Hi
Just looking for some advice.
My daughter will be 5 in the next few months.
She was a later walker and started walking just before she turned 2, never crawled but bum shuffled everywhere. She was a very early talker and she could hold fluent conversations with you from around 15 months and even now her vocabulary is amazing and the content she uses words in is beyond her years.
She develops quite a bit of social anxiety if we go somewhere that is too busy, and she shows this by constantly playing with/pulling her hair gently. She is very shy around new people and only opens up once she’s comfortable with someone. She also has a bit of separation anxiety from me and always has. Even if I nip to the shops for an hour and she’s with her dad she gets really overwhelmed/upset however is totally fine going to nursery.
She has always had a major fear of the sensory balls/caterpillars etc that have the spikes on them. So much so any shop we walk in we have to go down the aisle first and hide any lying around or we need to carry her past them as she is genuinely terrified of them, crying, screaming etc. at first we thought it was just a bit of a funny fear but it really is draining now as they are everywhere. If she spots someone with one out and about she gets so upset and it takes us a while to calm her down. She has now recently developed a lot of sensory issue with clothes. Refusing to wear pants as they are uncomfortable, can only wear certain socks , labels all need cut off her clothes. She also has a terrible gag reflex and certain smells can set her off .
She is such a fun ,bubbly , hilarious, girl and has such an amazing wee personality. Iv never really considered that some of the above traits could potentially be on the spectrum until speaking with a teacher friend recently who made a comment in regards to it.
I have no experience of Autism or where to start and unsure if all the above is just her being a 5 year old or something I should speak with the GP about. She starts school soon and I think she will really thrive but just want to make sure I’m doing the best by her and having all the information I need to set her up for the best future.
Does anyone have any advice?