Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional leads please -- harder to do it when he knows how

This was really weird, and it's part of a pattern with some other weirdnesses, he's being evaluated soon, I was just hoping someone might have noticed something like this and be able to give me some leads on what might be causing it...

DS wanted to type, there are some letters he recognizes very easily. He had a much harder time bringing himself to type them than the ones he does not know as well. He would, 20-30 times, bring his hand down to press the right key, but then zoom off and hit a different one at the last second, or suddenly switch to a fist, and type a mess of different letters, etc.

It seemed the more sure he was of what he was doing the HARDER it was to bring himself to actually do it.

I've seen this before in him, but not to this extent, and he was starting to do a lot of flapping and stuff while it happened, which also worried me a bit. He was VERY sure he wanted to do what he was doing, and I spent a lot of time trying to get him to stop... but he wouldn't.

Thanks.

Hmm. I don't know. Speaking purely as a layperson, the flapping and task persistence seem spectrum-my?

How does his "theory of mind" seem? (That's when they have awareness that other people have thoughts and perspective independent from their own).

For example, let's say you and DS were standing in front of your house, facing each other (you're facing the house and he's facing the street). If he has his back to the house and can see the street behind you, if his theory of mind is sound he should know that since you're facing him, you DON'T see the street behind him but instead you see the the house.

How is he with two way conversations?

The typing problem almost sounds like an issue with vision. Does he seem to have any other problems with his eyes?

He could DEFINITELY see the letters... he was picking the right one, over and over and over, and it just seemed like something grabbed him, at the last moment, and he couldn't bring himself to do it, many times he touched the button and held his finger on it for maybe 10 seconds, before suddenly and somewhat spasmodically lurching to another key and typing that. A few times he whispered it correctly before saying another letter louder and then pushing it. And this was most pronounced on the letters he knows best, like the first letter of his name, X, and W.

He can work his way through theory of mind stuff intellectually better than age appropriately, I think. But in the house example, he'd absolutely not be able to get it.

He's not so hot on 2 way conversations. Well. Ok, when he wants answers and he's directing, he's better than average for his age... mostly because of vocab, stick-toitiveness, and so on. But when other people start conversations he ignores them. Completely. And even when he's asking questions, he as trouble stopping to hear the answers, he wants you to keep talking over him and then start answering the next question. kinda. or something.

But he's also only 3...

Anyway, we have some ASD concerns. The main reason I'm asking about this weird thing is that it *doesn't* fit into an ASD pattern that I know of...

He just melted down because he was afraid his dad wouldn't get him out of the bath in time for him to spell more tonight.

I am afraid...

Think of me tonight...

(I was wondering today about some kind of reverse facilitated communication situation... what if he has MORE trouble handling written communication than spoken, but not in a hard-to-do way, in a stuck sort of way???)

He really hates it when I do anything like that, but he was letting me do it a bit last night. One of the ways I could tell he really did want to keep trying was that he allowed that.



-Mich.

This actually sounds like my DD10 when she was three (she's not on the spectrum). She was SO INTENSE about her passions (reading and math).

(Seriously! What three year old is passionate about reading and math???) Um... yeah.

Your DS sounds really interesting