If he is looking toward the social worker I don't think it's autism, it's insecurity. He is smart enough to know he needs help and if he's not sure what the answer is and is shy about it, he's going to look away or at the SW.
If you do not see poor eye contact at home or with other people he feels comfortable with it sounds like it is situational.
Also someone told me once that people who specialize in something can have a tendency to see that something more often than not (it can become their "go to" if that makes sense)… so if the SW in question is used to seeing kids on the spectrum, they may just jump to that instead of digging deeper.
However that said, the EdPsych that tested my son (also with social skills and okay academics- he is at grade level but not really working above) said he had anxiety and perfectionism but that was about it based on slow processing speed. When nothing worked to fix anxiety I took him to a psychiatrist who diagnosed him with a tic disorder (which included tics, inattentiveness- which explained social skills delays and daydreaming - ocd and anxiety. If you had told me all that was going on when I took him to the EdPsych I would have been shocked, but now I can see it all going back to 1st grade. So if your gut is telling you something is wrong, trust it and dig further. If not, asynchrony -fun, right?
Last edited by LAF; 01/09/16 12:27 PM. Reason: wanted to add something
