In the process of watching our DD8 and deciding whether to push for an ASD assessment. I am ready, DH not quite convinced yet. She's clever, no issues at school, but struggles socially and with a change in environment resulting in frequent meltdowns - to me it looks like classic autism in girls with masking, exhaustion etc - there's plenty more that I won't go into now.
My question is - she is absolutely hopeless at following instructions to get ready for school or similar. Every day it results in my screeching and hyperventilating as we get later and later and she still isn't acting with any sense of urgency to get ready. We have tried switching routines around, just introduced a Fitbit that will buzz at regular intervals reminding her to get ready, tried leaving early, tried reasoning, explaining....it's like talking to a brick wall. It's not that she doesn't want to get ready (she loves school, and hates being late) - it's like she just can't action what she needs to do to get us out the house. We ended up having another huge upset last night because she wouldn't go and brush her teeth - not that she didn't want to, it's like she's wading through thick glue and just can't put the intention into an action. With all her symptoms I find them much easier to accept when I see it as an ASD matter rather than just naughtiness. Other than this I don't see any signs of ADD, certainly not ADHD - she is doing very well at school and can sit and craft or draw for hours - to the point of painful perfection, where she can't walk away from anything unless it's perfect. Never hyperactive. But the inability to get ready does make me occasionally wonder if there is an aspect of ADD thrown into the mix. My question is, is this just a normal 8 year old thing or could it be associated with ASD? Am I seeing things now because I've spent so long reading into this and trying to make sense of her quirks (and make her life easier!)