Hi everyone -
I have a son who turned 3 a couple of weeks ago. We were referred for speech and language January 2017 and didn’t see anyone until the October. He says lots of words but no conversation, there are issues with his overall level of communication. The speech therapist observed a few ‘red flags’ so made a referral to the child development team. Their waiting list is 12 months !
He doesn’t exhibit any major behavioural issues , doesn’t have to have things ‘as so’ ,doesn’t have any sensory issues, is very adaptable to change. He’s happy and healthy-fun and easy going - he attends nursery 2 days a week and they always tell me he’s had a great day. It’s really just the lack of communication and language causing concern with some lack of eye contact ( more so with strangers) .
With there being such a long wait to see anyone I’m looking at other options. I’m anxious to give him the right support he needs, the speech and language people have told me to keep doing what I’m doing but I feel this isn’t enough and waiting a year to see a specialist is wasted and lost time. The health visitors / doctors / speech therapist have all danced around what may or may not be wrong and suggested lots of different possible labels, which is no help to me or him really. It could be nothing , he could just be very behind - or it could be something on the spectrum, autism, global delay or any number of other things.
He’s becoming quite frustrated at times which is upsetting for him and all of us. I have a 4 yo who is so desperate for him to talk too so they can play proper games together. When I picked him up today from nursery I had a chat with his key worker about a woman I’ve found that is £70 an hour , I was going to have her observe him and give me feedback. I said to key worker that I just want someone to tell me what’s wrong and she said that in their experience as practitioners with children they are seeing autist traits they’ve seen before in children that have gone on to be formally diagnosed, so I almost feel she was sort of saying don’t waste your money -we think it’s autism.
I just don’t know what to do, I’m in tears daily so worried about him and the thought of things always being hard like this. I know it might sound silly but I can’t watch he undateables anymore it just has me in floods of tears- I find it absolutely heartbreaking the thought he may not lead a ‘normal’ life. We are waiting for a call to go to a drop in at the child development centre -he’s not due to be seen there until October for an assessment tho, I am on the list for portage to give us a call. Services as obviously so stretched down here ! And so many children are being reffered to warrant such long waiting lists!
Does anyone have any ideas they can share or similar experiences ?
Thanks in advance xxx
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Behaviour/development
3 yo ‘autistic traits’ or just behind ?
17 replies
Dani2891 · 26/02/2018 12:53
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