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Does any of this ring any bells? do you have a 4 YO like my DS? (sorry long!)

8 replies

McFarts · 26/07/2013 10:12

My DS is 4.5 and is currently under observation at our CDC. I have 2 older DDs, DD1 is 10 and has HFA/AS and DD2 is 8 and has Dyspraxia and mild learning difficulties (probably dyslexia).

He developed normally as a baby/toddler meeting most milestones

Sever speech and language delay (less than 15 words at 3.5), which was discovered to be caused by glue ear and a modrate/sever hearing loss. He had a grommets op last year, his speech has come along but progress has been very slow and he is still very delayed. The grommets however have now come out, and tho his hearing loss atm is only mild the ENT feel that it will be worse come winter and he has been referred for hearing aids. The grommets when in kept blocking and rarely made much difference to him, so i was reluctant to have any more. His understanding is better, he can follow simple instructions. Tho his understanding has never been assessed as the SALT cannot keep him interested long enough to do so hmm.

From a very young age he was an escapeologist! safty gates we're adapted (to adult chest height) Drawers in his bed room we're turned to face the wall, so he couldnt use the drawers to climb over gate, he had to be padlocked into his pram from 18mths old, as he would let himself out and run off. There is more, but i think that give you an idea!

He has very little concentration, and is only really plays with Fire Engines and tool type toys. His interest in Fire engines is intense and has been since he was 18mths old, i would describe as obsessive. No interest in drawing (has never so much as drawn a smiley face). Tho i ofted get paintings home from nursery, with a lovely big red blob of paint Grin

When hurt he will seeks the comfort of our labrador rather then come to me for a hug, tho he will hug.....on his terms. If he gets up in the night he will look for dog rather than us.

He has lots of mood swings, and will go from happily playing, pottering around to furious!! lashing out, kicking screaming! (anything that will basicly inflict pain on others) There is often little reason for these outburst. This is several times a day at varying degree's. The lashing out is mainly at my DD1 sad.

Very little sense of danger! i still need to hold his hand firmly when out and about.

He has no respect at all from adults, will threaten them (ill get my Daddys hammer and hit you sad ) if they speak/look to him.

Potty training has gone well, tho he refuses to do a poo on the loo, we have tried every trick and bribe i can think of!.

He loves being outdoors and up to his eyeballs in mud!, we have an allotment and he spends hours there with DH.

Activities/weekend outings, we split into two groups, DH will take DS out and ill take the girls, outing with all 3 DC together are just to stressful and no one end up having any fun at all. I cant take all 3 DC many places on my own in the holidays as DD1 still needs close supervision as does DS. It was ok when DS still used a buggy, but he is to big for it now.

In nursery he is on a whole fine!! yes they also struggle to get him to engage in things he has little interest for and he is described as being very busy! he has a couple of friends, tho his play skills at nursery from what his key worker describes are imo on his term. At play time he digs holes, he will encourage his friends to join him, but he isn't fussed if they dont, and will just continue what he's doing. There has been no temper out burst at nursery at all! On a whole he enjoys going. Family and close friend who know him well are quite literally flabbergasted when i tell them how he is a nursery.

I could go on, but i didnt actually intend this to as long (never could bloody bullet point!) i swing from thinking he is just plain naughty...to no this just isnt right!! tho in lots of ways he is like my DD1 but he is certainly far more sociable and less rigid than she is, but far more melty (lol is that even a word?) anxious?? than she has ever been. I have friends (tho not close ones) who say "he's just a boy!!" hmm thats what boys are like!!. Anyways your thoughts please...and please dont feel you have to sugar coat your opinions! if you feel any of the above is quite simply normal 4yo boy bahaviour or poor parenting, then PLEASE say so.

OP posts:
McFarts · 26/07/2013 10:16

Long is and understatement! jeeze Blush

OP posts:
EllenJanesthickerknickers · 26/07/2013 14:08

Tricky one. With 2 in the family already somewhere on the spectrum, he's got a good chance of also being on it somewhere. Sad It could be that a lot of his behaviour is down to the hearing problems, but my friend's DS was profoundly Deaf and it meant that his Dyspraxia difficulties were missed for a long time and put down to his communication problems. He was DXed as Deaf at 8 months but not Dyspraxic until he was 14 yo.

I would trust your mum instincts and see about getting a referral to a developmental paed. You may have more of a battle than average if he didn't have the hearing issues, but with your family history, they should at least take you seriously.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14507532 This BBC news article about sibling risk of autism makes interesting, if concerning, reading.

goonIcantakeit · 26/07/2013 16:29

sounds more like devoted parenting than poor parenting to me x

Might it be that he was born a little bit spectrummy, and that it was compounded greatly by the glue ear? So that now it's hard to figure out the root causes and probably not an either/or thing?

Have you got any idea about why nursery is better? Different sensory demands? Different kinds of social demands?

McFarts · 26/07/2013 17:12

Thanks for your replies Smile

I think he manages to hold it all together in nursery tbh, he meltsdown almost as soon as we go out the door, most days Sad. Though he enjoys going i think holding things together raises his anxiety levels, hence the meltdown when he leaves.....but this is just my take on it.

I honestly cant get my head around him (gosh thats sounds daft but im sure YKWIM) Yes there is no question he is spectrummy, but he is nothing like DD1, but then she is very text book., and of course no two children are ever the same, even the one's on the spectrum.

Just this afternoon we have been to a local petting farm, he made friends with a lovely little boy, they were playing lovely on an old tractor, right up until a another coupleo boys came along, he was horrid, shouting at the top of his voice for them to move "this is mine and my friends tractor" he was stomping mad, literally spitting at them in anger Sad of course the parent of the friend he'd made removed her child before i could actually step in and remove DS (id have been foolish to move him straight away, he was level with my face, he would have kicked me Sad )

I just feel so sad for him, my poor boy seems to spend most his day either in trouble or angry Sad, and i feel clueless on how to help him.

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goonIcantakeit · 26/07/2013 18:13

I don't have the answers but several friends with two spectrummy kids have said that having a different kind of spectrummy child from the first one is the hardest thing. They've devoted themselves to tuning in to Child 1 - they think they understand - and then the same techniques don't work at all for child 2.

My two kids are very very similar to each other in their developmental trajectories. Looking back I now realise that this really helped with DS2.

Also, by 4.5, quite a lot of development is past tense - it's too knotty to untangle what the hearing thing did and what the spectrum stuff did.

Can you drill down as deep as you can to the sensory level? DS2 is nearly 8 and still scared of handdryers. To help him, I have to remember mistakes I made when he was two... otherwise I just wouldn't be sympathetic....I'm not saying he still has oversensitive hearing - but I am saying that my failure to realise that he had oversensitive hearing when he was two is the reason why we still have problems at nearly 8.....:(. however, I'm a fab parent :) I'm just not perfect!

goonIcantakeit · 26/07/2013 18:19

just a thought - could nursery try to get him to talk about the simple feelings - happy/sad/angry using pictograms? And you use the same ones? I appreciate that his spoken language may be well above that level but as we both know that often hides a lack of understanding..... and also he uses aggressive language that must be hard to respond to.

I found it a long journey to get DS2 understanding others' feelings and he had to understand his own first, so we had to talk about his feelings a lot.

McFarts · 26/07/2013 18:41

goonIcantakeit Yes that a great idea. I had a good chat with our nursery SENCO prior to the holiday, she is going to work more actively with DS in September. His current key worker tho lovely is a newly qualified teacher and i just dont feel she has the right level of experience to get a proper angle on him.

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goonIcantakeit · 27/07/2013 18:49

glad you like the idea.

I've always found that most teachers can't get the idea of a child being able to speak but not to be able to take in what you are saying.

Ds2 has had a teacher this year who rations her words and strips everything back to its simplest level. It's been wonderful for him. It just seems to come naturally to her (she's a scientist by background).

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