short attention spain/auditory processing disorder/autism - aaahh!

[chicca]

Not even sure whether I should be writing in tis section. I live in Spain and it's quite difficult to try and get answers through the usual channels over here.
DS1 is just 5. Over the years I have had a few comments from English speakers suggesting there may be problems with his behaviour. I have ruled out hyperactivity because he does not have problems sleeping and can focus if he chooses to for a little while. I have just been told by an American woman today running a summer camp that he has been going to that she has never met anyone with such a short attention span. This is true - to a point.
The other issue with him is that, although he was born here, he can't yet speak Spanish despite being at school for over a year and nursery before that (all exclusively Spanish). It's like he can't take it in properly. His English is fine and has a good vocab.
The other, slightly odd thing he does (and through googling this it sounds a bit autisitic) is that he runs back and forth in the lounge or garden humming to himself (just a noise, not a tune).
I know this is not a doctor's service but I feel that something is not quite right. Even if we lived in the UK I just wouldn't know where to start.

im not sure how it goes there but some pointers may need looking into to maybe if you have concerns the attention span and the running humming is what my ds does i dont know enough about your ds to know any more factors that could be leading towards ASD

we took our ds to gp who then forwarded us onto paediatrician who observed for over a yr and then we got a dx of high functioning autism

what other issues do you have with my ds

speech atypical speech sound swas very late talker
obsessions
eye contact good when talking to us flits away when we ask or talk to him
very bright with numbers way above age average
running is my ds thing its a way for him to de sensitise from all his stress
very to his own agenda

cannot think of much else at moment but sorry your feeling so down about it all his still your amazing boy but you may just need to look into it further so he gets the help he needs to progress

oh sensitivities for my ds hates loud noises now
hates hair being washed or cut same for nails
running
loves his games could play them all day ds or on computer
likes sitting in dark bedroom to watch dvds sometimes just needs to be alone and this can be all day in his room

we have sleep issues with our ds which affects how sensitive to things he is other than that he could come across as "normal" he has atypical speech sounds but people presume he just has speech problems not ASD

dont know if this will help

thanks for all that bubbla. other issues are mostly behavioural although his teacher reports back that he is pretty good at school (by good i mean he gets on with the task in hand i guess). At home he is very trying when his little brother is about (perfectly normal). He quite often thrown toys around, won't listen to us - all of which are reasonably normal patterns of beahviour really. When he is on his own he is much calmer. He does hate having his hair washed and was awful for ages about having it cut (better now). Took him to a party the other day (one of his first) and they were all sitting in a circle listening to the instructor (it was some outside play adventure thing). Within seconds he was running around causing a scene and they said he had been 'difficult to control'. Having said that he is quite a wimp when it comes to playgrounds, bicycles etc. Just can't seem to cycle at all.
I go from thinking that there is nothing unusual to thinking that we must treat him differently and we can't lay all these expectations on him. Of course he still our gorgeous boy (who is getting chicken pox as we speak!).
Thanks for the link - good to see they have such places here but unfortunately other end of the country.

the not being able to cycle could be something as its a motor skill and quite often motor skills can be affected such as peddling a bike for eg

could be worth you looking into to grasping party's is hard for my ds also following the group instruction he doesn't understand what's expected of him and would probably just run around back and forth if left alone

i can see there are some pointers not necessarily ASD but maybe something else contributing to these factors can he write properly use scissors etc? is he accident prone fall over a lot or walk into things a lot?

maybe the link above if you phone they could tell you of anywhere nearer to you or how to go about getting seen to assess

good luck

yes, instruction may well be difficult on 2 levels here as it is all in Spanish which I'm nt sure he understands half the time plus any other processing difficulty he may be having. He's not at all clumsy or accident prone and is ok at scissors (he's also left handed!). I looked at the ASD symptoms list on the NHS website and in truth couldn't really say that any of them were 'him'. Having said that the running and humming (which is definitely increasing) is not listed there! Seems like he might have a little bit of various things??

Some of this may be sensory processing related. Look at some of the other posts about sensory integration dysfunction or sensory processing disorder. can often seem like ASD type behaviour when it's not. Put these terms into google aswell and see if anything sounds familiar.