how normal is it for a 3.11 year old to ask this?

[Ohnonotagen]

Still not sure about DS, go from thinking he is highly intelligent to thinking there is something not right with him (autism has been mentioned in past). He is very factual but lately has got really into toy cars and is very imaginative in his play with them.

anyway last week we were away for weekend and went into tk Maxx and i got him to sit in a trolley because he was tired, it was the trolleys where you have to put a quid in. then when we came out i let him put the chain in the next trolley and pop the pound out. Then he asks me... what happens when it gets to the last trolley?? Not ground breaking i know but it kind of staggered me that he'd even notice they all chain up..

Are you concerned about him having ASD?

He sounds astute as nearly 4 year old's go, but it isn't totally unusual for young children to surprise you with questions like that.

If you are concerned about ASD or other conditions then you should try and speak to a professional about it to have it either dismissed or confirmed. Otherwise you could find yourself dwelling on possible labels like that when it isn't necessary and end up misinterpreting or having a slanted view of his behaviour.

to cut a long story short(er)...

i was abit, as in it did cross my mind but i kind of thought no i'm being silly

then His old preschool brought it up and that was a tough time as then had someone else (as well as me thinking a potential problem)

Got referred to HV who thought there is nothing wrong and he was bored at preschool

he changed preschool and is getting on great (to be fair best decision i ever made as current preschool is excellent) and they don't think there is a problem, although have given caveat 'too early to tell'

my gut feeling still says there is nothing wrong but i still have that little voice saying i may be in denial.

think what i will do is have a word with his current preschool teacher and ask her straight out. He's been there since sept and when she said she didn't think there was a problem it was around last oct or nov so he's been going ages since and she knows him really well (he goes for 5 mornings as he's funded, previous preschool he only went 2 mornings a week so current preschool should have got to know him better)

If you are concerned it's alway worth getting a referral to a developmental paediatrician.
My DS told me and his reception teacher the square route of 72. He has a DX of autism.

go from thinking he is highly intelligent to thinking there is something not right with him (autism has been mentioned in past).

You do realise that v high intelligence and ASD frequently go together?

Why would you swing between the two ideas?

I have one like that joking

Of course children who have ASD can be very intelligent. I think what the OP is getting at is more about, is it ASD that causes the 'issues' or could it be that the 'issues' can be completely explained by high intelligence. Such as, playing up when bored, or odd behaviour which is down to the child having an 'academic' understanding way beyond their emotional or social maturity.

It isn't clear however what exactly the problem is. OP I guess it would help to think about and maybe write down all the things that make you worry, before you go speak to the teacher. That would help more than saying 'I have this niggling feeling'.

Meita point (partially) taken.( I was concentrating very very hard on not mentioning slaughtering the OP for her incessant use of 'wrong' and 'problem' in relation to ASD - really not a helpful mindset whether her DS is in line for a dx or not and really rather offensive to others. )

I still don't think one can separate the two things entirely, certainly not when concerned and 'symptom spotting'.

OP, I second the suggestion that you request an appropriate referal to a developmnatl paediatrician and also suggest you do some reading about AS. If you are concerned, there is no harm in looking into it. If there is going to be a diagnosis, the sooner the better. Ditto the opposite.

I've just seen another angle on how you might have meant that Meita - my original point was that OP seemed to have disregarded the possibility that DS was BOTH.

I honestly don't think that is an odd question for a child to ask - but he is obviously very observant.

Very little children can sometimes astound you with how observant and lateral-thinking they are. A few of the things my dd said:

"Do we wear our skin?"
"The moon, Mummy - what's it really made of?"
"I think ducks must be really thirsty!"

We went to the Planetarium at Greenwich when she was 9, and after watching the show she asked the physicist what a wormhole was.

He explained it in very simple words of one syllable, whereupon she asked (since it had a black hole at one end and a white hole at the other) why was it called a white hole, because if it threw out everything including light, it couldn't be white could it?

His face was a picture, and he had to confess he didn't know the answer!!! She then asked "If the Universe is expanding all the time - what's it expanding into?"

She shows no interest in science at all now...