Would you have any concerns?

[MyBrownEyedHandsomeBoy]

Hi, I realise some of this may be normal (terrible 2 especially behaviour) but he's my first so I want to see if others think any of this behaviour is worth worrying about.

• only eats the same foods (was fine when weaning but hasn't touched fruit/veg since around 8 months) daily diet consists of: choch weetabix for breakfast which I hide Wellbaby and prune/fruit purée in. Lunch tends to be toast, yoghurt. Dinner is always fish.. salmon or fish fingers/fish cake and waffles (I do buy the carrot and sweet potato waffles).
• repulsed by textures in food. Eg- if I put some salmon, brocolli, potato and cheese sauce down he will bring towards mouth, pull a face and then throw however if I mix it up like baby food he will demolish it.
• very advanced with alphabet, numbers, colours and shapes (could say the alphabet and recognise all letters by 20 months), he can count to above 100 and can even recognise numbers in the thousands. He's just over 2 and half now and is spelling 3,4,5 letter words.
• pulls weird faces a lot. Hard to exaplin but i can only explain it as though you know when your nose itches and you can't scratch it so you scrunch your face up. Sometimes though it's like a frown, flared nostrils and his top lip curls up. It's weird and he's doing it a lot now especially when strangers say hello or if I'm trying to take a picture for example.
• Humping the floor. This is a new thing! Started laying on belly humping and won't stop if asked, it seems like a comfort thing.
• doesn't always answer to his name (hearing test was fine)
• moods and tantrums! I wouldn't call them meltdowns as they're short lived but are mainly if he can't get his own way with the littlest of things.
• he runs! Runs everywhere, sometimes I feel he has no sense of his surroundings when he runs as he tends to run into things! I also have to keep using push chair and reins as he runs off and won't answer to name when called back

Like I said, I know some of this will be normal behaviour. But does anyone think I should have any concerns here? If so, where would I start? GP or HV?

Thanks in advance and sorry for long post

Forgot to mention. He doesn't get upset if his routine changes. However he will get upset for example if we are counting and we miss a number out he will cry and want to start all over again from the beginning

Hi,

Some things here point to a sensory disorder, like he is a sensory seeker (humping, running), but for food the opposite.

Regarding the possibility of him having autism, that’s measured through his social and communication skills, so what is he there? I assume they are fine because you didn’t even mention those areas.

Counting, crying when number skipped, that indicates his wish for the sense of order and control, could be just a character or could be a disorder, I don’t know. He can potentially have a visual, mathematical brain. Seen people like that and some of them we’re number and abstract geniuses even as children.

Thank you so much for your reply @Injackane
My DH and MIL both said they think autism. And sometimes I do wonder myself... however his speech and communication is really good (apart from not answering to his name sometimes) he makes direct eye contact and communicates fairly well. Especially with familiar faces . He doesn't do great with strangers if someone says hello he will pull that weird face and say 'bye bye'

Now you've said it I think he is a sensory seeker. He mainly humps when he's bored and I do have to contanstly keep him entertained

I just don't know if it's to be concerned over enough to get further, professional advice. Or whether they'd wait til he's older anyway 🤷‍♀️

Ps my DH also said what you suggested that he may have a visual brain. You only tend to have to show him something once or twice and he remembers

How old is he exactly @MyBrownEyedHandsomeBoy?

He does sound lovely btw, even from your username

Use the MChat test to see whether he might be at risk of autism. My feeling is that he will pass the test, but do it anyway. When answering yes or no at the test, think of it more as mostlly/rarely , not as pure yes/no.

Keep on mind that if he does the following, then it is a high chance he has nothing to do with autism:
point to objects to attract your attention, bring you toys or books to play with, responds 40% of the time to his name, has an appropriate eye contact, plays peekaboo by pulling blanket over his face, is fine to play side to side with other kids (not yet with with other kids as he is young for that) , looks at you sometimes from across the room (2meters plus distance, for example) to see that you approve of his actions or just to see you, and if he smiles at you then he definitely doesn’t have autism, when you smile at him few times he mostly smiles back, if he is repetitive or obsessive about something you can fairly easily interrupt him (let’s say my boy spins the wheels a lot but we can always sit next to him, start playing with the ball or something else he likes and he comes to us within a minute).

Autism is about a cluster of red flags, not just one or two of weird behaviours because toddlers up to 3 years old tend to exhibit some autistic traits without ever being autistic. Just because your child is awesome with numbers and counting also doesn’t mean he is autistic. There are kids out there being number savants just by the way their brain works.

If we are to assume the worst and say, he has autism with SPD, his autism would be so high functioning, he could be one of those adults later on in the life who diagnose themselves with autism when that are over 30, married, with a full time job. The impact of autism on someone’s life is directly correlated to the social and communication skills until the age of 2.

This being said, I do think there is a sensory issue with him. These issues are fixable to the degree and also, as the brain matures, some of the sensory issues will disappear. Not that it means you shouldn’t work with him.

I am not a medical professional, but I know a lot about the autism because my boy failed mchat test with 8 red flags 4 months ago. We started speech therapy as he has language delay, I’ve been obsessively reading medical articles about therapies and autism. Our son is now down to 2 red flags, some behaviours corrected with our hard work. He still exhibits some autistic traits but at 16 months old, there is still chance he will be improve by bounds. He is a typical sensory seeker and if si coming with sensory seeking to get strange reactions from their brains, either overactive brains like your son, or a language delay like ours.

Hope this brings you closer to the solution.

Just to add, humping is often used as a soothing movement for gastro gut issues. I can see he struggles with food but it is so good he eats yogurt and fish. I would try to change his breakfast not to have sugar, as that disrupts the guts at the start of the day. Maybe plain weetbix with yogurt, some apple sauce and mashed banana?

Vegetables will be and always are the biggest battle with toddlers.

@SiouxsieSiouxStiletto thank you 😊 he is so beautiful and he's lovely most the time haha
And he's 2yrs and 8mo x

@Injackane thank you so so much for your helpful input, from reading through the list you provided I can honestly say he does do all of these things so that gives me a bit of confidence that maybe he's not on the ASD actually and I'm leaning more towards the sensory seeker suggestion you have provided.

When he was your DS age he used to spin things, wheels on toys or those things you can stick to the window. He would sit there for ages just spinning them.. however he outgrew this pretty much when he started walking. He then started spinning himself on the spot and looking up the at ceiling, stopped this then started walking backwards everywhere, stopped this then went onto alphabet and numbers... now it's the floor humping and just running everywhere really fast 🫣 when he hits a milestone he tends to find a new 'sensory stimuli' I suppose. And I hadn't looked at this this way before. Didn't even know what it was.

He's my first, I absolutely adore him and I worry easily sometimes. But yes like you said there are many diagnosed later on in adult life, only mildly so I need to stop worrying.

Thanks again for taking the time you have to speak with me x

You do have some concerns and like others have said it may or may not be ASD. If it might be, you need him in a waiting list as soon as you can do as they are so long.

I'd ask to see your HV and ask her to do the 30 month Social & Emotional Ages & Stages and the 33 month Ages & Stages.

Using the Social and Emotional one along with the regular assessment will give her a clearer picture of your DS' behaviour. They're not expected to be on the white for everything, but he's scoring more than being in the grey for two areas, I would insist on a referral for assessment.

How’s your little one doing now ? ❤️

@Vittoria123 thank you for your reply I've only just seen this..
He is being assessed for autism now.
I have my first appt on 5th Aug which is a telephone interview with CAAS (children's austism assessment services)
I hope I can get to the bottom of what is it and give my boy the support he needs.
I've also since pulled him out of his nursery following an upsetting conversation with the management where they basically said they are "short staffed" and struggle to give him the one to one attention he needs, and they didn't so much have to say the words but it was insinuated they can't cater for his needs.
So I'm currently trying to find a better nursery for him to start in September now.
I suppose I'll know more soon now CAAS are involved xx

Also HV is coming this week to do the 36 month assessment

Let us know, please, what happens at the assessment.

What is it that he does at the kindergarten that is requiring one-to-one attention?

Since he started nursery in January this year he began smacking and pushing other children. It began over toy sharing initially and I asked his key worker if she could help support him with turn taking and mixing with the others, but over the months it's as though he does it unprovoked now. It's either the fact he can't deal with having the children around him, or it's for attention as I see him sometimes do it at home where he will smack me whilst checking if dad is watching, then when he gets shouted at it doesn't bother him at all.

There is something we can't put our finger on, and he's finally going to be assessed now. But the nursery don't seem to want to support him, instead they call me to go and fetch him home (which he enjoys), and now after having it reiterated how short staffed they are and can't offer 1-1 support I decided it's not the right setting for him.

Hi,

as your son’s assessment is coming up, I hope it will go well. If you don’t mind letting me know what was said, please, as there are lots of parallels between your boy and mine.

Thanks

@Injackane I will do, I have CAAS calling me Monday and this is the first call so I assume it will be an information gathering process and then they will advise on/if there will be further assessments.

I pulled him out the private nursery setting he was in and I am starting him in a new setting from September (school setting) and I can honestly say since he's left there he's been much more pleasant in himself so I'm hoping that the summer break from being around a lot of children all at once may do him good? We'll see..

Since I wrote the OP, he's actually calmed down with the numbers and letters side of things. Still has an interest in them but not as obsessed anymore, he's massively into Peppa pig now actually.

I'll let u know what they say, how old is your little one? X

My son is 25months now. :) We are still working a lot with him, and his comm skills have advanced immensely. Very close to normal milestones, now. Of course, he is still too young to be assessed for the social skills.

Looking forward to your update.

Hi @Injackane my apologies I forgot to come back to this thread had a lot on. I had the call Monday it was more an information gathering exercise she asked me lots of questions, my overall concerns were his social skills in terms of pushing, smacking out at peers his age, rejecting them, playing alone rather than with etc
I also mentioned his lack of fear of danger, he bolts at any opportunity, eg - I loosed his hand for a sec to get a brick out his shoe the other day whilst we were walking down the road and he just bolted away from me no matter how much I shouted stop, and a car was coming. He just doesn't listen/care. This worries me.
And sometimes he won't answer when spoken to, just goes into a stare - I mentioned this
We have good days and bad, he can be very pleasant one day, then everything just irritates him another day like he can't cope with something ?

She took a lot of notes and said she will arrange an assessment on him in his nursery setting in a few months, followed by a home visit. She sent me links to support groups etc. she's already given me the heads up it's going to be a long process, so I just have to wait now.

What are your concerns with your little one? He's still very young x

Thanks for the update. He doesn’t sound autistic to me, and I don’t know much about adhd to comment about that.

i have a separate thread for my son so don’t want to repeat here as this is your post. Similar concerns , just younger age. :)

@MyBrownEyedHandsomeBoy Hi could I ask how your little boy is getting on now? I have some concerns about my 20 month old and similar to you it’s just something I can’t put my finger on he just seems different to other children