Hi,I'm new to this forum and am looking for opinions and reassurance really! Going through a very confusing time at the moment! I am a mummy to a gorgeous 3 year old little boy who has been referred for assessment as it has been noticed by his preschool that he has poor social skills. Since my DS was 18 months old my husband and myself have had concerns about him, initially it was his lack of speech and extreme mood swings; which we put down to be due to speech problems! At 2yrs old he was referred to speech therapy by our HV, but his "up/down" behaviour was just dismissed by her. He was seen to have a speech delay by the speech therapist, however by the time his actual speech therapy began 6 months later, his speech had got better and he was actually discharged after his 1st session!!! His temper tantrums have I believe got better over the last year, the thing is when he does have what I call a "meltdown" it's major and always in public, most of the time for no apparent reason, therefore I feel like I'm unable to prevent these tantrums from happening!!! He has always struggled going into nursery which initially was only a couple of mornings a week, screaming when I left, so I put this down to separation anxiety! He also has problems going to the toilet, holding his urge to have a bowel movement for days by running up and down screaming until the urge passes, which in turn leads to constipation. We thought that maybe his behaviour was due to being fretful about going to the toilet! Things came to a head recently when he had a complete meltdown at preschool and it took a couple of staff to calm him down, I spoke to his keyworker who suggested they bring someone in to observe him as they were concerned about his tantrums, which they also agreed happened for no apparent reason, one minute he is giggling the next screaming, then back to giggling again! They were also concerned about his poor social skills, as he is only 3 but due to start school next September! He doesn't seem to want to interact with the other children, he would rather interact with the adults or play on his own. If the other kids are playing outside, he would rather play with trains on his own. If another child approaches him to play he tends to lash out at them! My little boy does have an older sister who is 5 years old, and this is why I'm confused! He does play with her, albeit on his terms and he loves cuddling her, infact he is the most loving child, always saying how much he loves me and kissing me! i can't really understand his lack of interest in other children as he does play with his sister. As preschool had raised concerns I contacted my new HV who came around to see him. She has referred him to see a community pediatrician due to our concerns and so we are awaiting an appointment. Meanwhile DS is going to be observed next week in his playgroup setting which will hopefully give me some peace of mind! The HV said to me she always trusts parent's instincts as they know their child the best, my instinct is that my DS is showing some traits of ASD and this has been my instinct since he was 18 months, however, there are days when he surprises me and then I think maybe I'm being neurotic and reading too much into his behaviour! Such a confusing time, are there any other parents out there going through similar experiences at the moment?
