social anxiety?

star1123

I'm heading to the pedi next week for my son's 30 month appointment.  My son has received speech therapy and special instruction since last summer.  The special instruction came with the speech, as the county we live in provides it automatically when someone receives speech to ensure the child does not get delayed in other areas.  He's doing SO much better speech wise and says full sentences now almost.  Definitely three or four word sentences at times.  Still a lot of two word phrases, but he has no problem communicating at all at this point.  He is being dismissed by his spec instruction therapist next month because he's testing above average now and the speech therapist said she will probably have to dismiss him soon as well.  We are thrilled by this. 

The only real concern I have at this point is that he seems to have major anxiety when we go someplace he is unfamiliar with.  He cries and really has a difficult time calming down and I notice it is a lot worse when we go inside someones house.  It's like some places he doesn't feel safe or something.  I could take him to any park, even one he never went to, and he would be totally fine.  He loves the park and is familiar with what to do there.  We go to stores he has been to and he's totally fine with that too.  It seems like anyplace he doesn't know freaks him out and it is kind of extreme - or at least it seems so to me?

 One example is we went to a birthday party and he got majorly upset.  Was fine after a minute because we were playing outside and he found toys to play with.  He tried even getting involved in a game of catch, but the kids were a lot older.  Then we had to go inside to eat cake, and he didn't want to go in, cried, etc.  He finally calmed down when we went into the house and noticed their big playroom.  But then he refused to leave the playroom and literally nobody was in there but us so it was kind of awkward.  Finally another little boy the same age came in to play with the toys and they played pretty well together.  So, that part makes me feel better since he does seem to play well with other kids.

 He even has a friend down the street, same age, who he plays with all of the time.  He constantly asks about him, ask when he can play with him, etc.   So it is like he does well socially, but gets major anxiety in unfamiliar places.

Has anyone gone through something similar?  I want to talk to the pedi about it, and I do want to talk to his therapist a bit more and make sure there is nothing else going on before she dismisses him.  Also, if anyone has any advice that would be awesome.  Any strategies to help would be greatly appreciated.