27 month old toddler boy, asd suggested by health visitor, what should I expect

[Crumbsinthecarpet]

Hi all
Mum of 2, 27 month old boy and 2 month old girl

I've been worried DS was behind with speech as his words aren't clear or are his version of what he calls something, obviously I know what he's talking about most of the time but others don't. He uses 2 word sentences very rarely

He's being referred to an SLT which I'm glad of but health visitor thinks he may be mild asd

Reasons for this are:
excessive clumsiness
Behind on speech
Not really seeming to notice if I'm crying
Being very focussed on a fine motor toy like jigsaws for a good hour on his own

Anyway he's being referred for podiatry, hearing, vision and SLT, and will be assessed for asd

My question is, how long will this process take and what should I expect from the process?

Also, what can I do to help him in the meantime? I've been trying games for speech aimed at 2 year olds but they just aren't getting through

I'm so upset because its all so unknown and all I want is the best for him but I feel it will be a while until I get any Answers

I'm UK btw so NHS

Unfortunately the process through the NHS can literally take years... from initial autism concerns to an initial consultation with a development ped (ie. someone that actually knows about autism) can be up to a year wait - it will be slightly better/worse depending on location.

There is no such thing as mild ASD, there is only ASD as a diagnosis - people tend to refer to high functioning ASD as mild ASD, however, the challenges can be as great or greater than those with classic ASD so the word mild can be very misleading. The reasons your HV has given for them suspecting ASD, while they can and are commonly linked to autism tend to be low quality predictors of a future diagnosis as children without autism also commonly do then. Autism is a social communication disorder, not a speech disorder, not a lack of empathy disorder, or any other type of disorder - at 18M to 2YR old, autism would tend to significantly impair and delay sharing of interests with carers (so for example not pointing to a plane in sky or having weak joint attention), weak/no imaginative play, weak social referencing, weak communicative eye contact, etc - these tend to be much more reliable markers of a possible future diagnosis. The MCHAT would be a good place to start if you still haven't taken it, it is the defacto screener for autism and will highlight those areas that autism tends to impair the most.

Thank you @AladdinMum for the advice! I've just done the UK mchat this morning and he scored 2 so low risk which is good, his imaginative play is a bit crap he will say hello to you phone if prompted, will pretend to drink and will take teddy's temp with his doctors kit, but he's not interested in making cars go or planes fly, I'm hoping it will just come with time!! Thank you for replying :)

I think potentially hearing is an issue as he gets the rhythm of language when he jabbers to you it's just like he's talking with misheard words which aren't real words!