[ontheroad]

Your son's teacher sounds pretty incompetent if she's throwing the word autism around because your son isn't exactly as she wishes he was. I would be seriously thinking about taking him out of this school before she does any serious damage on his self-esteem.
Your son seems to exhibit no symptoms of autism, he seems like the normal three year old kid who just wants to play... have you thought of putting him in a montessori school, where he would be allowed to express himself more freely?

+ If those stories about the teachers are true, another reason to get your child out of that school ASAP!!!!

[joannek]

i totally agree with ontheroad. i don't know much about autism, except that i've read about it in books. your son sounds bright & he talks to you. it doesn't sound like your son is making up the "pinching the nose" & "kicking incident". if your son turn out to be ok, i suggest you consider changing schools for him.

[sunniefaith]

I used to work with an autistic kid and have a background in education and I did my masters in educational psychology. One of the most basic signs of autism would not being able to initiate conversations or play with people or other kids. Autistic kids normally prefer to play by themselves and not have conversation with other kids. There is a possibility that your kid might have ADHD which is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Is he able to sit still even when he's at home? With ADHD, there is behavioural management methods that you can work out with your child. But then again, maybe you might just have a hyper kid...if it's that, try to cut down his sugar intake.

Another possibility, he has a high IQ and he's getting bored in class.

But like everyone says, since I've not observed your child, it's really hard for me to say a lot. It's best to bring him to see a professional if you're really concern. A word of caution, since he's so young, it's also hard to misdiagnose him as well.

Hope this is helpful...my 2 cents' worth

[lynn cheung]

Thanks all for the support.
I'm going back tomorrow to observe him in the class.

Sunniefaith,
my son is able to sit for a long time, even to an hour when he does things he likes such as playing with playdoh/rice, or when I read him stories from the books.

He's active but not hyper active, but I'll try to cut down his sugar intake next time.

He isn't a genius but he learns fast.
I teach him through play and I don't really like the homework he brings from the school everyday. I don''t like it that he has homework everyday but that's the price we have to pay by attending local kindie. Besides those homework, I don't teach him anything academically. We just play. He can pretend play and has good imagination.

He said mama, papa and yumyum for yummy at 6 months. Started speaking at 1 year and by 16 months could speak in sentences and in 2 languages. He speak English to me and Putonghua to my husband.
He only learned Cantonese when he started K1 last August.
He walked at 1 year old.
He can make eye contact with me and other people.

Before kindie he already knew numbers, colors, shapes and alphabets, all through playing.

He's a bit shy but is funny when you get to know him.
Sometimes a bit naughty and does things he is not supposed to do just to see my reaction.

So he seems very normal to me.

[sunniefaith]

Lynn,

Just by reading what you have wrote. I seriously doubt that there's anything wrong with your child? Do you know what's the teacher's qualifications and have you asked her on what basis does she think that your child is autistic? Even if he's autistic, he's on a high functioning side and some may even say that he might have asperger. But I seriously doubt it as well as he's able to make contact, play and get along with people. What you can try is to socialise him with other kids. He may lack the socialising skills of a 3 or 4 year old. Try to bring him to the playground more often and let him play with the other kids. Sometimes kids do become aloof with other kids because they are so used to adults' company to a point that they think that other kids around their age are childish.

Feel free to ask me more. But I really think you might want to have a good talk with the teacher and principal and also maybe change schools.

[sunniefaith]

oh...forgot to add in, this is my email....feel free to email me
faith_jasmine_sim@hotmail.com

[lynn cheung]

I talked to the English teacher this morning and she still insisted that I get my son tested. There was nothing I could say to tell her otherwise.

I also observed my son in the class. Sometimes he stood and walked around. I also noticed something else. Some children got bored too at some points. Though they didn't walk around, one looked at the back for a while, one looked at the ceiling for a few minutes.

I've already sent an email to the principal today.

SO I just wait and see.
Meanwhile, we are going to do some research and try to find other school around here.

I'll write an email to you, Sunniefaith, when I get some time off from my son.

[sunniefaith]

Good that you went to observe your son in class. Keep me posted and I'll try to help if I can