Child interactions

Mine is exactly the same she turned 3 yesterday she plays along side but doesn’t initiate it and is not good at sharing either , she is also behind in speech and on the waiting list for therapy , her child care has mentioned autism but I don’t think it’s that but think she may have global development delay do you have any of these suspicions? X

My little girl is 3 on Thursday and doesn’t show any interest in playing with other children either, even slightly regressed at preschool from independent play to wanting an adult to play with her/supervise her all the time which has resulted in lots of tears at preschool even though she loves it!

@Katie why did they mention austism and also global development delay? Why u think this? Xx

@Ellie so my lil one is great at independent play and good with adults just not children, weather it will just come at some point I don't know.

Mine is exactly the same, if I ask her who she played with on the days she attends she’s quite happy to tell me all about the staff!! I hope it’s something that comes in time!xx

Glad you’ve posted this. We’ve had similar concerns raised. Speech delay and not playing with others. But when I google it, it’s supposed to develop after 3. At surely once he talks playing with others becomes much easier as Its a 2-way thing ? They are mentioning autism and personally I don’t see it. I have experience with autism albeit not in young children but at home he’s such a happy boy who’s fairly straight forward. With no issues at all. They think because he flaps a bit when excited and struggles when it’s noisy part of me thinks it’s all a bit too soon he’ll do things in his own time but equally I get so in my head that I’m letting him down

@Natasha isit nursery that say about austism? What makes them think it? I have questioned it in my mind by reading things but nursery haven't mentioned autism to me

Yea nursery have bye see of speech delay not playing with other struggling when it gets noisy and flapping when he gets excited. I’ve been send the autism assessment for to fill out from a home point of view but I have absolutely no concerns and nothing to write Obviously absolutely his speech could be better but he sings reads books he can recite book from memory and says plenty of upto 4 word sentences.

@Natasha yeah nursery have picked up on speech delay and playing with other kids and sharing. Everything else she seems to be getting on OK. What I have noticed though is she is saying and doing more outside of nursery than she is in nursery. Don't Know if that's the same with your little boy? I just keep blaming myself and wondering if it could be more and it's so horrible that I'm thinking this way. Do u let your lil one watch Tv?

Yea absolutely the same he talks loads at home. And sometimes plays with others. Yea exactly in one breath I’m so confident that at home he absolutely fine and in the next breath i feel like im letting him down and im missing something. Yea so generally speaking CBeebies is always on in the background and then a few time though out the day he’ll ask for you tube. But I’ve stopped putting it on CBeebies and he really doesn’t notice. Today when we got home from soft play I didn’t even turn it on. I just had the radio on and he played so nicely - so I think I’m going to do that more. But on the other hand I think why not sit and chill he’s busy most days x

Her nursery mentioned autism because of the speech delay , not initiating play and being fussy with food but she is never normally fussy at home she is very greedy but I know all the food she likes which is a variety of all different things but will refuse things she doesn’t like when at nursery but also if there is other things going on she can get distracted so won’t eat anything so when at home there is no distractions so it seems more like an environmental issue to me and them offering foods she doesn’t like . I feel like autism is being predicted for everything these days when it could simply be kids just learning and doing things in their own time which is out of the “average “ criteria on paper . I allow her to watch 30 mins a day if we have any free time which I don’t think will do any harm and she’s started singing along to songs she hears from certain programs which is a positive for me .

My son is 3 on Saturday and doesn’t interact with other children but he’s autistic and he’s non verbal

@Sam does he go to nursery? Does he interact with adults? When u say non verbal does he not use any words at all? Xx

@Sam hi Sam, do you mind sharing some of the early signs for your son that indicated he was autistic? Is there anything he particularly struggles with x

@Natasha if he speaks in 4 word sentences why is he considered to be speech delayed ? does he answer questions and ask questions ?

He does yeah took him 8 weeks in total to even settle and he only interacts with adults he knows well. No words at all no

@Natasha hi yeah sure so the first concern of ours was that he didn’t answer to his name, his development was behind and still is, no eye contact for long periods of time, he lines up toys, spins in circles, flaps hands, he will just laugh at what seems like nothing and will also just cry. He struggles with new places with new people for example we tried to take him to the aquarium and he had the biggest meltdown we had to leave, as soon as he was back in his comfort zone in the car with me and his tablet he was smiling again x

@Angeli Kanungo I’m not sure he says lots of things sings lots of songs, can recite quite a few books. He’ll say things like what’s that, what’s that sounds what is he doing. Where’s he gone but Only really like in a rehearsed way when he knows the answer. Like in dear zoo he says there’s a monkey - what’s he doing and the he answers eating a banana. But I still take all of that as wins. He doesn’t speak in proper sentences/ conversational but I think it’s all the beginning of his speech development.

@Sam that’s really helpful. I think it sounds like your son has lots of the typical signs. I feel like I’m so observant of everything he does constantly questioning is everything he does is normal toddler behaviour ir a sign of autism. I’ve only worked with young adults with autism so already diagnosed and they have lots of things in place. So this is all new to me. Ignore me if I’m overstepping but quite a few of the sea life centre have walk through videos on YouTube. So it might help familiarise him and be less daunting if you do want to try again x

@Natasha yeah it’s obvious tbh but he’s such a happy little boy and just happy in his own world. It’s understandable to be honest but I just knew with him call it mother’s intuition and I was right. Aw thank you I might try that as it can be hard to get him out to places like that :)