New to the group

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone,

I've been reading your messages for a little over a month but finally wanted to

introduce

myself. My son will be 3 in August and has not been officially diagnosed yet

(we're on the

clinic's waiting list). But I have known for a long time that something was

really different

about him. Everyone else thought that I was just a worry-wort and that he was

fine but I

persisted. Someone wrote a post a while ago that sounded almost exactly like me

son. He

is very obsessive, especially with his trains, cars, etc. -- anything with

wheels. He lines

them up over and over again. He loves signs -- especially road signs and has

memorized

all of them. If we're taking a walk, he has to go up to the sign and at least

touch the pole if

he can't reach the sign. He has a really hard time with transitions and needs to

finish his

pattern before being disrupted. He used to be obsessed with opening and closing

sliding

doors but that has gotten a little better. He does a lot of visual stimming with

things that

are repetitive like fences, wheels, posts, etc. He's got a lot of language

pragmatic

problems -- he calls himself " you " and other people " I " . He will oftentimes just

repeat a

question when we ask him one instead of answering it. He's had a lot of

difficulties

socializing with other children. For a long time it seemed like he was actually

afraid. He's

very social with adults though. We have him in a Montessori preschool 2 mornings

a week

and that has helped him overcome some of the social fears. He's very

affectionate with

adults and in general is a very happy child. He doesn't really seem to

understand when

someone else is angry or sad though and just smiles like normal. He also seems

to have a

love/talent for music.

We are working with an OT and ST and will enroll him in a special needs

preschool in the

fall where he'll continue OT and ST. We're in Northern CA by the way (Santa

).

We really have difficulty getting him to be interested in doing things for

himself.

Everything is a struggle! He has no interest in getting dressed/undressed

himself, he's not

very good with eating utensils, he doesn't want to try other " big kid "

activities. Any advice

in this area? I'm sure a big part of it is his lack of fine and gross motor

skills. Maybe we

just need to be patient?

Well, I guess I've rambled on long enough. I'm sure there's more to say about

him but I'll

wait for future posts. Thanks for reading.

Colleen