This is LONG sorry but questions about imagination, activity etc

[Allonsy]

Ok so ive posted before using a different name now had great advice before and today found myself with lots of questions, ds1 is 6 1/2 and only diagnosis is sensory issues aged 5 by OT now discharged and ongoing Speech therapy for stammer. At school apparently managing fine, at home EXHAUSTING, thats about the gist of it. Apologies for lenght of this post.

My concerns with ds have been possible ADHD and i used to think mild ASD but put that to the back of my mind recently as his poor imagination seemed to have exploded, hes now playing with toys and is always making things other things now, especially food eg tied his cheesestring into a bowtie, squirt of choc sauce on pudding looked like a spider etc. Today we were playing with ds2's toy car and ds seemed to play out a story so am i right in thinking this definatly rules out ASD?

Heres how it went - we had the car and 2 figures me and daddy, ds1 and ds2 (were pretend no figures) asked ds where we were going he said 'London' (London is always his place of choice since learning about olympics he thinks everything happens in London) i asked why he said 'to move to a new house' (we have been speaking about moving for a long time now not to London though in Scotland) so ds said 'we need to fill up with gas' (no idea why petrol is gas to him) he made bah bah noises pretending to fill quickly, we drove to London, i say what now, he says 'we forgot our beds we need to go back' 'we need more gas' so fill again, drive back boot them in boot, at this point i say 'eww ds is this your smelly socks in here' he laughs along says 'yes!' more gas routine then back to London, we pretend to look in car again and ds uses my 'are these your socks' line to me. He then says 'we forgot plates we need to go back' so i try and change things and so no i can see them there, look! he says no they smashed on the way, so back we go he says we 'break down' i ask him what can we do so he gets a toy dog and says the dog can pull us i say noo a dog cant do that he insists it can and its full of gas so can fill us back up. Looking in car again i say 'oh is that your friend hiding in there' he says yes i say 'shall we take him home' he says no im driving him to the river to make him dead! he then gets hyper and whizzes around making this happen, i tell him thats not nice and how sad his parents would be and wouldnt he be sad (this is his best friend) he says yes but is smiling he then wants to pretend to go tell his parents hes dead i stop the game here.

So can i think that if he can play a story like that he cant be asd?

also other things are yesterday he couldnt understand that people in the tv wernt actually behind it and when looking at the solar sytem on the pc that our planet could be here and inside the screen, or that zooming in on the sun wouldnt burn him as he jumped when i did he just didnt 'get it' is this just normal 6 year old stuff? i dont have much children experaince

Today was a typical day out to the shops, grabbing things, rearranging things, feeling things, hopping on one leg, LOTS of qusetions as to WHY the shop had changed the aisles round and panic how we would find our things, wanting everything etc, i caught his finger in a jacket zip, no blood tiny mark sparked 15 mins of SCREAMING and trying to run around flapping about i had to bear hug him to calm him then take him to see the christmas things (lots to feel and see).

Generally he reminds me of a wind up toy, always on edge like something is driving his movement and speech but with anxiety thrown in, does this sound like ADHD, something else or just a normal boistourous lad as many tell me?

If your still reading thank you so much

Sorry to be annoying but bumping incase anyone can offer input :)

Hello Allonsy can you not approach your GP with your concerns? some of his characteristics could be due to his sensory/speech difficulties, but if you have other concerns it would not hurt to discuss these and see what the outcome is.

My Ds is currently being assessed for ASD. When growing up he never really did the imagination thing just lined his toys up, he didn't pretend to be superman or a policeman etc etc and to be truthful he has only ever been a transformer since he turned 7 but it was after his cousin (4 yrs old) had suggested it. Something I have noticed is that when he plays along side others he seems to mimick my Dn who is seven (born the day after Ds and spent most of their time together) she has always been really imaginative (bossy ), she has always been the one when playing with Ds who dictated who he was, where he stood, what he said, how he said it, so there was very little my Ds had to imagine really. He even sounds like her when he does it...can't really explain it...his voice turns all droning but the instructions he gives are really minimal or repetitive.

Ds also makes jokes about death eg I tripped over the brush one day (Dd 3 yrs had been cleaning for me ) and he said "oops mum tripped and died" I pointed out that it wasn't a nice thing to say then he spent the next 10 minutes repeating that I tripped over and died to himself finding it really amusing!, I should imagine that this would be classed as inappropriate social behaviour (or just my Ds being "not nice").

I never really had any concerns about Ds until his charateristics were pointed out to me and after looking back at the quirky little things he has done throughout his life (which to be entirly truthful up until that point....were just Ds being Ds!!) and doing a lot of research we opted to have Ds assessed by camhs to either rule it out or confirm.

As I mentioned above (in this EXTREMLY long post...sorry about that BTW ) there would be no harm in contacting you GP for advice.

Hi thank you for replying, i have spoke to my gp and we are awaiting a referal to CAHMS but ive been told it will be a long wait ahead. I think what bothers me most is family (who he only sees every few months) think hes just a really boistours imature boy, always jumping on them, touching them, talking on and on and being really gross, smelling their free, breaking wind on them and licking them! nursery suspected ADHD, school acknowlege his sensory issues but say he talks and fidgets to much and thats disruptive but thats it really.

I have spend so many hours reading up on ADHD, ASD,SENSORY AND DYSPRAXIA and he seems like a hash of them all, i just wish i knew what i was looking at if anything and why he just seems so different and everythings so hard he seems to have real trouble with understanding things but maybe its just his age or i expect to much if school dont see it.

Hello again, well one thing I have read is that ADHD and dyspraxia symptoms can sometimes overlap, and more often than not it is possible for a Dc to have both. camhs will take a look at your Ds more in depth and will probably be the best professionals to see the bigger picture. Take a look at the NHS website regarding camhs referrals so you have a rough idea of waiting times (I have 18 wks in my mind but please double check) then keep on top prehaps dropping them a friendly call to usher them along a little I believe my GP's words of advice were "he who shouts loudest, gets quicker results".

Be sure to make a note of everything that causes you concern including what has been mentioned by school (fidgeting etc) my Ds's school received forms to fill in which highlighted things which I didn't see...but then saying that all his difficulties seemed to be in the school enviroment anyway) even those small things that would usually go over our heads.

Sometimes a Dc with ASD is a lot younger mentally than they are pysically which would come across as being immature/babyish to most. You wouldn't believe the looks I get from my family when my Ds has an outburst and I handle it not much differently than I would with my 3 yr old Dd. BUT like I said we have no Dx so I don't know if its due to personality or something more.

Yeah i will have to find out who to contact as gp said they would make referall but it had to come from school, so gp would contact school then they would deal with it and i will hear in due course. I have been keeping a list of worries that i did take to gp, and keeping small notes of behaviour outburts etc but its pretty much constant and just merges into 'life'. He seems to me to fit ADHD but there are little things that seem like something more. Eg, his obession with knowing the time and whats happening when and dislike of shops changing etc as in my first post.

He is definatly very immature but we are a bit of a loner family and tend to keep ourselves to ourselves we live miles from friends and family an donly see them rarely. Family dont believe in SN unless a child is rocking in the corner pretty much and think its all just normal and hes still very young.

I think what confuses school is that he WANTS to have friends and charges up to people it can look like hes accepted and is playing with them but im unsure, he is very boss and in your face and tries to control everything.

Academically hes doing fine so school are happy, i do think he does alot from memory though his long term memory is fab but does often forget things, i tried doing the digit recall with him that i seen on another thread apparently he should be able to remember 6 numbers and he couldnt even remember the first one, i supose im just going to have to wait and see but i cant help but worry in the mean time.