37 month old being referred to paediatrician and one to one speech and language

[Whoknewitcouldbeso]

We have done the drop in sessions and the workshops and SALT signed him off a few months ago. We then changed preschool as I wasn't happy with the care he was receiving in his previous preschool. They are very hot on special educational needs and have been evaluating him for about three months. Had a conversation with the SENCO today and she thinks he would benefit from one to one sessions with SALT and also an assessment from a paediatrician.

She is concerned about his language obviously, his speech has really come on since he turned three but he is still well behind his peers. But his fine motor skills are also concerning her. His five year old cousin has recently been diagnosed with mild autism. At three the paediatrician said unlikely, at five with the school assessing him two it seems as though he is on the spectrum after all. I think this has made me look at my son a bit differently and whilst he doesn't seem to do the obvious things associated with autism, something clearly isn't right.

Not even sure what I want from this post. I just needed to get it down and see if anyone else out there is on the same journey or else went down the rabbit hole but all ended up ok in the end!!

Thank you xx

Can you explain a bit more about his language issues? Is it his pronounciation, his understanding of language, can he say single words or short sentences and have you got any other concerns - with socialising, making eye contact, being very upset if there is a change in routine, behaviour?

Many things can cause a language delay, one of them being a hearing problem so you should ask for a referral to hearing test -even if you think he can hear well he might be missing out on some sounds if he has glue ear for example. If his fine motor skills are also delayed, they might check for dyspraxia, if you look it up online the dyspraxia foundation website for s very good.

They might check him for various development milestone and keep an eye, Ie review every six months. Generally professionals are very careful about diagnosing autism early so I am not surprised about your cousin.

Can you explain a bit more about his language issues? Is it his pronounciation, his understanding of language, can he say single words or short sentences and have you got any other concerns - with socialising, making eye contact, being very upset if there is a change in routine, behaviour?

Thank you for the reply iwantakitchen his language as of today is not bad. He says sentences, for example 'daddy go work' 'get more milk' 'ki ki ra ra (his name for the cat) under bed, go sleep'. His 'conversations' are basically a series of statements which the preschool seemed to think was fairly normal before he hopefully starts conversing more normally. The issue is that he is behind his peers in both speech and language and also fine motor skills.

He doesn't show any obvious signs of Autism but I am no expert. His eye contact is good, he likes socialising however his lack of conversation means he has no friends to speak of. He doesn't mind loud noises but can get funny with people singing. He also doesn't like me reading to him, but will look at a Peppa Pig book with me. So he has some funny ways but I'm not sure if that's SN or just him. I think time will probably tell on it and I suspect a paediatrician might say the same.

He has had his hearing tested at the hospital in Nov or Dec last year and it was perfect.

Re. his fine motor skills I feel totally responsible for that as I still help him eat because otherwise he wouldn't bother beyond snacking. So he only uses cutlery occasionally. I took pens and crayons away from him as he was drawing on the walls and carpet. Plus other small objects like buttons I took away as I was concerned of the choke risk. I feel as though I have given him zero ability to practice at home and so I'm not surprised he is now struggling with holding a pen or crayon at preschool.

Obviously this will now change and we've already had all sorts of stuff out at the weekend to help with this, so I'm hoping this is more a practise thing than it is a developmental issue.

Ok yes I see, just give him more opportunity and tools for fine motor skills, it does't have to be pens it can be brushes and water painting the pavement, chalk in the park on paths, give him a cloth to 'dust' stuff and 'clean' windows, play doh is good to strengthen the muscles, putting small objects into puts (just put a couple of bags of various pasta shapes in a washing up bowl and give him spoons and little plastic puts to fill). And you can get these to pinch pasta shapes with: www.funlearning.co.uk/easy-grip-childrens-tweezers

Great idea. I do none of this stuff although his preschool is absolutely brilliant and do lots and lots of this stuff. He has a huge amount of toys that he just ignores, but has access to. So in my head i was probably thinking he isn't interested, whereas I think I need to just get more creative with him as he loves play dough.

Bubblewrap is fab for encouraging the pinch grip. And clothes pegs :-)

37 months??? He's 3