Please help! Autism/language/behaviour

[bananajelly]

So toddler is 2 years 3 months and barely says any words. If I count up he can probably say 20ish words but they aren't clear and he only says them when he wants to (meow, oink, blue, nanight)
His understanding is fantastic, he recognises colours, numbers 1-10 and all shapes and is just generally really quite bright. But he won't talk. If I ask him to repeat a word...he won't and I'm freaking out. My brother keeps mentioning autism?
He's a really well behaved toddler, only having tantrums when we put pants on and his new coat
He smacks the floor if he is getting frustrated also.
I read all the time with him and constantly talk and describe things.
Am I being paranoid or should he be saying more?

Have you had the 2 year check with the Health Visitor yet? My DS (2.5 yrs) is very similar, lots of signs that could point to autism including speech delay. We had our 2 year check in June & have a follow up next week.

It’s difficult as the professionals I have spoken to (doctors, health visitors, staff at DS’s nursery) have all said that it’s difficult to diagnose this early unless it’s a severe case with obvious signs such a totally non-verbal, no eye contact, hand-flapping etc.

Some children are just late speakers and I’ve heard cases of kids who barely spoke at all suddenly coming out with full sentences overnight. I would flag it up as something to monitor and maybe seek further specialist help is nothing changes in 6-ish months or so.

for you, it’s hard being a worried mummy.

Thanks so much for your response, it's so hard to know if I'm just being a over worried mum or if there is something I should be worried about.

Yes, had his check last month. The only concern they had was he wasn't putting two words together. I was told they would call me in the next 3-6 months to see if anything had changed x

If his understanding is good then that's less of a worry for autism, and if he uses gestures e.g. points to show objects of interest / to request what he wants then even better.

Has he had a recent hearing check? and are you lucky enough to live in an area where you can self refer / drop in to nhs speech therapy?

My ds was assessed for autism at 3.5 (after i had pushed the assessment back 6 months) at 2.5 he had no understanding / words / gestures - he doesn't have autism though. I think because language delay is such a red flag for autism people don't consider the other reasons for speech delay.

Children don't start putting two words together until they have about 50 words, so until his vocabulary increases you wouldn't expect him to combine. It sounds like you are doing all the right things with reading, playing and labelling. You could always look into private ASD assessment if you're concerned or just wait and see what the NHS professionals say. He will likely get referred to speech therapy if his speech doesn't come on over the next few months and speech therapists are quite good at picking up whether it's a language/speech delay or possibly more. They can let you know if they think a referral to ASD assessment is needed. You can also look into private SLT for therapy and/or advice at helpwithtalking.com

From your description it does not sound like autism at all, more like a speech delay which are very common. Autism is not a language disorder, so a speech delay in itself would not mean autism.