Crikey where to start.  Over the past few years there hasn’t been one defining moment but lots of little things that singularly on there own are not a concern,  but when you sit back and analyse them, it highlights something isn’t quite right.  Prior to being 12 possibly 18 months old Elliot appeared to be developing normally nothing to alarming but has always been a little shy.  I guess as children develop they do so much growing and changing in the early years that you maybe don’t always notice changes immediately.  At this stage Elliot’s shyness starts to become more obvious and over time is becoming worse.  He takes longer to warm up in social situations and finds it hard being around anyone even family unless it is someone he spend a lot of time with and is really comfortable with.  Not such a huge issue but he starts to get worse with him really not liking to maintain eye contact and trying to avoid it if he can.  His ability in social situations is worsening it is a struggle to get him to go to play groups and he starts to object more and more.  He develops a very high pitched scream that is really loud and it appears to be more obvious when he is excited and it becomes more frequent.  It starts to get increasingly difficult to get him to leave the house even if it is to do something fun like go to the park.  There are a lot of tears and upset if he doesn’t want to co-operate.   Along the way the shyness worsens and we find that we adapt ourselves to explaining what is happening to Elliot so he knows what to expect next this helps with the reluctance to do different things which throws us off the scent and makes us think that it is just a phase he is going through.

I think it is very fair to say that we get better and better at managing Elliot’s expectations so that any issues he has are pretty well hidden.  A few strange things happen along the way like he is stung by a bee on family day out and he has a really terrible reaction and is completely inconsolable for nearly an hour.  This results in a major paranoia about any flying insect and A few scenarios like this occur where something unexpected happens and he just can’t deal with it and it becomes a really big issue i.e. he falls over and has a tiny graze on his knee, not a big issue for most children but is for Elliot.  Going for injections becomes a big deal also.  As do hair cuts, ears being cleaned, hair washing and finger nail cutting.  Some of these things he becomes more comfortable with and others not so much He gets obsessed with wearing his sunglasses and WILL NOT leave the house with out them.  He also develops fixations. about footwear that cause huge meltdowns if he can’t wear what he wants.  All these little things are starting to add up……