One of my grandsons, aged 7, and the middle child of three has been acting strange for several months, and is getting worse by the day. He was a cheery little boy until about a year ago, and his elder brother (16months older) always deferred to him as 'cleverer than me'. He would always say, 'Ask Tom, he will know better'. The problem with Tom now is that he is communicating by a series of strange sounds and actions, and very rarely speaks properly - although he can read well, is obviously bright and is very artistic. He has always been obsessive about 'lining up his toys', not letting two foods on the same plate touch each other, never wanting to be wrong, never admitting that he was hurt after falling over - although he may be bleeding. He has taken to sitting at the table and screaming the house down if he is asked to try some food that he doesn't like, and burst in to tears the other day when he pulled one of his numerous stupid faces and was jokingly told he looked like a fish! School has always referred to him as quirky, but this is not getting out of hand.
There has been considerable stress over the past two years as mother and father have divorced, but they share joint responsibility for the children and the arrangement works well. They spend half of the time with each parent. Daddy has not got a new lady, who the children are very fond of and who exposes them to the sort of attention they have never had. Mummy spends 90% of her time on her computer, playing games with her cyber-friends in US, and does not go out to work. However, they love her very much.
The strange behaviour started long before they were aware of any problems, and the other two children, aged nine and five seem to have accepted the situation and quite like having 'two families'. Mummy is unaware that there is any problem with Tom. Daddy is worried out of his mind. So is grandma! The other noticeable thing about Tom is that he doesn't seem to 'get' jokes. When they are being read to before bed, the other two smile when they can see which way a story is going. Tom only laughs when the others laugh.
Does anyone have any input into this behaviour? Maybe we could blame the split, but it would seem that it is more deep rooted than this. Any advice, please?
