DS is 8.
He has been ‘bouncing’ in his bed every night since he was 7 months old (basically rocking his body). He also bounces when he is excited about something.
His speech is very slow and monotonous, but sometimes very melodic and he elongates vowels ‘ I I I thi i i nk… th a a at we e e e shooo uuuld…’
He melts down for 45 minutes at a time. Meltdowns are worst at weekends and school holidays.
He sticks very strictly to the ‘rules’ and is distressed if the rules are broken.
He gets very obsessive about topics and wants to talk about them all the time.
He will stare at the clock until it shows the ‘correct’ number.
We also have DD 5 who seems so ‘normal’ and accentuates the difference between them
His teacher noticed he wasn’t very happy at school in the start of the school year. He bit himself on the arm a few times. He was referred to CAHMS equivalent where we live. He was assessed for autism. The psychologist thought it wasn’t an issue with him because he seeks input from outside resources and that was that.
I feel like DS ticks so many boxes for autism, but obviously I am no professional. And I feel that if it isn’t autism, he’s at a high risk for other disorders- both sides of our family have serious mental health issues including manic depression, eating disorders, self harm and depression.
I’d be interested to hear any opinions