I took him to a group dance lesson for a trial as he loves to dance and he couldn't handle it at all and started shouting at me saying he didn't like it. When his fave song came on he did go and have a bit of dance but I could tell he found it v stressful and was quite uptight. I think in terms of school he finds the socialising aspect hard work and would rather play on his own or talk to the adults. He has excellent language for his age and does have a couple of good friends outside school who he feels confident with and hits the ground running.
My question is, does anyone have any experience with a child like this? It breaks my heart because I know he would enjoy these group activities but is too anxious to join in. How can I help build his confidence? Is it normal for a child to act like this. He seems to enjoy nursery to a certain degree but he is missing out on social interaction at the mo.