I’m not sure where to start here. The number of forums on the different disorders is so overwhelming, I don’t know where to start looking for info related to my son. Perhaps someone could point me to some resources.
This is a rather long story, so will try and just provide the important details. My son is 7. He is very, very intelligent. He reads like an adult, retains facts and data especially science related info, and he does math several grades above his own with ease. He’s frighteningly smart, and we struggle sometimes with how to keep him challenged. He’s not interested in doing things that I would consider normal for a boy that age, like riding his bike or playing sports. Although he is “book-smart”, he struggles with his emotions. He doesn’t like being in large groups, he gets very anxious when his schedule is thrown off; he wants to disagree or argue or debate or negotiate any direction from me or my wife. He also gets manic at times and can’t seem to control himself and “settle down”; he tries to be silly almost all the time at home with his younger brother (who is almost 5) and also tries to get his brother to do things he shouldn’t. He cannot regulate himself at all at times and sometimes has meltdowns over what we would consider small things (e.g., like being late for school) and is showing signs now of a temper (slamming doors and hitting things). He shows little empathy towards his brother or others, and struggles to be friendly or social to adults. He often seems to want to be punished and says he’s a bad kid. We tell him he’s not; that he’s good, and that we love him. It’s very odd.
My wife and I are very concerned about him. For a while we thought perhaps he was on ‘the spectrum’ or perhaps has a disorder we are unaware of. He sees a very good pediatrician every few months who is monitoring things, but does not believe he is spectrum. The Dr. is reassuring us that he is OK, and that he is just who he is, which I agree with to a point, but we feel like things are not quite as they should be and just want to make sure we can help him through things, or at least understand him a bit more so we know what makes him so sensitive. Sometimes he seems very happy, but this can get turned on and off like a switch. Anyway, just looking for some basic first steps to try and work through this a bit and get some resources and info. Many thanks.