My 10 yr old ds has started displaying odd movements: he needs to touch things, always symmetrically with both hands separately. It's a bit difficult to explain, but for example, when walking down public stairs, he needs to touch both railings. This invariably means bounding across in front other people who are walking down the stairs, which can become a little awkward.... If he touches my arm, then he needs to touch my other arm. When walking down the street he needs to jump onto each man hole etc.
We've mentioned this to his teacher who has'nt noticed it, but is aware that a lot if children his age do this. I don't know if his friends have noticed. There are definitely times that he seems to do it really obsessively, and times when he doesn't do it at all. It's definitely getting worse, but we are getting close to 11+ exams, maybe it's stress- although we are trying to be as relaxed as possible about the tests.
I have asked him gently if he's aware he's doing it, which he is, and he says he likes to 'even things out'. He then came back to me and said he's going to try and stop, although my Dh & I decided not to point it out or make a big thing of it.
Is this the right course of action? Is there an official name for this so I can research about it. It's not controlling his life yet, but if it gets much worse I fear it will.