My son is 3 1/2 years old. hes amazed us since he was born. a few hours after his birth we put a pacifier in his mouth he reached up grabbed it and threw it . he had the cordination for that mearly hours after his birth. hes always been very smart. but honestly i dont have the patience to work with him as much as i could and should. he loves to learn though, he can already write most his alphabet, read certain words, recognize all the letters, knows numbers, colors, shapes, ect. he can do kindergarten worksheets without even being explained (other than reading the directions). but of course these arnt the things that concern me. his concerning behavior started at 21 months, for a year following him turning 21 months, he regressed. he would lose almost all of his skills, potty training, eating with utensils. speech, knowledge, ect. everytime we’d gain something back we’d lose it agian. this led to multip[le neuorological testing and a suspison of autism. (he had alot of the traits back then) . december 2012 was his last regression, and he started progressing amazingly fast after that. after his last regression his behavior got worse, completely defiant , aggressive, and just flat out scary at times. he has tried to kill our animals, tried to hurt us and himself. he almost successfully killed our fish at age 2, and before age 2 he tried to stomp the cat. those are specifcs not to mention the million times hes hit or kicked the animals. (or us) now more recently. he started talking about monsters on a daily basis, at first we just watched it, but thought maybe he just dreamed it or something. the first real hallucination was about 2 months ago, the cat told him his toy room was going to catch on fire, he would lose all his toys, and the house would burn down, the fire would come out of hole in the floor. it took over an hour to convince him there was not going to be a fire. after that the monsters really showed up. he started saying things like i dont want you to die yet mommy, or dog monster says hes going to kill you and get your blood out. or the monsters live in the hole beside the house (theres no hole just a creek bed) and the monsters come out of holes in the floor. then the day that made us realize he wasnt just making this up. about a week ago i was cleaning his room, and he said he had to go pee, i said well go pee, he reaches for the door handle and says i cant, i said why cant you he says the man wont let me, i said what man, he said pappy monster. i said whats pappy monster say, he says in a growling voice (we call it the monster voice because hes done it since he was born) that i cant go pee, i cant eat, i cant clean my room, i have to hurt the cats, mommy cant… and so on. i then asked if there were any other monsters and he said yes cat monster and dog monster. after our talk i was cuddling and kissing him and he just kept saying dont be bad dont be bad, i think he was telling himself that. since then we have gathered, dog and cat monster are both dogs, pappy monster is a cat. pappy monster tells him to hurt himself, and threatens his life if he dont obey, cat monster is good (for the most part) and dog monster is the worst and threatens our lives. judes everyday behavior consists of multiple tantrums, throwing things, running through the house screaming. jumping into things crashing constantly. he doesnt play with toys other than to run cars on things or smash his trucks together or throw them. when hes telling us about the monsters his handflapping goes a mile a minute. hes also started possibly sleep walking but he claims he remebers and is awake. (but waking up pouring pop on the middle of the living room floor then going back to bed doesnt sound very awake to me). sorry this is so long, but ive not found any helpful advice.
I don’t even know what to say except my heart aches for the little guy. I have no experience with childhood onset but I would say that it’s seems like a big possibility that that is what this looks like. I don’t know if you are on Facebook but there is a group I’m a part of called Parents of Kids with Schizophrenia and I think the majority is parents of younger children and toddlers. Parents of Kids with Schizophrenia | Facebook
You may find some useful information here: Childhood schizophrenia; paranoid schizophrenia - Schizophrenia.com
Very interesting post and i wondered if you have schizophenia or autism in your family tree I also had a remarkable toddler so smart and troubled night terrors and was diagnosed with adhd at 4 yrs i searched for more info this was different now at aged 12 he has a dual diagnosis aspergers and child schizophenia He has withdrawn from the world a t large and has not been able to attend school for nearly 2 yrs He is so very intelligent he shocks everyone with his mental abilities but cannot hold a conversation if you ask him about his feelings we have a lot of schizophenia in our family His father and two aunts and his grandpa I wish you all the best with your dear boy as i said you are not alone
I would talk to your Dr about your concerns it sounds like what me son did he never hurt animals but everyone and everything else was fair game finally this month his dr said he has early childhood onset with bipolar disorder. If you have any questions I will be more then happy to reply
Welcome to the forum misty 
Hey. I’m a mom of a ten year old also looking for answers. You are not alone! I’m taking my son to a clinical child psychiatrist next week. He’s already seen him once and this will probably be a meeting to diagnose him. I wish you well. I mostly wish you peace. This is difficult and frightening and I can relate. Xoxo
Thank you BarbieBF for sharing this forum with me
They were probably right. I have heard a few things about childhood autism. Another symptom of autism is higher intelligence, and with that may come existential ideas or fears which get exacerbated with autistic children. I’m just putting in my thoughts that schizophrenia, well. It’s not just a catch phrase for hallucinations…schizophrenia is often thought of as an umbrella term for various individual symptoms.
EDIT: I never hurt animals as a child. I was very well natured and loving, highly empathetic and I had fantastical stories but I knew they weren’t real. I had no problem adapting to the idea of difference between fantasy and reality, even in my innocence. I often dreamed of going to a place where fantasy could be reality, and used that as my escapism when my parents were separated.
I have Bipolar. It’s just that my thoughts are more affected than my emotions.