Strange kid, what should I do ?

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Hello,

I am a foreign language assistant this year (in the UK) and I work in three schools. There is one kid in one of my primary schools who is a bit weird, I only saw him once so I'm going to observe his behaviour during the newt two weeks but I feel that he may have some sort of disorder, perhaps not Autism, but something seems wrong.

He is in year 3 so he must be 7 and his behaviour is not usual.

It took him 40 minutes (when I came in the room, he was already struggling with his clothes) to put on his shirt and trousers and he was wearing the shirt on the wrong side. Then, the teacher eventually told him to take a sit and follow the course even though he had no shoe on, it was nearly the end of the lesson and we had worked on some questions. He went back to his seat, I was sitting at the same table (because I was working with them on colours) and kept asking me "how do you spell it ?" (the last question they had to ask me).

I tried to tell him to work on his colour because I did not want him to be punished by the teacher again but I am not allowed to speak English in this school and he kept saying it. I know that he actually understood what he was saying because he asked me to spell different words.

When the course ended, he was still asking this question and the teacher said "spell what ?" and he asked her to spell her name (I think that's because I had to spell my name and the name of their puppet). Then she told him to put his socks and shoe on before his father came in. But he fleed and went to the film club (he was not allowed to be there), so they had to find him.

He did not put his socks on but put his shoes on, but he had put the left shoe on his right foot and his right shoe on his left foot.

When his father came in, the teachers informed him of his "bad behaviour" and the father was angry at him and punished him. I've heard that his parents helped him puting his clothes on everyday but the teachers do not want to do that because he should be old enough to do that on his own. They blame his parents and apparently, the parents blame the school.

I noticed that he was wearing velcro while many other boys had shoelaces. It does not mean anything but I guess he has some problems.

I do not really what a normal 7 years old should be able to do because I was not a normal 7 years old but he was obviously different and I felt sorry for him because I think people are being unfair when thinking he does everything n purpose or is just lazy or something like that. He seemed to want to participate to the course (he was told off many times for repeating the sentences like the other kids because he was still half naked) and he seems intelligent (he understood the sentence, could associate it with other words and even had a better pronunciation than most of them.)

I do not know what to do, I wonder if I should ask the teachers if he has a disorder or if they think it would be better to make him see a specialist because I know how it feels to think that there is something wrong with you that everyone ignore.

Do you have any good advice ?

It sounds like something is going on. You're right--it may be an ASD, something else or a combination.

(Btw, I used Velcro shoes until I was at least 10--maybe longer.)

Problems getting dressed--some kind of developmental delay, perhaps with motor skills. For some reason, I'm also thinking there might be some sensory issues there. Is he just having trouble getting dressed or is there a reluctance to do so? Kids with that problem usually throw temper tantrums over clothing, but not necessarily all the time.

Asking about the spelling when he can understand and pronounce--I would check for dyslexia.

IMO, he should be referred for an evaluation with someone who understands developmental disorders in children.

I'm glad you are observant enough to notice and caring enough to be concerned.

I've been wondering about that. As I have myself a diagnosis of dyspraxia and had these problems as a child, I really think that he may have, at least, motor skills delay and sensory issues.
I thought about sensory issue too because he never put his socks on (I do not think I am the only one here who used to hate socks, shoes and pants) but the fact that he did not put his clothes on the right side really makes me think that it's a mix of two causes.

(I used velcro until I was 12 I think, then my parents told me it was getting ridiculous. )



I think he asked that because that was the last question everyone had to practice with me before we started working on the colour. The question was in French, not in English, so it made me think of some kind of echolalia.
I mean, he was repeating this question and only adding a name at the end, it sounded like echolalia but he seems intelligent enough to understand what he repeats and the purpose of the question, but it did not really make sense, he was not really interested in the answer (which is why it also reminds me of ASD).

I think that if the last question was "What's your name ?", he would have repeated it also. But I could be wrong.

The teachers usually tells me when there is something to know about a child, for now, I've only heard that "this one had a French father so he can speak French" or that "this one is gifted" so I guess they would tell me if the child I am working with had a condition like Autism or a learning disorder.
I also do not think that they would have punished him for his behaviour if he had a diagnosis, but it is true that he is only 7 and that it's not so unusual not to have any diagnosis before 10.

He really seems intelligent and misunderstood to me but when I talked about it to my mentor teacher (who does not work in this school), she said that some children were slow and liked to misbehave to have attention so I guess most people do not see him like I do.

I think I'm really going to ask the teacher about that in two weeks (I don't think I can do that now because I've just started to work, but... really, even the 3 years old do not have these problems, I don't understand how they could possibly think that he does it on purpose, I really hope he has a diagnosis and that the teachers and parents just do not know what to do though it would be sad).

It was his shirt that he put on inside out, right? Was it a t-shirt? I can imagine someone with sensory issues preferring to put a t-shirt on inside out, because that way the rough side of the seam isn't against the skin to scratch and irritate.

Yes, you could be right as well , I had not thought about this (and thank you for the vocabulary). It's just that since he put his shoe on the wrong foot (which hurts) I thought he may have trouble with that as well.

Unfornately, I've had a call from the teacher and I do not work this afternoon so I will not be able to see him. I think I'll observe him next week and ask them even though it will only be my second day with his class.

Hi !

I got some "good" news.

I've worked wit the child again, I can definitely tell that I was right : he sounds really intelligent yet awkward.

He speaks very well in both his native language and mine (at least for the sentences he has learned), he does pretty well in foreign language I am impressed. He sounds briliant when he speaks because of his tone (slow, not very monotonous because he tends to sound very excited sometimes) and because he is very polite. He even excused himself to me for the bell (because it was too loud).

The only problem is that he is clumsy as I said before and shout random sentences during the class (sometimes it sounds like echolalia, sometimes I really do not know), he responds to the teacher when they call his name when he does that but it takes some times for him to concentrate on the fact that they are speaking.

I do not know whether he has friends or not but his attitude toward them is inappropriate sometimes. At first I thought they were playing but then one of the girl cried so I guess they were not.
He goes happily (I guess, he was smiling and speaking) toward people but pretended to be punching them and fighting (I thought : well, that seems normal for a boy they are usually encouraged to be quite violent).

He does remind me a lot of me sometimes (though I think I was more the innatentive type and moved a lot but was rather quiet sometimes) and since I am older now I try to help him a little so he won't be punished because it seems unfair to me (I mean, he should not act like that but he is not doing it to annoy everyone, he is really kind and genuine).


So, I asked one of the teacher about him, hinting at the fact that his behaviour was quite oxymoronic since he is so polite yet so rude at the same time, plus he was the only one who shifted his attention to me quickly when he had to work with me)$ and he did pretty well and she said that they had told his parents about that and they think he has some kind of problem but apparently, their parents do not really pay attention to it for now (it saddens me because that's what happened to me).

The good news is that the school apparently tried to do something, which is why they were blaming the parents two weeks ago.