We have just returned from a great trip home to England for Christmas to a little bit of a surprise.  Elliot took some Kindergarten readiness tests in December so we headed into school to get the results.  We met with Teacher Bonnie Elliots 4 day Preschool teacher at Mulberry to discuss what they found.  The tests are designed to determine how well your child is doing and whether they are ready for Kindergarten.  Although we are not completely blind to how Elliot has been doing since we arrived in California I think what we are about to find out is still a little bit of a shock.  Elliot has always been what we have described as very quite and struggles to integrate with his peers, I guess in England he would probably be described as a very shy little boy.  This aside we sit down to discuss the tests with Bonnie, in which many areas of development are assessed.  The expectation at Elliot’s age is to be scoring an average of 7 in all of the various areas.  Anything above this is determined above average and the child is doing really well.  This is where the good news starts and pretty much ends……..Elliot scored well over 7 in lots of areas in some areas 14 and 15 the bad news is that he scored 0 in lots of areas also.  So what could this possibly mean Bonnie seems to think there is some sort of learning difference in play here.  I’m not so sure and here is why………..

Since Elliot was 18 months old he has always had a very high pitched scream, this obviously doesn’t sound like much but this coupled with some other unusual behaviours such as reluctance to change in routines, his reaction to relatively normal situations, difficulty mixing in any large groups, especially his  peers and struggling to express emotions have made me wonder if he is on the Autism Spectrum.  From what little I knew about Autism I felt that Elliot was not severely Autistic but he certainly is exhibiting characteristics from the spectrum.  With this in mind I decided to ask Bonnie the question I didn’t want the answer to.  “Do you think that Elliot is Autistic?”

Bonnie answered with a very firm No but did feel that something else maybe in play and discussed the term “Learning Difference” again.  As Elliot is such a bright little boy I struggled to think how this could be the case.  Bonnie suggested that the next steps would be to enlist the help of the student support worker Paula Ramos to come into class and observe Elliot.  We also needed to start considering our options for next year as the test showed Elliot wasn’t ready for Kindergarten so we would need to make another choice.  Simon and I leave the meeting feeling pretty shell shocked no parent wants to here that their child isn’t the next genius in the making let alone has “issues” they need to overcome.  We certainly have a lot to think about until our next meeting with Bonnie and Paula.  Hopefully Paula will be able to come into class and observe Elliot pretty soon.

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……