Autism, Dyspraxia or something else? Advice needed please!

[roxie78]

I just wanted some thoughts on my son who is 28 months old. We've been kind of thinking for a while about Autism, Dyspraxia etc but were not sure if we were worrying about something that wasn't there or whether we really should do something about our concerns. I'll list the reasons behind our concerns and then if anyone wants to know anything else let me know

* He has been late meeting all of his milestones, he didnt sit till 9 months, crawled at 13 months and walked at 21 months.
* At 28 months although he can say loads of single words he still hasn't linked 2 words together yet. He is on the waiting list for speech therapy.
* He likes to line all his toys up when he is playing with them e.g when playing with his noahs ark, he takes all the animals out and lines them up then puts them back in then takes them out again.
* At the moment, although he likes colouring in a lot, he spends more time picking up the crayons and telling me what colour they are one at a time (takes them out the box, puts them back in etc)
* He rocks backwards and forwards often when sitting for no apparant reason for a few seconds
* At nursery (he attends 3 days a week and has done since he was 9 months) He usually plays by his self (although occasionally he does play with others). Usually though when we pick him up from nursery, most of the children will be playing in a group and DS will be playing on his own somewhere.
*Quite often he waffles away in his own language
* Often when u say stuff to him he doesn't seem to understand what you are on about e.g 'pass mommy the nappy'. He generally doesn't follow instructions too well.

There is probably more but that is all I can think of at the moment! Should we say something to the nursery? Not sure how clued up they would be about it though. The only real thing they have raised is his lack of communication skills at the moment.

Any thoughts on what we should do and what it might be?

 

[Adanma]

I would get him evaluated as some of the symptoms do seem to indicate possible autism. Even if they aren't though, if you have concerns I would have him evaluated because it could be something easily remedied too!

Adanma

 

[Mellofishy]

Some of what you mentioned, I can relate to with my 2 1/2 year old..
We were concerned about his hearing, as he wasn't really talking at 18 months..hearing test came back fine, so we were referred to Speech therapy. Speech at the Children's Hospital was a 9 month wait...yah, I wasn't going to wait. We went ahead and contacted our public school district...(not sure what they have over in the UK). He was "educationally diagnosed" as being developmentally delayed. He's been receiving in-home therapy sessions for speech/OT/feeding issues...well, now at 9 months later, we are moving forward to have him medically diagnosed with autistic behavior. It breaks my heart that he may have that "label"..but it's the "label" that's going to get him the help he needs and deserves! I have a lot of family and friends suppport, and everyone has mentioned that EARLY INTERVENTION IS KEY! Don't wait for therapy..look up everything you can to help your child now!

 

[hatbox]

I'm not familiar with dyspspraxia or the uk health system, but it sounds a lot like autism to me. My DD has lots of issues including dev delay and my DS is autistic. Both had normal or early physical milestones but do need OT and PT. Here in the US getting a referall for testing is easy. I just asked the dr was referred and DS began ST a couple weeks later. We also have early intervention here which helps physically, mentally, etc handicapped kids with all kinds of therapy. EI is key!!!! My DS started EI at 18 months and now at 3 1/2 is speaking in full sentences, having conversations, tolerates transitions better etc.
What we did for his speech was we made him ask for things. If he wanted an apple, he didn't have to say apple but he had to say something. Ie "what do you want?" if he just pointed or did nothing i'd ask again and he'd say "ugh and point. Well that got him the apple. We also learned some sign language mostly for the big things. More, please, wait, stuff like that. Also putting him on a schedule and using warning timers(5 mins left etc) helped a lot. We use a picture schedule board both at school and home. He used a very simple one at first like wake up, brush teeth, etc and now is breaking them down more. His clean room picture leads him to another board that has simple tasks like pick up toys make bed etc.
You can make the schedule boards on your own or buy a PECs system. We also spoke with very little filler words at first because a long sentence overwhelmed him. "Jack, go get your blue cup and bring it here so I can fill it." was turned into "Jack get cup" gets cup "Jack bring cup" eventually we added more words to the sentence. As for any obsessive behaviors(lining cars etc) there are more than a few opinions on that but we decided to expand on them rather than leave it alone or try to stop them. His is cars, trains things that go. At first he'd line them up. I'd get a car(not his) and push it beside him. Then we moved to getting one of his cars and doing it hand over hand. Then once that worked and he started on his own I'd "sabatoge" his play by covering his car. He'd have to make eye contact and I'd say "oh you want this car" and let go. Then once that was established and he made eye contact every time, I'd make him either point, touch my hand, grunt or say something each time something was established.
Perhaps some of these suggestions will help you and your little one until you can get in with proffessionals. Even then it's important to be consistant both at home and at "school".
Oh and mine had a hitting problem. I don't know if yours does but what we did was to hold his hands until he calmed down. At first he resisted (to everything really) in a major way but as it went on, with lots of prompts and instruction, he learned to calm himself.

 

[velvetina]

Hi hun,

Yes quite a bit of what you are listing described my son, with the exception of the speech, my son had very little at 2, more echolalia and jargon from watching tv/videos (as it was then).

To help you look in detail at those areas where asd traits are visible and to help awareness, I have attached a link for the Mchat which is a checklist for autism in toddlers, it should give you a good idea of what to look for. I would suggest making notes on all these, noting the date and his age, it will be a good marker for when you see the salt and any other health professsionals. Keep notes of what he is doing and his age, even now at the age of 15 I still need to refer to my extensive notes I kept for my eldest.

https://www.childbrain.com/pddassess.html

Early intervention as previously mentioned is also a must, and don't be afraid to get on the phone and chase for those appointments. Sadly, you sometimes need to be pushy and fight for any therapy or help, don't be afraid to chase people and make a nuisance of yourself.

Hope some of that helps hun, how are you doing yourself? x

 

[roxie78]

Thanks for the replies, I don' t get on here as often as I'd like but thought I'd update the situation, while I have the time! We are still on the waiting list for speech therapy and I went to the Drs to get him re-referred for being developmentally dealyed - still waiting on that too! We did raise our concerns at nursery though and they have been great! They got someone in to assess DS (from the Early Years Foundation?) and she observed him a few mornings. We had her comments back yesterday and basically in brief her finding were -

-He doesn't put his shoes on when all the other children do but he waits for a staff member to help him
- He partly joined in at singing time, doing some of the actions buy didnt like it when it got too loud and lay down when the song came to an end
-When the children were asked to line up to go outside he needed a lot of support to stand in a line, he waited for someone to put his shoes on and needed someone to hold his hand to get down the stairs
-He played outside happily but didnt appear to notice the other children playing

Not sure what to make of it all, not sure what he should be able to do by now?

In general he still babbles a lot but now knows a LOT of words and in the last couple of weeks has started on occasion joining 2 words together.

Any more thoughts or advice? When my husband read the nursery report he seemed really down that our son seems so delayed

 

[djb]

It's definitely worth watching as he gets older as he may grow out of a lot of these things. The individual play, lining toys up, rocking, fiddling with crayons etc are all standard for his age and the milestones were not drastically late. Personally I would say watch, see what his nursery say about his behaviour when you are not there but also make sure you get his hearing checked. I worked with a boy who's mum thought he had SPD but actually he needed gromits. Good luck and take care.

 

[vicki.mummy]

he sound alot like Robbie (robbie is almost 6 now) - fight for the help you need, get him tested as early as you possibly can. Speech therapy really does help - R has grown so much since starting. Good Luck x

 

[roxie78]

Chased up the referral at the Drs today as it had been a few months. Turns out the lady I saw 2 months ago did nothing about it and didnt get a letter organised for the referral so got to go back to the Drs tomorrow to get them to raise it again and this time as an urgent referral! What a joke!

 

[velvetina]

Hey hun, sorry your dh felt so down, I will tell you now it is often difficult seeing negatives in writing, especially in the early days, but it does get easier.

No other way of saying this, other than chase their backsides, don't be afraid of worrying or making a nuisance of yourself, in chasing or following up for appointments. You will possibly need to push and chase, but you are his mum and you have that right!!!! Good luck let us know how it goes.

 

[roxie78]

Hi hun,

Yes quite a bit of what you are listing described my son, with the exception of the speech, my son had very little at 2, more echolalia and jargon from watching tv/videos (as it was then).

To help you look in detail at those areas where asd traits are visible and to help awareness, I have attached a link for the Mchat which is a checklist for autism in toddlers, it should give you a good idea of what to look for. I would suggest making notes on all these, noting the date and his age, it will be a good marker for when you see the salt and any other health professsionals. Keep notes of what he is doing and his age, even now at the age of 15 I still need to refer to my extensive notes I kept for my eldest.

https://www.childbrain.com/pddassess.html

Early intervention as previously mentioned is also a must, and don't be afraid to get on the phone and chase for those appointments. Sadly, you sometimes need to be pushy and fight for any therapy or help, don't be afraid to chase people and make a nuisance of yourself.

Hope some of that helps hun, how are you doing yourself? x

I just went through the questionnaire and scored 95 which is at the top end of mild PDD. ..