Is my son psychic?

This is something that’s been on my mind lately. Not exactly bothering me, but niggling away in the background. I’m not even sure I believe in people being psychic, but like with most things, I try to stay open — especially when the evidence starts piling up.

Over time, little things have happened with my son that feel completely unbelievable. At first, it was one weird moment, then another, and eventually I started keeping a note of them, thinking I really need to write about this. So here we go…

One morning, we were running late for school. There’s a blind bend on the way where cars often park, but in the rush, I took a chance and drove through, even though I couldn’t see ahead. My son suddenly shouted….

“What if a fire truck was coming?” (We aren’t American, but he watches a lot of YouTube, hence “truck” instead of “engine.”)

Seconds later, we turned the next corner — and sure enough, there it was. A fire engine, blue lights flashing (no sirens on so I know he didn’t hear it), coming straight towards us. I stared in disbelief. I said…..

“That’s weird, you just said that — and then it actually happened.”

He looked at me and said…..

“I could just feel it in my veins.”

Another time, he used to have a favourite glass that he drank out of — a rainbow one — that sadly got smashed. I tried everywhere to find a replacement. I scoured the internet, checked every shop, texted family asking them to keep an eye out. But nothing. Eventually, he stopped talking about it, and life moved on.

Fast forward about a year. A photo of that glass popped up in my phone memories. I looked at it fondly, showed my husband, and said, “Remember this?” Then I carried on with my day.

That same afternoon, my son came home from school and randomly asked…..

“Did you ever find another rainbow glass?”

He hadn’t seen the photo. How did he know? Coincidence?

Then there was the van. We took a different route to school one day, and passed one of my husband’s work vans — the one that’s always parked outside a colleague’s house. It hardly ever moves. As we drove past, my son said…

“That van is always there. Does it ever move?”

I told him the truth — not really, no.

Later that day, my husband unexpectedly came home at lunchtime. I was surprised — I thought he was on his way to Scotland for a job. But he said he’d decided to take that exact van because it was all kitted out for the job. The very same van my son had mentioned that morning. Spooky, right?

Another time, me and my husband were chatting — just the two of us at home — and out of nowhere he said, “We should go to the races again soon.” We talked about how good that day had been when we’d taken the kids. It had been a couple of years ago, and we’d never gotten round to going again.

The very next day, my son came back from his dad’s and we were playing in the garden when he said….

“We should go to the races again.”

There’s no way he could’ve known we’d talked about that the night before.

And there are other, smaller moments too — ones where he picks up on things no one else notices.

Like when we wrote out his birthday party invites one night. After he went to bed, I put them into envelopes, but ran out. I texted my mum and asked her to drop some off (yes, lazy of me, but sometimes the little things make all the difference). She brought them round, and I finished the invites.

Next morning, we were in the car, my son holding the invites in his hand. He gave them a sniff — nothing unusual there, he sniffs everything — and he said…..

“Are these from Grandma’s? They smell like her.”

He was right.

Or the time with the SodaStream. He keeps trying to like Pepsi Max — mostly, I think, just to be like everyone else. He asks for it, takes a few tiny sips, and then carries the bottle around for ages.

One day, he and his sister had identical bottles. At some point they got switched, and without thinking, I gave him the one she’d been drinking from. I realised my mistake, but didn’t say anything. I mean he would never know right? He was still carrying the bottle around when he finally took a sip and said…..

“This isn’t my drink. This is my sister’s.”

He knew. Instantly. No idea how. Was it the smell? A tiny taste difference? I’ll never know. But he just knew. And I should have known better by now.

Now, I’m not saying my son is psychic but there is a part of me that thinks he could be. He’s so in tune with the world — sometimes too in tune. And so of course I’ve read how autistic people often pick up on things the rest of us miss. Turns out, there’s science behind it.

Some autistic people have super sharp vision — not my son (he’s got astigmatism and wears glasses) — but others do. Some have incredibly sensitive hearing, or a way of noticing patterns and tiny changes without even trying. It’s not that they’re reading minds — they’re just wired to notice the details. Some also have really strong interoception, which means they’re deeply aware of what’s going on inside their own bodies. That might explain the “gut feeling” moments, too.

So maybe these strange little moments that feel spooky or psychic aren’t actually so mysterious. Maybe he’s just noticing things the rest of us aren’t. Picking up clues, sensing shifts in energy, catching smells or sounds before anyone else.

It doesn’t mean he’s psychic…
But it does mean he’s fascinating.
And honestly, the more I learn about autism, the more it all starts to make sense.

(Except the fire truck. That will never make sense to me.)