Autism concerns

[Whaaaaat]

Thanks. Like I say, I’m going to address it with his paediatrician and see what he says. He’s the expert I guess, not me.

Either way he’s the most lovely, funny, kind little man and I absolutely adore him. I just hate the thought of him finding life a little bit harder should it come to that.

 

[LittleMy]

I would follow it up though as everyone here seems to say he’s a normal toddler. Your account sounds very much like how my son was at his age. I just had a gut feeling something wasn’t right as he would close and open gates and doors all the time. In parks, soft play etc. He was diagnosed with add at the age of 5. Things become more obvious after the age of two but the gates were first indicator xx


ASD not add

I agree with this. Don’t be fobbed off if you genuinely have a gut feeling that there’s more to it. From what you’ve said it’s possible that it’s just a speech issue and things will resolve, but you know your child best (even if you’re new to parenting). If there are any concerns, it’s good to address them as soon as possible, because early intervention is key for supporting children with ASD. Good luck, I hope everything works out well for you and your little boy. As someone who has been down this road twice now, I know how it feels.

 

[ChloChlo]

Also may I add in my experience from what I noted via my babies and those of relatives and friends is that boys seem to take alot longer to talk than girls.

 

[SoF]

Have 19yo with autism & moderate intellectual disability . @ 18 mts the only concern I had was speech was delayed relative to older brother & peers .. raised my concerns a lot but didn’t push (I think I was in denial) it is true every child with autism is different. There’s a long list of “behaviours” no one will exhibit them all .. some may have 1-2 etc @ 18mts it’s hard to tell the difference between “normal” & “cause for concern” I would strongly sugg trust your instincts .. looking back I paid no attention @ the time but these behaviours were present & equelly as was pointed out to me any child can have 1,2,3 but what professionals look for is a pattern of behaviours ; my son @18 mts - excessive crying (no tantrums) lining things up .. toys etc ( once lined up abt 20 packs of toilet paper in the supermarket!) poor eye contact (failed hearing test @ 4 months as he didn’t react) didn’t come to me for reassurance if he was upset .. fought me off. Didn’t look up if some one came in the room.. didn’t seem to notice if visitor came to the house.. played alongside his brother rather than with him ie interactively .. so overall there were a couple of obsessions .. lack of interest/curiosity around him .. lack of engagement .. speech delay.. understanding language is well ahead of spoken language .. my first port of call if you have concerns would be a speech & language therapist.. they are well trained to identify potential issues. My best wishes

 

[120clemon]

One of my brothers had some features and received early, additional comprehensive kindergarten. He never met diagnostic criteria and he is your average uni student today.

I used to work with kids too so between the two experiences somethings I've taken away are that as several people pointed out that even normal/neurotypical kids exist on a range and will meet certain developmental hallmark at slightly different times. Moreover, your family history might give clues, if there is history of speech delay for example. Being on the spectrum or having autistic characteristics also has a strong genetic component, the engineering side of my family can attest to this though not everyone has an actual diagnosis. From the experience of my brother, his delays were in communication and behaviors and social behavior was ok. He was a bit neuroatypical and was lucky to not be labelled any specific way but benefitted with personalized attention. It hasn't gone to affect him beyond primary school. Autism/autistic traits do exist along a spectrum so it's not always the devastating boogeyman seen in the media.

There are however red flags, significant regression in abilities and in autism lack of expression, poor nonverbal communication not just lack of single gesture but globally, repetitive almost obsessive actions or behaviors like the gate thing someone mentioned etc. You don't seem to identify those features which is reassuring. I agree that you should get a professional opinion. Professionals have the expertise to spot specific behaviors but kids can behave differently in an office vs. home setting.

It's helpful if you continue to jot down specific situations that are of concern to you. Maybe this is just semantics but a lot of commentators keep referring to following one's instincts but then seem to point out many examples of the kids actually demonstrated a lot of hallmarks of autism. So I think identifying specific examples that give you pause can help make the assessment more productive. Like if your kid is sleepy the day of your appointment, they can't really observe his behaviors anyways.

 

[Whaaaaat]

The one thing I am noticing is that the people who are sharing their experience of ASD (thank you so much, I really appreciate it), none of them sound like my son.

He’s so in tune with me and his dad, me especially. Very affectionate, comes to us for reassurance if he’s scared/upset, too curious about the world around him and is into everything, he doesn’t have any repetitive play, if he plays with a car for example he’ll push it around or push it for me to push back to him - never plays with wheels or lines stuff up, his name response is good, he really interacts with us, he has stranger anxiety but I would say it’s excessive and he just runs to me.

I did find out my mum had turned the gate thing into a game and I asked her to stop so that seems to have eased off and now he closes the gate, claps and walks away.

He passes the MChat with a 2. But I’m aware all people with ASD present differently.

My friend who’s brother and nephew have ASD said she doesn’t think he is, thinks he’s too interactive with me and communicates his needs to well even without talking.

My MIL said my OH had a severe speech delay and was in speech Therapy for a long time.

I’ve made notes to take to his doctor and have taken videos of his positives and negatives so the doctor can see in case he doesn’t act his usual self in the appointment.

Knowing what he’s like he’ll walk into the appointment and start talking.

 

[Lollipop2123]

I'm not medically trained in any way but based on my own knowledge of having a child a similar age and being around children a lot, none of this sounds like any cause for concern at all but it's good to speak to someone who knows their stuff x

 

[SunshineSally]

Keep an eye on his speech. My 7 year old has a speech and language disorder known as DLD and, if anything, it has taught me that early intervention is key.

 

[Tree_]

Sounds like a normal 18 month old to me. X

 

[bubbadabut]

Your child sounds like all 4 of mine. None of them have ASD but all 4 of them are still under ENT and they've all had grommets. All 4 of them went through a toe-walking phase, it passed. All 4 of them were very explorative, into everything, but their speech was really delayed. Went through Speech & Language with my first son but they weren't much help. The only things that helped were the grommets and starting nursery. My daughter has just turned three and she's only just started speaking in sentences (but it's still hard for anyone other than me to understand her). It was a real struggle to potty train any of them. It's good that you are being seen, he sounds like a happy 18 month old to me. My only advice would be not to over-observe and over-analyse. Just let him be and see how things go.

 

[Ninjacat]

Hope no-one minds me asking, as I know each child is different, but what aged did your ASD child talk. My 3.2 year old son is non verbal, we are waiting for an appointment with the community paediatricians to see what the next steps are to help him and get him assessed. Thanks

 

[LittleMy]

My son regressed from his first words around 12 months, to nothing, and then he started saying words again after his 2nd birthday when he started nursery and speech therapy. He is 5 and still delayed, but could talk the hind legs off a donkey now.

 

[maytoseptember]

I’ve been in your shoes and yes, my son turned out to be autistic but he’s also brilliant and funny and super clever. I wouldn’t change a thing.

It was a long road to acceptance though. Like you say, the NHS adopts a wait and see approach, but I was kind of fine with that because I was happy to wait and see if his speech and social interactions caught up with his peers. He did catch up a little, with speech especially, but as his ability to communicate improved, he was able to voice his objections to things/rigid thinking etc and then I knew... ah, you’re autistic.

One thing I will say is you hear “early intervention is key” and yet, all these years later, I don’t understand what that phrase means. I have found it impossibly hard to access speech therapy on the NHS. Haven’t been offered anything else and I don’t think my son needs it. So don’t panic about “early intervention” (no intervention will make your child less autistic, if they are indeed autistic) or feel compelled to sign your little one up for tons of therapies. Just concentrate on what you think he needs help with as he grows.

 

[SunshineSally]

Hope no-one minds me asking, as I know each child is different, but what aged did your ASD child talk. My 3.2 year old son is non verbal, we are waiting for an appointment with the community paediatricians to see what the next steps are to help him and get him assessed. Thanks

Mine was non verbal then and isn't ASD. Lack of speech doesn't always point towards ASD. My son has DLD which is far more common that ASD but not very well known. My experience is that early intervention is key so kick up a fuss with your hv and ask to be referred to SaLT

 

[Ninjacat]

Mine was non verbal then and isn't ASD. Lack of speech doesn't always point towards ASD. My son has DLD which is far more common that ASD but not very well known. My experience is that early intervention is key so kick up a fuss with your hv and ask to be referred to SaLT

Hi there, thanks for this info. I'll read up on that as well. He has a lot of other autism traits which is why we have gone down this route but have struggled to get to this point tbh I asked for him to see an SLT when he was about 2 and his referral wasn't accepted even with zero speech glad your son is doing well now

 

[SunshineSally]

Hi there, thanks for this info. I'll read up on that as well. He has a lot of other autism traits which is why we have gone down this route but have struggled to get to this point tbh I asked for him to see an SLT when he was about 2 and his referral wasn't accepted even with zero speech glad your son is doing well now

They are very closely intertwined - my son was under ASD assessment as well. You have to, being brutally honest, kick up a stink and demand a referral. We were fobbed off in the early days and, looking back, I wish that I was much tougher. In the end, we went private and haven't looked back.

 

[Whaaaaat]

I just realised I never gave an update.

We had our appointment with my sons consultant and he said in his experience he didn’t see autism. His view was that he had a speech delay that he believed would resolve itself but he referred us to speech therapy as he said there was quite a long wait list so wanted to get us on that.

He said he would have discharged us if I hadn’t raised autism concerns so he said he would see us again in 4 months for another review as he will be 2 then so we should have a more clear picture.

But he said while he was interacting with my son he gave excellent eye contact, pointed to things when asked, waved bye bye and he felt he had good receptive language. He did the MChat while we were there and my son scored a 0 which he said was a good indication it’s not autism.

Since then he has come on quite a lot. He has approximately 15-20 words now and seems to be like a sponge at the minute learning new things every day.

So I’m hoping that it was just a speech delay but I guess it’s just a wait and see long term. Either way he’s a delight and I wouldn’t change him for the world.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[NaeDebates]

I just realised I never gave an update.

We had our appointment with my sons consultant and he said in his experience he didn’t see autism. His view was that he had a speech delay that he believed would resolve itself but he referred us to speech therapy as he said there was quite a long wait list so wanted to get us on that.

He said he would have discharged us if I hadn’t raised autism concerns so he said he would see us again in 4 months for another review as he will be 2 then so we should have a more clear picture.

But he said while he was interacting with my son he gave excellent eye contact, pointed to things when asked, waved bye bye and he felt he had good receptive language. He did the MChat while we were there and my son scored a 0 which he said was a good indication it’s not autism.

Since then he has come on quite a lot. He has approximately 15-20 words now and seems to be like a sponge at the minute learning new things every day.

So I’m hoping that it was just a speech delay but I guess it’s just a wait and see long term. Either way he’s a delight and I wouldn’t change him for the world.

Thanks for all your help.

Hi! I’m actually a Speech and Language Therapist and part of my job is doing Autism assessments. I just wanted to reassure you that nothing you said in your original post would be a red flag for me in terms of autism, and in fact I wouldn’t even be overly concerned about a language delay. There’s such a huge variation in what’s “typical” and in my experience boys especially can be slower to develop expressive language. I also generally see boys be late to speak and then all of a sudden speak in sentences - I have nothing to back that up but I’ve seen lots of it! Your wee man sounds very typical to me but feel free to message me if you have any questions!

 

[Whaaaaat]

Hi! I’m actually a Speech and Language Therapist and part of my job is doing Autism assessments. I just wanted to reassure you that nothing you said in your original post would be a red flag for me in terms of autism, and in fact I wouldn’t even be overly concerned about a language delay. There’s such a huge variation in what’s “typical” and in my experience boys especially can be slower to develop expressive language. I also generally see boys be late to speak and then all of a sudden speak in sentences - I have nothing to back that up but I’ve seen lots of it! Your wee man sounds very typical to me but feel free to message me if you have any questions!

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it

 

[SunshineSally]

Hi! I’m actually a Speech and Language Therapist and part of my job is doing Autism assessments. I just wanted to reassure you that nothing you said in your original post would be a red flag for me in terms of autism, and in fact I wouldn’t even be overly concerned about a language delay. There’s such a huge variation in what’s “typical” and in my experience boys especially can be slower to develop expressive language. I also generally see boys be late to speak and then all of a sudden speak in sentences - I have nothing to back that up but I’ve seen lots of it! Your wee man sounds very typical to me but feel free to message me if you have any questions!

This isn't a particularly helpful post at all and is exactly why I had a huge battle on my hands to get the support I needed for my son. I received comments like this and, looking back, they were unnecessary, harmful and a huge stumbling block and as a SaLT you should be. I dread to think of where we would be if I had listened to the claptrap you just posted. No, not all boys are 'late speakers'. Not all girls are either. Any language delay in our children needs to be taken seriously and looked into ASAP. Early intervention is key. As you should be aware, DLD affects 2 in 30 children and, those poor souls just slip through the cracks! I am not suggesting that the OPs children has it but more people need to be more aware of it.

This isn't a particularly helpful post at all and is exactly why I had a huge battle on my hands to get the support I needed for my son. I received comments like this and, looking back, they were unnecessary, harmful and a huge stumbling block. I dread to think of where we would be if I had listened to the claptrap you just posted. No, not all boys are 'late speakers'. Not all girls are either. Any language delay in our children needs to be taken seriously and looked into ASAP. Early intervention is key. As you should be aware, DLD affects 2 in 30 children and, those poor souls just slip through the cracks! I am not suggesting that the OPs children has it but more people need to be more aware of it.