DS2's fear of other cars on roadway and speed of travel

[Triggles]

For some unknown reason, DS2 has recently been fearful of other cars being (in his words) "in front of us, behind us or on side of us" in the roadway, including cars that pass us going the opposite direction on the other side of the road. He also worries constantly that we're going too fast and says "slow down mummy" a lot.... even when I'm going slower than the actual speed limit. I daren't take him on the motorway, as 35-45 mph makes him upset.

I could take him places on the bus instead, however, obviously he then gets overexcited about the bus combined with stressed over the noise and the people in it, which can be a bit of a bad combination. Not to mention the bus gets pricey now that he is 5yo, so I get charged for him and myself. We try to walk more places if possible (bringing along or using the Mac Major), as I don't know if it's possible to get a pass for him for the bus.

I have questioned him carefully to see if I could figure out why the sudden fear, but it simply doesn't seem to have any obvious cause. I imagine there IS one, but he's not sharing it or he simply doesn't know himself where it's coming from, just reacting to it.

Anyone else's child go through this at all?

funny you should mention it - dd1 has been saying 'don't go too fast' or 'whoa! too fast mummy!' for a while now.

she is not too bad on motorways, though, as the speed is more constant. I think she is noticing things like going around corners and inertia/forces etc and so on the schol run (which is, in part quite twisty and windy) she says it a lot more than when on a straighter road but going faster, iyswim.

Sensory? I feel like a cracked record...

Yes we had this - turned out the school had done a road safety thing at school.

We ignored it and used distraction as much as possible tried to make light of it. We didn't avoid cars or slow down as we felt that would make him thing there was something in his thinking and fears. For the most part it has worked and this has lessened now.

yup, probably sensory, but it mystified me as to why she started up (in the last month or so).

she has always been fine in the car - thankfully doesn't take after me and has never been travel sick. but she is now bothered, and boy does she tell me . fine when it is just her and me, a bit when I pick her up from school and she says "I don't want to go in the car when mum is driving" and "don't go too fast, mummy" - my driving isn't that bad!

just on of those little mysteries that make life so, erm, interesting

x-posts. hadn't thoguht about road safety. it's the kind of thing her school would do - might ask them after the break.

ds2 was a abit like this and it turned out that it was linked to the white lines in the road. Dual carriageways and motorways threw him as there were too many lanes. The section of the M25 where there are 6 lanes used to be hell for him and for year he'd shut his eyes screaming black road black road!

Explaining about staying in between the lines and not crossing the solid white lines and the difference between long and short stripes meant you could overtake by driving through the gaps in the white lines seemed to do the trick but it took years for him to be able to articulate it.

Hmmm. yes, I agree it's probably sensory. They haven't discussed road safety in school recently to my knowledge - the TA generally tells me what they're going over.

The only thing I've really avoided is the motorway. He isn't having a complete meltdown over it, but he does the constant and increasingly louder and higher pitched talking about it while we're in the car.