Is this autism?

[Shootingstar2289]

I have a son who is 3 and a half. He had no speech by age 2 and very little by age 3. But between his third birthday and now his speech has come on leaps and bounds - although still delayed.

He is a very happy, affectionate and loving child. I read that autistic children don't usually react to cuddles and affection. Well that definitely is not my child. He is almost too cuddly - if such a thing.

He is toilet trained day and night. He is significantly late with it compared ro others but we got there and he's done so well.

He knows all his body parts, colours, some shapes and can count to 15.

It took him a while but he has settled in well at pre-school.

However he is showing some other warning signs of autism of speech (speech being the main one) as follows:

-does not show interest in playing with other children. However, he seems to enjoy their company but prefers to play alongside them and do his own thing - but to be honest, I've always been a bit like this myself.

-does not seem interested at kids birthday parties etc. We went to a party at the weekend and he didn't want to join in and done his own thing.

-does not always like to share but been told this is improving at pre-school.

-certain fixations on certain objects - trains, cranes, arcade machines and anything to do with pushing butoons. For instance wanting to press the buttons on a cash machine. And he went through a stage of playing with taps.

-Lack of imaginary play up until a few months ago - he does play imaginatively to a certain extent now.

-He loves routine and anything out of routine can upset him. He loves exploring outdoors and would walk around a woods for miles. But walk a different route to the park - lots of upset.

-Occasionally staring into space.

He has a speech therapist who has only seem him 3 or 4 times since age 2. Only one speech therapist in my area which is pants in my opinion.

He has been observed by a senior senco at pre-school who is going to see him again in the near future.

Hearing tests have come back fine.

He is seeing a pediatrician again in a couple weeks. The last one told me it was just a general speech delay.

Any advice?

I think at that age it is difficult to tell. My ds1 who sounds similar to your son in some ways is now 9 and being assessed for asperger's. I have always felt he was different, but he was diagnosed with glue ear and severe hearing loss, so a lot of his problems and strange behaviours were put down to that. As he has got older the gap between his and his peers abilities have widened, although he is a very intelligent boy with art abilities that far surpass those of his peers.

You have input from a speech therapist and the senco at the pre-school so it would be worth speaking to them about your worries if you haven't already. Otherwise I think you may just have to wait and see how he goes over the next year or so. I know in my area they very rarely make a diagnosis in children under 4.

I should add, my ds1 had severe speech delay and then problems sounded words correctly, but this was definately in part due to the glue ear. However once he hit about 4 1/2 his vocabulary rocketed and he comes out with words that I am amazed he knows. He can talk for england on his favourite topics, but has a very odd style of speech - which is quite old fashioned and proper IYSWIM.

Hi Tutu 100. My son has difficulty sounding words properly too. What are the signs of glue ear? My son has had two hearing tests + the baby hearing test which came back fine. However, over the last month or two he's been tilting his head to one side when listening to the TV, iPad etc suggesting he is struggling to hear like he should.

I have mentioned this to the senco lady who said it might be worth looking at it but gave me no information on arranging a hearing test. I am seeing his pediatrician end of next week and will mention it to him.

Thank you.

My son never responded to his name and often didn't here things that startled other children, so I originally asked for help as I didn't think he could hear properly. Obviously it turned out he couldn't, but then even once he had his grommets he still didn't respond to his name being called like children are supposed to.

He had a series of hearing tests and they also had a machine which blew air into the ear and measures the movement of the ear drum, in one ear the glue ear was so bad the eardrum didn't move at all meaning he couldn't hear. His hearing test at birth was fine, but I noticed from about a year he didn't respond to sounds as you'd expect. I first mentioned it to the health visitor when he was 15 months and she then arranged for a hearing test when things had not changed by the time he was 18 months. He was monitored for a year to see if the glue ear would go on it's own, but it became apparent it wasn't and he had grommets fitted at 2 yrs 10 months. The 2nd of which has just fallen out today! So they were in for a long time.

Speak to the pead about it, have you told them you concerns over autism?