ASD and obsession with Letters and words

[mumof2terrors]

Hi there

Just wanted to know if anyone had any thoughts....My DS is 30 months old not dx as yet but am pretty sure he has asd. Thing is he seems obsessed with letters and numbers he literally breaks his neck looking at the asda or tesco signs as we drive past. He loves books and could spend all day looking at his picture book.

We are starting his ABA program mid May and was wondering if anyone else had a DC with these issues and what came out of it? could he be teaching himself to read?

any thoughts/advice would be greatly appreciated

Wow, asdx2, you did your research well there! 3 TAs per class is like SS staffing levels. Brilliant! There are many children in the (pretty switched on) junior school I work in who could do with continuing with daily phonics. It happens in good infant schools, (my previous TA role was in an infants) but the junior staff know little or nothing about how to teach strategies to struggling readers.

In a 2 form entry school maths is usually set with a smaller lower set and a larger higher set, and TAs often take small groups in addition, but having work not just differentiated but taught in 5 sets is pretty amazing. Literacy is more often mixed ability to give the less able children good role models as talk partners, which has its pros and cons.

My poor DS goes to a one form entry all through primary, with a 0.1 equivalent SENCo and no opportunity to set except within the classroom. TAs are there morning only. Mind you, I expect your older DCs were lucky to have any TAs!

Really pleased your DD is in such a proactive and well funded school. Sounds like the area needs it. Long may it continue!

Who curtseys deeply in return

Thank you so much for your replies, was in hospital so didn't get to read all the replies until this morning. Makes me feel so much better that there are other DCs out there that are similar to my DS.

Is there anything that I can do to encourage him? have also ordered some fridge magnets...lol!

My son was exactly the same he is now 5 we run an aba programme so we used the letters numbers reading and spelling as reinforcement. If you want to talk in detail on exactly what you can expect and how to make the most out of it then I am happy to talk.

Dd2 loved the 'orchard games', they have some number matching games ect.., you can also get large magnetic board from places like B&Q so they can stick the magnetis letters on also puzzles with the alphabet and numbers on them.

Dd2 like calculators, electronic alphabet toys (vtech, leap frog), Scrabble, domino's (you can get ones with dots or numbers on) and teaching clocks.