my son might be autistic please I need some advice

[RedRose19]

My son just turned 2 in june, but hes very very little speech! Up until 18months he was reaching mile stone pretty well maybe a little behind be he had such a hard start to life I just thought it was from that or the fact he can be lazy he crawled at 10 months, walked at 15 months, he started babbling at the normal age learnt new words then since xmas its all stopped! He now only says dada, moma, dog and bird thats literally it! The odd time he echos a word we say but thats it. He always doesnt understand what we say whuch could be speech related but basic questions wheres daddy, wheres teddy he looks at me like ive said nothing. He is scared of everything super clingy and takes a long time to warm up to people! But that being said he eats, sleeps fine, kisses and cuddles me and his dad, looks me in the eyes, he can be social some times if were at home, he even started to potty train which is going well. He lets us know what he wants by bringing us stuff like his juice bottle a plate when hungry etc.

Does this sound like autism or maybe just a social/ speech problem? Hes only now letting his grandparents pick him up without a hissy fit. He cries alot and sometimes he cries when we talk to him like he wants me to be quiet. Hes gonna be assessed in a few weeks after scoring enough to be considered autistic, hes also got reffered for speech therapy! Im just so confused he doesnt seem to be like anything ive read. I wanna know how to help him

 

[AP]

You mention a lot of things that, if it wasn't happening, would be markers for autism. That's really positive Who did the scoring? Do you know what they used?

It could very well be that he has just a speech delay - much so like my second daughter,a lot of your post described her being clingy, she was shy, she wouldn't talk to others - things have improved and she's catching up!

The thing with autism is that all children with autism are different, so you can't compare who does what and come to a conclusion.

It's great that others are on the ball and referring him for an assessment however, and early intervention, whether it be autism or a speech delay, will all help

 

[RedRose19]

Thanks I know there so much abput autism that makes every child different and its so confusing for me, some things im like no hes definitely not autistic then other things happen and im like yes be seems like he is, im not sure I took 3 tests for him all were just over the borderline for normal its the nit understanding that is a red flag I think

 

[AP]

It's still very early days yet hun. My Tori didnt understand anything at that age, and I was terrified I was gonna have two girls with ASD, but with time it was more apparant. Thats one of the reasons why things arent rushed in terms of diagnosis. The older they are, the easier it is to diagnose.

Whats important now is he has help for the areas he needs, ASD or not. And he's getting that

 

[annanouska]

you just described my son,perfectly! He is a month younger, was 2 on Thursday.

My son is a weird eater and takes ages to settle to sleep. The personality traits are pretty much identical. He crawled at 10.5 m and walked at 18mo. He lost all his speech tho at around 14 mo. we have picked up a few words again now. He can point and say look and points to a cat and says caa. He will say hiya, uh oh and oh no but oly repeating.

He has great eye contact and will now hug mummy and daddy, hates people, gets distressed with new places but will settle. He's not interactive with other children but is sort of getting there with that.

He does weird things like lines stuff up, runs in circles, strokes his tongue etc but he appears an average toddler.

We are under a neurologist from when he lost his speech , he has a review again on tuesday so I can let u know an update! Most of his therapy people now seem to hint its a language issue causing the behaviour and social issues but a couple do mention asd. I just take him to appointments and let him get the help and go with the flow right now, I was driving myself mad of isit x y z am I bad mum and I'm not doing things right etc x

 

[Reid]

I'm currently going through a similar situation apologies if I ramble on a bit.
My son turned 3 in April it was brought up about his lack of speech at his 30 month check up at which point he was doing a lot of kind of jargon talk so I though he was just ready for it but as the weeks went on it wasn't really improving so I called the hv to come out and see us. She referred us onto audiology to get his hearing checked and to salt this was in January I also asked if I could have book bug at home for my son which we got. Book bug is something I heard about from a pal of mine it's a nursery nurse who's employed through my doctors. She's been coming out once a week and dose a wee session normally about a hour. She brings some toys do some singing and read a book. I really love it and I can see a difference in my son's behaviour since we started anyway
His hearing test didn't show any issues so the audiology referred us onto the panda centre ( they deal with children who have developmental delays). We had a specialist hv come out and visit us she done a assessment on junior to see where his development was and was sent a copy of her assessment to anyone working with my son his nursery which he starts next month and any health care professionals. Last Monday we had an appointment at the panda centre with the doctor he's been put under a lot of question asking and she seen junior for a short while I thought it would have been more in depth but hey ho we won't see her for 6 months when she'll see how he's came on since then. As for salt we are still waiting and I phoned them last week just to make sure we weren't forgot so as it stands they are working on cases from November so it's going to be months and months before we're seen so I asked if there was anything I could do to help it just seems to me this is crucial time being wasted in my eyes. I told them we were getting book bug turns out the lady who comes to us for this used to be a salt and they were going to talk with her to see if she could bring anything to help speech to our sessions she's due on Monday so hopefully she can help in some way.
I've looked into private salt but at around £60 odd a session I can afford it which makes me feel lousy.
Xx

 

[RedRose19]

I think its harder when its your first and only because you cant compare, I must say they are being very quick to get him checked and im glad there doing it now at 2, they told me his case will be seen no later than sept. So its just a waiting game, im just trying to help his speech as much as I can

 

[Reid]

Yes it definitely is tougher when it's your first. I the doctor at the panda centre did bring up autism with me to but she said if he was tested for it it would be a long while off. She said they would gather info from nursery salt and any other health care professionals working with him. It was a bit of a shock and I did get a bit upset I just had 100 questions run through my head and there questions that can't be answered but whatever happens what ever comes our way I will fight with everything I have to get him what he needs to help him through his life. That little boy is my world.
It's such a wide spectrum.
I had a phone call last week from another lady who will go and see him at nursery once he's been there a few weeks she said after that she will met with us and his nursery play worker to see what they can do to help him in his learning environment. She was really good when we spoke on the phone in fact all the ones we have been dealing with have been good only draw back is the salt just for the length of time were going to have to wait.
I have looked up some videos on you tube about speech therapy and got some good tips there.
Look up Mr potato head tip of the week by teach me to talk.
She has a lot of videos I've only had he chance to look at a few but I thought this one was really good and bringing toys into it makes it more fun. I'm on the hunt for a Mr potato head now lol