Dd repeating the same thing in certain situations and other unusual behaviour? HFA?

[Blossom4538]

Hi all,

Dd (6) is under assessment for ASD.

She has found it difficult to speak around or directly to people and avoids eye contact, has anxious, stiff posture at times.

So recently, she has made some progress but I’ve noticed that she tends to do the same things around her teacher or classmates at school, when I’m there, whether it be at hometime or if there is an event on in her classroom. She often has to remove her hair bands and will run her hands through her hair and loudly announce that she has nits, lol...she hasn’t! She will also sigh loudly and has told me she does this at lunchtime at school too. Makes me jump! Considering she’s anxious and struggles to communicate at times, she will now make random announcements - not focus on what I’m doing with her in class, will loudly say things like, “I have nits”, “I want to be on Britain’s Got Talent”, “our cat has fleas”, “aaaaaargh, hmmmmm”, “I’m bored”, also always announcing she’s hungry or thirsty and she seems obsessed with eating or drinking LOTS in social situations.

She also has sensory issues but on top of that, she doesn’t like certain words being said. Her friends find this hard to understand. She currently doesn’t like any speak of “mashy food” - she means potato based food, as she was very sick after eating chips last summer and has not touched potato since and doesn’t like people to mention them! She has always been funny with texture of potato really. Random I know!

She will lick us or chew her hair sometimes in social settings.

She is slightly obsessed with genitals, more female. Odours too unfortunately!! She has to be told to stop touching her bits at certain times at home.

Do you think worth mentioning this to Paed when we next see her.

Anyone seen similar behaviours?
Thanks so much!

Yes you should mention all these behaviours. It's a good idea to write some notes before you go as it is easy to forget when you are sitting in the meeting, but the Paed needs to have as full a picture as possible.

Our son (diagnosed with ASD at 7) used to bang his head or nose against people when he was a similar age. He also used to bang his head on the floor.I think by the time he was about 10, he had grown out of it.

He used to avoid eye contact and hates people looking at him. When he was 9, I wanted to tell his TA about something good he had achieved over the weekend and he begged me not to as, "Mrs TA will tell Mrs Teacher and Mrs Teacher will tell the other children and they will all put their eyes on me, and that's scary."

DS used to have a lot of sensory issues, especially with clothes - he
hated socks, trousers, long sleeves and anything tight fitting. We had to cut the labels out of all his clothes and he used to wear shorts all year round (except at school in winter) until we discovered Primark's regular fit chinos.

There were also two words beginning with the same sound that he hated and he would shout aggressively whenever he heard them , (or anything that sounded like them)"Don't say (word) !" He would even shout it at the television!

This started when he was about 7 and went on for years. We are not sure why this started but we believe his elder brother had something to do with it - some sort of wind up using one of these words over and over again.

One of the words was a common food item which we ate on a regular basis, and we very quickly at home learnt to call it something else, but obviously had problems when eating out, and the other word was a word commonly used in schools, which invariably created problems as other children would say it deliberately to wind him up.

This carried on until 2-3 years ago (although as he grew older he progressed to whispering, rather than shouting) and started receiving CBT as a result of other issues. These words were a focus for therapy along with everything else, and amazingly, he now no longer has these issues . After so many years I thought they were entrenched for all time!

Interestingly, I have never heard of another child doing this before, and DS is now 22.

Thank you so much for your reply.

Dd doesn’t like being looked at, but on the other hands, seems to demonstrate behaviour to seek attention also!!!

I feel she may be mildly on the autism spectrum (aspergers traits perhaps).

This appointment with Paed is in conclusion to multi agency assessment and ongoing observation. Last year it was a wait and watch approach and that she may be at the very high functioning end of the spectrum. I hope it’s not too late to add this info.

She also shouts, growls or lashes out at people when they sneeze, blow their noses or even place a tissue against their nose. She manages to control it in school. She hates the noise.

She also talks about others genitals a lot and tries to touch H’s and mine. Also herself’s. I know all children are curious, but at this age, I think I would have been devastated if I’d accidentally touched my parents genitals, lol!!!

She talks about her teachers “bits”, cousins, Aunty, tv character, hers, mine!!

They have said definite anxiety, sensory issues etc, also Selective Mutism.

She is also terrified of getting a “mark” at school and is now telling tales on friends for small things, as she either doesn’t want to get in trouble herself or feels they are bad things to do...

When she was little she would repeat a word if she drank out of anything blue?!! The same poss made up word. Just a phase.

Also, made up a name for a security light on a house behind us and used to be fascinated with it. She would check if it’s on and we’d have to walk around to see it at times. Prob around age 3-4

She can seem pretty neurotypical at home with us, perhaps a little quirky and sensory issues, aggression. I think the problem is more socially.

You've just reminded me -DS used to growl and slap people too, especially at school.

It shouldn't be too late to add this info. They need it to build up the whole picture.

Oh dear, it sounds like genitals might be her "obsession.". Hopefully she'll move onto something less embarrassing soon! DS had/has obsessions over the years. We went in turn from Thomas the tank engine to dinosaurs , minibeasts, robots, polar bears, cats, and we're now on Dr Who / steam trains.