Could my son have autism?

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I do actually homeschool my children. I always put my kids in little classes or mini camps, though, to help socialize them. Is that not recommended? Homeschooling him has been VERY difficult on myself and him. He gets frustrated over the simplest things and it takes him about 3-5 times longer than it takes the average student to do. I use a purchased curriculum. We took a break, though, right now and I've been trying to figure out a way to modify his curriculum to make it easier on him while still making sure he learns everything he needs to. Do you have any suggestions? I also just ordered a wobble cushion since I heard it helps with autistic children to focus during school. I'm not sure if it will help my son or not since I feel it might mess with his sensory anxiety, but I'd figured I'd give it a try.

http://www.nar.org/find-a-local-club/
He might enjoy rocket club launches.

Thanks! I'll have to check that out! Hopefully there is one nearby! He would be in heaven!

Quick question, is sticking his tongue out an autistic trait? I've gotten so used to it since he was a baby, but my doctor has brought it up the past few appointments, but I guess I kind of ignored her, because his tongue never seemed to effect him, but if anything help him deal with a situation. He sticks his tongue out quite frequently especially when in public, greeting people, or when he is really happy. It is adding to his social awkwardness now that he is 6, though. So I was just curious.

Sticking his tongue out might be a stim, which is a movement used for self-calming. Stims can come and go. Common ones are spinning and rocking. My son makes his hands into claws and bends and unbends his fingers (kind of hard to describe accurately). It's probably better to ignore the tongue thing, because if you stop him doing it he'll get stressed out and probably develop a different stim, anyway. If you really want to discourage it, though, you could try getting him some fidget toys to replace the behavior.

The only other thing that comes to mind (and this is pretty unlikely) is that his tongue is slightly too large for his mouth. This is common among people with Down Syndrome; perhaps it can happen to other people, too?

Does he stick out his tongue to mock people?

I also home school, and as far as mini camps and the like go, it really depends. I would never do it with mine because honestly I would never rust someone not trained in ASDs to deal with my son's issues properly. There are summer things I do with him, but I am there, and can handle things with him, and take him out, if something goes awry,which is not uncommon. If it were less common, I might try something very, very short, but alas it isn't.

If you think your child is doing well, there may be some issues you are unaware of, and that really is a matter of getting your child to communicate with you. I went to summer camps as a child, and it was hit and miss with the activities there. Some of the social aspects were nightmarish-but it varied. Alot of the same social dynamics present in school, will be present in camps, and can either be worse or better depending on how much structure and unsupervised by adults potential bullies might be. I wish they had things like robot camp, when Iw as a kid, oas that may have gone better.

No, definitely not. It is like he can't helped himself at all. Like in the above circumstamces: really excited, out in public, or when greeting others that is not his immediate family. He will sometimes lick himself also when he is real nervous. I have never discouraged him about his tongue expect when he licks himself.

That definitely sounds like a stim. Stims are used primarily as a self-regulation mechanism. If he always does it when excited, it may be that some wiring of his interprets this as calming,

I always allow any stimming that is not destructive or disruptive b/c if they can't do what they need to do, they will find another stim which may be less benign. Anything destructive, I try to find replacements for, and anything disruptive I try to find alternatives for places other than home or try for deferment until in a different environment, or I take him outside.

Most of the things we do is like storytime at the library or other library events. My son, though, would listen to the books during storytime, but he would be the only one for the almost 5 years going that would have nothing to do with the dancing or singing. But the librarians never said anything to him. The only problem I think I've had was when there was a free karate class at the library awhile ago. Since he has no interests in any sports, I thought I would give karate a try to see if that sparked an interest with him. That was such a bad decision. The Master had a really loud voice with was too much for our son. And like storytime, he didn't want to do any of the movements. Well, eventually they got upset at him (even though he was not harming anyone by standing there doingredients nothing) and kicked him out. Between the loud voice and being kicked off, his little spirit was broken for awhile...

I do feel so bad about some things I did, though. For example, when we took showers (or he took a bath), he would be crying, screaming, and kicking the entire time like he was petrified. I would try and reason with him, even though I knew he couldn't be reasoned with at that point, that it was just water. The same water we drink. Most days I was calm during the close to 4 years years of going through this, but once in a great while I would get a bit upset. I feel bad for being upset with him when it wasn't his fault especially if he has ASD.

Yeah, library type events is exactly what we do too. I have made some mistakes about taking him to things I probably should not have too/ When I have doubts, I ask him, but sometimes there are sensory surprises or other issues. He doesn't get embarrassed, so I just take him out when there is an issue.

It's starting to sound like finding a group for ASD children would be good. To at least let him see that he's not the odd man out. You're basically describing me as a child, the way I would avoid all group activities, just sit in the out field playing with the grass. A baseball rolled past me, and all the parents in the bleachers were shouting, which I didn't hear a thing. I was focused on the grass. Afterward my mom scolded me and I think I cried because I didn't understand.

Maybe the confusion was that I always loved watching the Braves game with my PawPaw, so why wouldn't I want to play the game myself? I associated baseball with television, not with being outside. That's just how my brain worked at the time. I learned in such a literal manner, that if I'm not sitting on a sofa, it must not be sports.

The drawback to getting him around other ASD children is that there's going to be noise, so I definitely recommend earplugs. He's going to start stimming in a much more active way than tongue-poking. Jumping up and down and clapping during an activity, for example, would be a great sign, and could still qualify as a stim behavior for him to use. There really is a lot of energy in that brain of his, and if there's not an outlet, then he's containing this private hurricane of thoughts that he may not have words for.

I got worse around ages twelve and thirteen, and alienated my whole family with my silence. But I rode a bicycle all around town, so that was my healthy stimulation behavior. Sometimes for hours and hours, sometimes going farther than I knew I was supposed to. And my family had a reimbursing attitude of "fine, be that way," when I went into the silent phases. Oddly, it started right around the time of my parent's divorce. That, and I got much more involved in video games, which didn't help much.

I'm mostly at a loss for advice now, so I've just been spilling out my own story for you.

It can be really difficult to figure out exactly what's going on when someone can't tell you himself/herself; most of us were not born with the skills of Sherlock Holmes! Most people don't even hear about hypersensitivity until/unless they actually know someone living with it.

Before puberty, kids only really need one bath/shower a week. Seriously. There've been studies done by reputable medical institutions whose names I can't recall at the moment.

I only took a weekly bath until age 14.