Is It Autism? And Do I Say Something?

[Greenshadow]

I have a child in my care that I believe has something going on with him. I have a niece that has Aspergers Syndrome so I know alittle about this but not a whole lot. This little boy in my care has alot of strange things that he does. I dont know if its just his way or if its something more. Here are a few of them:

He chants numbers over and over when he gets frustrated or anxious or upset. Recently he has acquired a set of lungs so he does this very shrill hissing scream in addition to repeating numbers over and over.

He loves the dog food bowl but not in a "normal" way. He will go up to the bowl and cock his head to the side and look at it as though he is looking at it purposefully from a different perspective. I have never seen a child do this in all my years of childcare. Its odd. He wont touch the food.

He will pick up a block with a letter on it and when he picks it up, he picks it up purposefully straight up and turn his wrist in a very thought-out way and set the block back down to where another letter is showing. He also does this while his head is cocked to the side. He doesnt just pick up a block and stack them or throw them. Everything is very intentional.

He wont paint. At all. He wont touch the paint or even hold the paint brush. He wont color. Its all I can do to get him to sit in the chair while the others paint or color. He just wont do it.

He likes to play alone. He is anti-social EXCEPT when the kids run. He likes to run with them and laugh. He will do that. Thats the ONLY interaction he does with the other children.

He loves books. He will get a book and go through it and when he is done with it, he always leaves the book open to the same page. I can come over to where the book area is and he will have 10 books open to a certain page.

Should I go on? There's so many things. He doesnt hardly talk. Sometimes I hear him parrot the other kids or me. Sometimes. No more than one word though. He just started saying Mommy but he doesnt say it exclusively to mommy, which I know is normal, but its the only real word, besides letters and numbers that he will say.

He can identify all the letters of the alphabet by sight. You can ask him what the letter is and he knows. He doesnt know his colors or numbers yet.

So what would you do with this information? The mother feels like he is just anti-social and high strung like his dad is. She says that he is cut from the same cloth. Maybe so but his dad makes eye contact with me when I talk to him and smiles and laughs. This little boy doesnt do that so much. Sometimes, on VERY RARE occasions, I can tickle him and he will laugh. Usually he doesnt even crack a smile. He is a very serious little boy. But he does run sometimes and smile but its almost like its at random times and alot of times its not when everyone else is.

Please help. I dont want to offend the parents but I really am wondering if something more is wrong with this child. What would you do? Would you not say anything to the parent? I havent said anything yet. I just allow her to believe its just his way and its nothing. Even though Im not very sure.

Oh and this little boy just turned two years old.