Autism in toddler

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My son is 2.3 yrs old. He know only 20 words, mostly learned from picture books. If asked, he could point the picture, but his pronunciation is far behind. For car or cat, he says can, he can say 'up' but not cup, duck is ouck, banana is Nana, tree is thee. His vocabs are not functional. Has anyone experienced this in your kids. Speech disorder in autistic child. How did you improve, waiting for salt appointment. Please share your experience if any.

He may be language delayed rather than autistic. Is he showing any of the social signs of autism?

My son was language delayed and his pediatrician noticed it at around 20 months. Our school district (I'm in the US) sent a speech therapist to the house to work with him twice a week until he started school. The biggest knock on effect that you have to plan for is that it will delay his reading, which will eventually hurt him in other subjects.

MissconductUs, Thanks for your reply. We live in UK, here assessment takes longer time. Health visitor did notice few thing in him for ASD assessment referral. Like not understanding instruction, no eye contact and not asking for his needs. If he wants water, he would take me to kitchen and try to grab kettle. His tries to speak only simple words that too not clear. He would miss initial or final consonants in words. That makes me too worried.

Autism is not a language disorder, but a social communication disorder so lack of speech by itself is not concerning as speech delays are very common. You need to be looking out for weak social communication, so things like not pointing to share enjoyment (like a plane in the sky), weak social referencing, not seeking praise, weak eye contact for communicative purposes (eye contact is not about the amount of time he looks at your eyes, a split second is enough if done for communicative purposes, e.g. a toddler just staring at your eyes at length for no reason is poor eye contact), etc.

Hi yes, my DC is similar age and has only about 15 words he sometimes uses with unclear pronunciation. I’m not too worried about ASD atm as there aren’t many other signs. Time will tell if it’s a speech delay or a disorder. Can you access a speech and language professional eg through a drop in, rather than wait for a more formal assessment that might take time?