Every phrase is a negative reading of something recognisable. 'Naughty at circle time' may be a child overwhelmed by noise and proximity. 'Fussy eater' may be a texture that is genuinely intolerable. 'Won't share' may be a rule nobody has made explicit. 'Attention-seeking' is distress in the only form available to him. The lasting harm is that records travel - to the next key person or setting, and eventually to school.

Repetitive movement such as hand flapping, rocking and spinning is usually a way of managing feeling - excitement, overwhelm, or an environment that has become too much. It is regulation, not a habit. Preventing it does not teach a child a better strategy; it removes the one that works and leaves the underlying need unmet.

National guidance is explicit that autism should not be ruled out because of good eye contact, smiling and showing affection to family, or because of reported pretend play and normal language milestones. It also says autism is under-recognised in girls, which is exactly the pattern here. Option C loses a term of support that needs no diagnosis. Option D crosses the line this course draws throughout - it is not your role to suggest a diagnosis to a family.

This is the one situation in this course that is urgent. National guidance says a child younger than three with regression in language or social skills should be referred to the autism team, and it does not sit behind a period of monitoring. Options A and B both delay, and B adds false reassurance. Option D is not unreasonable in itself - hearing should be checked - but it must not become the reason nothing else happens.

National guidance lists coexisting physical disorders, such as pain or gastrointestinal problems, among the factors to assess when a child's behaviour becomes distressed - alongside communication difficulty, lighting and noise, changes to routine, and the absence of predictability and structure. A sudden change in a child who was previously coping is a particularly strong signal. Option A is wrong on the facts: autism does not 'worsen'. Constipation in particular is common, easily missed, and hard for a child to report if they do not reliably feel internal signals.

National guidance says exclusion diets such as gluten-free or casein-free should not be used for the core features of autism, and separately that restricted eating can cause nutritional deficiencies with serious consequences, requiring assessment, monitoring and referral. This is not a request a setting can simply implement - but nor is it your place to lecture a parent trying to help her child. Option A skips the health input a dietary restriction in a three-year-old requires. Option D is dishonest and potentially dangerous. A medically prescribed diet for a diagnosed condition is different and is followed exactly as prescribed.

The EYFS framework is specific about what the progress check must contain: areas of good progress, areas where additional support might be needed, particular focus on any concern about developmental delay that may indicate a special educational need or disability, and the activities and strategies the setting intends to adopt - involving parents and other professionals. Leaving a concern out removes the child's first formal record that something needed looking at.

National guidance recognises that raising a developmental concern may cause distress, it may take a family time to come to terms with it, and they may not share your concern. That is not a reason to stop. Your record-keeping duty and your duty to consider whether the child needs additional support are unaffected by her reaction - and support in the setting needs no diagnosis and no permission. What normally does need her consent is sharing information directly with other professionals. Option C is untrue and damaging; option D bypasses consent that was needed for a developmental concern. Safeguarding concerns follow different rules.

Government guidance states the duty plainly: it is anticipatory, and requires thought to be given in advance to what disabled children might require and what adjustments might need to be made to prevent substantial disadvantage. Waiting until a child arrives means that child spends their first weeks in a setting that is not ready for them. Option C makes the same error more politely, and also assumes a diagnosis - most autistic children in early years do not have one. Option D is wrong: the Equality Act applies to every early years provider regardless of funding.

She is right on the narrow point: having regard to the SEND Code is required of providers the local authority funds to deliver early education places. But that is a much smaller exemption than it sounds. The Equality Act applies to every early years provider regardless of funding, and its anticipatory adjustments duty applies to her in full. Her own EYFS framework requires arrangements to support children with SEND and requires her to act on concerns about progress in a prime area.

A child in overload cannot process an explanation, so option A adds input to a brain that already has too much - as does holding his hands, which removes a way of regulating. Option C may sometimes be necessary for safety, but moving an overwhelmed child is more input again; moving the audience is usually kinder and easier. Option D treats this as attention-seeking, which it is not - this is distress with an identifiable trigger. The prevention question matters more than any of this: he should have been told in advance that the room was changing.

National guidance says arrangements should be made to support children through major life changes, and starting school is named as one. Guidance on transition also says information should be shared with the receiving setting, and that the current setting should agree with parents what is shared. That rules out option D. Option C wastes everything the setting has learned. Option A misses the point of starting early - a profile is updated as things change, and the parts that matter most, like what helps and what nobody should ever do, tend to be the parts that stay true.