Age 4 - 5

From the work I do in screening for ASD at work, I knew that this year (age 4 to 5)  is important in identifying key differences in development for a diagnosis of ASD.  DP and I noticed that T1 continued to be different from his peers in the following ways:

• his voice sounded too mature for his age - he would speak like an old man at times, funny but odd too from a 4 year old
• he went through a 2 month phase of faecal soiling and smearing - my feeling is that this was something to do with him wanting sensory input and that he enjoyed smelling strong smells?
• he continued to have periods of  hyperarousal/overstimulation and distress at times which required extra support from nursery staff - he never required to be removed from nursery but needed to be removed from the normal teaching environement to calm down
• he continued to have some specialist skills and interests including remembering people by the types of cars they drove, knowing the engine types of aeroplanes and a fascination with aerials and sattelites
• nursery teachers reported that he was clever for his age
• he showed an interest in being very helpful to younger children but not necessarily his peers
• he could appear defiant at times and went through a period of shouting 'shut up' to nursery staff - this was resolved by doing some puppetry work at home
• he seemed to be playing more with other children although he never seemed to initiate this
• he continued to struggle with any change in his routine
• he struggled to contain and cope with feeling angry or 'cross' and went through a phase of hitting out at his younger brother - this was resolved by teaching him some time out techniques

T1 started school nursery at age 4 and I didn't mention that I had concerns about his development initially.  In my mind, I knew that a qualified teacher would be working with him and that she would pick up on his differences in time.  Sure enough, I put my name down to do parent duty in the nursery around 3 months after he started there.  The teacher said that it was good that I was there as she had been wanting to discuss T1's progress with me.  She had very quickly picked up on some of his unique traits and had tuned into him very well and shared much the same concerns as DP and I.  I let her know that I thought he had an Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Given our shared concerns she let me know that she would refer T1 to the school Educational Psychologist for further advice.  I also said that I would give nursery some hints and tips on things that I have found to work at home and ways to deal with T1's quirks.  Finally, it felt like the process of looking into a possible diagnosis was moving along.