I'm worried about my 5 year old grandson

Children's health
1

I have had my suspicions regarding my grandson being autistic; he started school in September and took months to settle in. He also refused to eat in the dinning hall and usually had lunch in the classroom with his TA.

Recently his teacher has had concerns with his concentration, learning and more recently his disruptive behaviour. The SENCO has suggested he gets assessed for autisim.

I have for many years worked with autistic adults (most have profound autisim), therefore I have experience in this area not with children.

I feel my grandson may have mild autisim; he is affectionate, good eye contact, plays well with children (but finds it difficult to share his toys) he does willingly share information eg if he sees something of interest he will point it out. He has problems with his bowel as he holds it for weeks at a time, he has an obsessed soon with keys and has had since a youn toddler. (He has a major tantrum if he loses the key he went to bed with and will not have a replacement key, it must be the original key)

Does anyone agree that I should have worries

2

Worrying about it is likely to have a counter-productive effect on you, as worry can disrupt the constructive thought process and inadvertently pass-on a sense of insecurity to the child.

I feel that you should adopt a methodical approach to this problem, and initially get him properly assessed.

When you are in possession of the facts then something can be done about it, that is if there is a problem with him at all.

Just a word to the wise, many people lie somewhere on a the Autistic Spectrum, and many of them have extraordinary talents, well above the norm - so stop worrying - please.

3

An interesting description.

I have a few of these conditions now 46 - still always want to share info, keys are an obsession as I do too much at one time and forget stuff. I'm terrified of being locked out of my home. (I have multiple copies of keys on different chains for when I'm driving, or catching the train or going to work.)

Sharing = maybe losing or even having the toy scratched and 'thinking he will be be blamed by parents / friends' ? that happened when I was young and it carried over into future behaivour.

My girlfriend said I had Aspergers but never had it formally looked at.

4

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. I am trying to stop worrying, just finding it hard.

5

Hi

Thanks for your reply.

The school are going to start an assessments when he returns after the summer break, however they have said it could be years before he gets s diagnosis if he does ever get one.