Hi all
I am afraid that my nephew has autism or aspergers. He is a highly intelligent 8th grade boy who shows some very anti social behaviors as well as some other unusual mannerisms. He has a few friends at school but when it comes to family he would rather sit in the car during a visit or sit on the couch with a book rather than socialize with cousins his age or with adults. His mom shared with me an incident that happened at school recently. He was very upset because a peer reset his long-term I-pad timer. I guess it has been going since the beginning of the year. His way of dealing with this upset was to lay on the classroom floor for 10 minutes without talking to anyone or basically responding to anyone. A mannerism that I observed recently is the time it took him to open a present. He carefully looked at the tape on the sides of the box and peeled it off slowly before opening the present. He is currently going to a catholic school and they have him identified as gifted but that is all. As a teacher of 5th grade gifted myself, I can see that he is very intelligent. However, it seems to be much more than that. I need some opinions on whether you think they should have him tested for autism and how I should approach mom and dad. They know he is having problems and mom is heartbroken by his inability to socialize. It would be nice to get them a true answer and then get him the help that he needs. Thoughts? ↓
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