My three year old DS has always been “wilful”, “spirited” and all the other adjectives people use to describe boisterous children. He walked at 10 months, has always slept pretty well, he has good speech, developmentally he’s hit all the major milestones and he has no problems at preschool.
But he has frequent EPIC tantrums that my DM is convinced isn’t normal (I think she’s either hinting at ASD or bad parenting/not enough discipline).
It begun around the time he started walking. He’d bang his head repeatedly off the floor/wall/cot during a tantrum. This went on (on and off) until he could talk to us properly around age two. Now he flings himself on the floor and flails around while crying/shouting. 99% of the time these tantrums happen for no obvious reason. He can be fine one minute, and then doing that the next. Sometimes they occur after he’s woken from his afternoon nap but will go on for an hour on and off. Nothing we do or say calms him. If we restrain him/cuddle him, this makes him worse.
Generally he’s ok when we’re out. These happen at home. He usually just shouts and cries but sometimes says “I can’t see” “I don’t feel well” “My leg/knee/foot/belly hurts”. If we tell him to stand up, he says “I can’t walk”. I’ve ignored this as thought he was lying but maybe it is something physical rather than mental?
I am intending to book him in to see the GP but just wanted some advice on whether this is standard three-year-old behaviour or if this sounds familiar to anyone with children who have ASD or anything else?