Wrist twisting and hand gestures

[alwaysworried2809]

Hey
I wouldn't ever do this but I am worried and I'm waiting for the health visitor to respond

My little boy will be 2 in a few weeks, he's a really happy and vocal little boy

He says about 500 words and can imitate or copy pretty much any words. His eye contact has always been fantastic, and he plays games such as peek a boo or teases us with things such as offering us a piece of chocolate then taking it away and eating it himself and laughing. He responds to his name and is quite social.

He knows all his alphabet and can recognise every letter and number. He knows his shapes (including hexagon and pentagon) and he can count to 10 forwards and backwards as well as recognising all the numbers. Recently he has started counting out raisins on his tray while eating.

He has hit all his milestones and his 20 month check went brilliantly aside from he didn't feed a doll a bottle so the HV questioned his ability to play imaginatively. He had never really had access to dolls and I've since bought one, and he will try to feed it with a bottle or give it wooden food (while saying eat or nom nom nom)

I thought all of this was amazing but a friend with an autistic child has put some doubt in my mind. She mentioned his abilities aren't normal behaviours and I've been worried ever since.

Also to put the tin hat on it - he twists his wrists when he gets excited like he's revving a motorbike - he doesn't do it any other time. and yesterday he laid himself down on a rug at a playcentre and rubbed his head against it - which i have never seen him do before.

I suppose my question is has anyone's child had the wrist twisting quirk at this age and ended up NT? Should I be worried?

I have 3 friends with autistic children but I don't feel like I can talk to them about this at the moment.

Thanks

Also - I'll add that he spent a lot of time watching miss Rachel and that's how he has learned the majority of this

Hi OP,
First of all, you would not make a diagnosis in this forum. To really have some answers it’s best to talk to your GP to start with and if they find it necessary they will refer you to specialist services. From your description your DS sounds like a very ahead of his times academically. You said he is quite social which is a great thing and usually this area is mostly affected in autism -social behaviour. From what you said the only thing that is concerning to you is his stereotypical behaviours, which can be due to some sensory processing issues bothering many typical children without autism diagnosis. Do not worry in advance, maybe what he is watching you can limit his screen time and encourage more imaginative play. Don’t worry about the doll if he never played dolls he might find it difficult to approach them, this is only one task. Use other things not just a doll, you can use teddies as well to teach him feeding

Thanks for your reply. Agree on the diagnosis point, I just want to gather similar experiences.
Agree - the hand gestures are my main concern although my research tells me these could be normal toddler behaviour.
Thank you very much for your response

DD did this when she was younger, she has never been formally diagnosed but I would say she does have some ND traits

Self soothing or self stimulating by physical sensations are used to some extent by everyone, foot tapping when nervous for instance. But are more pronounced/common in nd people.
It is possible to have sensory differences which lead to 'stimming' when emotions are high without being autistic. It is possible to be autistic without or without stimming, so this behaviour alone doesn't tell you much.
I'd just note it and then see how things go as he gets older.

Hi any updates please