Barrys understanding is too behind for him to understand games like duck duck goose
I guess if i was to explain Barrys symptoms, the big ones is, delayed speech, lack of understanding, stereotyping, repetitive behaviour, sensitive to textures, absent mindedness...
If we take him out to the park for example, he plays for a moment on the slide or the swings but then he gets distracted by a colour or a pattern and then thats it, he'll run up and down past that item (most of the time fences or posts) and thats all he'll do for the rest of the time we're in the park. if we try to entice him away he has a meltdown.
He wont play with kids his age, only babies and thats only since we had Connor....he will follow older kids around but not interact with them.
he has only in the last week started to show any kind of imagination and even then thats limited to pushing a train around going "choo choo", otherwise he just spins the wheels on the cars and lines everything up on his table...and then runs up and down it (just like with the fence) he does play with his blocks...but again its just for a short time before he has them lined up (normally in colour order).
he has to do the same routine for certain things or he has a meltdown, for example brushing his teeth...he goes into the bathroom and pees, then he MUST wipe, otherwise theres a huge tantrum. once thats done he'll pick up his toothbrush and ask you to ask him what colour every single car on the toothbrush is - in the same order every time. if you dont ask, you miss a car, or ask in the wrong order he gets really upset. ONLY when this is done wil he brush his teeth. when hes brushing his teeth he will also brush int he same order everytime.
he doesnt talk per say but he repeats back what he hears on tv or from what people say. He will get stuck on asking 1 question over and over and over even if youve already answered it or if HES answered it. for example "what colour car? red car. what colour car? red car. what colour car? red car." It can be quite difficult getting him out of that cycle once hes in it. we have found flashing lights or loud sounds will distract him but asking him to name something else doesnt make a difference.
In other areas though hes really smart, hes known his entire alphabet forward, backwards both upper and lower case since he was 2.5, he can count to 50, and if you spell out words he can write them down. He knows his entire phonics too.
He does so much to make me smile though, and i still watch him when he sleeps
