Is there a term for this minor thing?

[FrayedHem]

DS3 is 3.6, currently waiting for a multi-disciplinary assessment. I've noticed something that I'm sure there is a word for, but can't think what it is.

Reading a book, there is a picture of a jigsaw, he sees the overall picture but doesn't seem to grasp the jigsaw element. Same with a picture of a book, he recognises the pictures on the page but not that it's on a book. And this is a much loved and read book so have modelled back "yes it's a Jigsaw. A rabbit Jigsaw" countless times.

I am sure there is a term for it somewhere but I am afraid I don't know it. It sounds as though perhaps he has difficulty seeing things in a multidimensional way? Perhaps to him the picture is either a rabbit or a jigsaw but not both. In my experience (as a mother, nothing more professional) younger children do this, I remember encountering a similar problem with my children when they first began identifying things in picture books and it was a process, for example we might have 'car' one day then 'red car', then 'big red car' and so on. Then more complex things like identifying a dog on a jumper or a book/jigsaw similar to what you mention.

When DS3 was little I recall he had difficulty identifying things for more than one purpose in a similar way, if the boy in the book had a picture if a house then it was always a house not a picture of a house. If I am honest I never really picked up on it (he had other complex problems) and until I ready this post I hadn't analysed it at all. I am sorry to not be any help, I hope someone else has experience of it and can be of more use, I will be interested to know what, if anything it means.

Is the term you're looking for 'weak central coherence'? It's a theory in autism circles…." loosely described as a limited ability to understand context or to "see the big picture", underlies the central disturbance in autism and related autism spectrum disorders." Maybe worth a google?

Thanks for the replies.

DS3's responses to questions are quite hit and miss, although this is improving. SALT described the question response variation as DS3 being on his "own agenda"; but I really feel there is a processing issue going on. I feel like I lose him easily in conversation, and even with the more visual stuff. (DS1 is dx with ASD and I'm in no way shying away from a dx when we do get to assessment stage).

DS3 For ages all liquids were juice including bath, even though he had the word for water in his vocabulary, he wasn't relating it to the concept. I'm not really sure what I'm waffling on about now (!) just wanted to give the teacher's a heads up with a snappy term I suppose!

The theory was an interesting read and he is very much not seeing the wood for the trees.