DS doesn't like people looking at him

[JackJacksmummy]

Another word with the teacher this morning where ds is being quite rude and shouts at people looking at him. He knows it's rude, I don't know what to do about it.

Ds doesnt like this either, at one point he used to say it made his skin feel 'prickly' and at times would literally try to brush the look off his skin, if that makes sense! He also used to hide behind me if people looked at him.

I read some research about eye contact "Tracking the correlation between eye movements and brain activity, the researchers found that in autistic subjects, the amygdala - an emotion center in the brain associated with negative feelings - lights up to an abnormal extent during a direct gaze upon a non-threatening face"

Maybe your ds feel threatened?

About 6 months ago now he started with the no touching thing and would spit on his hands and wash it off. They are having a meeting about him next week so I'm really hoping they decide to move onto the next level towards getting him assessed. Feeling very depressed about this all right now. It doesn't help we are stuck in a flat with no garden. I really feel that him having access to a garden will benefit him enormously. We was hoping to move this year when MIL sells her house as she has already said she will give us some to move and has now decided not to sell

Its stressful isnt it, sorry youre having such a rough time.

Sounds similar to ds, seems with ds his sensory and no eye contact are very connected. He would say things were crawling on his skin and want to brush them off when people looked at him, similar to your ds.

I agree the lack of a garden and being able to run around might be affecting him, especially if he has sensory difficulties.

I would tell ds that even if people were looking at him, he didnt have to look back, which seemed to help a bit, he didnt feel so threatened. Maybe you could tell your ds, instead of shouting when people look, just dont look back?

You could also suggest to school, that maybe he needs to have someone quiet to go, when he gets to the point of wanting to shout at people and is feeling overwhelmed? So instead of shouting, he can have some quiet time?

There are some exercises you could do with him, if he isnt getting much to run around etc. see if that helps