Hi everyone,

My son is in the process of being tested for autism, but his father and I firmly believe that he will be diagnosed with it. He was tested when he was 3 but there were not as many symptoms as there are now so they stated that he didn't have it. As the years have gone on we have noticed little eccentricities that he has that sound like high-functioning autism such as:

-Hyper-focus on one subject

-Rocking back and forth while sitting

-Trouble understanding other people's emotions

-Needs to be on a schedule and if something changes he has a meltdown

-VERY emotional

-Doesn't like eye contact, won't even look at the camera straight on half the time

-Maturity level seems to be slightly behind that of other kids his age

-Didn't start really talking until age 3 (full sentences that were clear and such)

-Word repetition, memorizes lines from television shows and repeats them over and over, plays out scenes from things he has watched in his head and talks to himself while acting them out

-Hates loud noises and bright lights

One of the things that we are struggling the most with is helping him to remember things. He is very forgetful. He walks to school in the morning and has a cell phone and he is supposed to text me to let me know that he made it to school but he forgets within the 10 minutes it takes for him to walk there. He does his homework quickly and does it well but then forgets to turn it in at the beginning of each class. Has anyone had a child that is super forgetful and what are some ways that you have helped them to combat this? We are going to be putting a bright neon-colored piece of paper on the front of his school binder that says "TURN IN HOMEWORK" and will have him draw some of the characters from a game that he is obsessed with on it so he sees it every class, and we are also going to make a checklist that he can mark off every day (he really seems to like the structure of a checklist). 

Other than that, does anyone have any suggestions? We want to make sure that he does well in school because he is such a bright kid and puts in a lot of effort at home, but all of it goes to waste when he forgets to turn it in the next day.