Hi, I have a boy just about to turn 4.5. He is in full time nursery. I can see what I think are several traits of ASD in him, although I’m not sure as it could just be age. Traits I see are:
walks on tiptoes, but only when bare feet / socks on wooden floors. Doesn’t do it in shoes
is fairly sensitive to loud noises, ie kettle on in kitchen, hoover, hair dryer. He won’t melt down but will whine, turn it off turn it off, it’s too loud. He is getting better but still gets a bit bothered by it. He is generally fine at birthday parties in village hall type places but found the last one overwhelming - I must admit it was super loud as chaotic
he js very literal. Today we were in macdonalds and he had ordered an ice cream. The staff member was calling out numbers and I said you are number 12. He said, I am not 12 I am 4.
yesterday in the car he pointed to my dashboard and said, what are all those numbers. I said it tells you the speed limit, you have to go under a certain speed. And he said, mummy, but we can’t go under the road there’s no bridge. There’s loads of examples like these
He likes things his way. He has to sit in a certain chair, have a certain glass, be firaf
down the stairs, first to the door, get out of the car first etc. I wouldn’t say he melts down when he doesn’t get his way but he does whine fuss and there is usually some crying (few minutes up to 10 minutes usually)
He is good with numbers, can count more or less to 100, do number bonds to 20, take away, one more one less etc. He can name about 2/3 of the alphabet but cannot link letters to words at all. So if I say, what is the first sound of the word cat he will say “w”, “b” etc, he can’t play I spy at all.
He is confident and will talk to anyone including strangers.
he can have a decent 2 way conversation and answer questions but talks a lot of nonsense. For example, today, he suddenly says it’s my birthday on Friday. So and so is coming to my party and I have a large paw patrol cake (his birthday is months away). He said, mummy when you came out of my tummy you were really big. There is lots of nonsense like this.
he just does not seem to understand the world like my older child did at this age. my older one is v bright so I don’t know if my second is just more average or there’s an actual issue.
On the other hand, he has been in 3 nurseries (due to moving house). I have bought it up with 2 of them, none of them have noticed anything unusual about him compared to the other children. He was bang on average with all milestones, babbling, talking, walking etc. not ahead but not behind. He interacts well with his brother and has friends at nursery. He shows empathy, does imaginative play, and does lots of pointing and sharing / showing things he has done. His speech is good and where it should be. He is described by everyone he knows well as a “character”.
he is fairly exhausting due to wanting everything his way and trying to control everything and I just have this feeling there is something different about him.
any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you