First things first - I strongly recommend that you read The Explosive Child (or really, any of Ross Greene's books).
Second, I think you should consider having him evaluated by an autism specialist. Don't think that the psychologist you have already seen would necessarily have picked up on it. Our eldest managed to conceal his autism from a neuropsychologist who specializes in 2e kids during a full evaluation, but a psychologist who specializes in autism saw it in the first fifteen minutes. My reasons for suggesting evaluation are mostly the rigid, black-and-white thinking that you describe from the park visit, but also the memorizing and reading aloud. Does he quote stuff that he has heard or read in almost eerily appropriate ways? Had he ever heard someone read Harry Potter aloud (even months before) when he read it aloud to you? These are the kind of things that we saw with my younger son, who was the first to be diagnosed.
But the beauty of Ross Greene's methods is that they work whether or not he has autism or some other diagnosable issue.
ETA: chay's post wasn't up yet when I wrote this, but we're both thinking the same way.
Last edited by ElizabethN; 01/23/18 01:07 PM.
