19mos old speech delay and hand flapping

[Smokey23]

My son is 19mos now.. i am bit concerned about his speech although he babbles a lot and "talk" a lot but he always just say the word "ah eh" eventho it feels like we are having conversation his "ah eh" feels like he is saying so much into it. But he know few words such as mama, dada, dede, baba, aba, papa and the other day i ask him to say car and he said "kahh" .. is this normal? Eventho he know some words, "ah eh" is everything? Also, i noticed that he hand flaps when he gets excited.. we seen a pedia at his 18mos appointment and she is not worried as she seen herself that my son know what he is doing and understand things or instructions, although he doesnt point but he does it with full hands..

I need some advise please.. i am having anxiety and it stress me out..

It's been a long time since mine were that age but if you are worried about his speech, have a look at the 18 month progress checker from ICan.

The hand flapping doesn't sound unusual but you might find doing the mchat test useful as it will tell you what his risk of having ASD is.

Thank you.. i just did the MCHAT and it says low risk...

Thank you.. i just did the MCHAT and it says low risk. Hope that's put your mind at rest a little.

Did you manage to do the speech progress checker too?

Hi, yes it says talk to speech theraphist as i answered "no" which i think is rubbish.. like i said he doesnt point a lot but instead use his hand rather than just pointing which is the same thing.

I think i will give my son time and dont put pressure on him..

Unfortunately whole hand pointing is not the same as index finger pointing - a pediatrician would fail him in both pointing questions of the MCHAT if he could only whole hand point. However the good news is that in my cases index finger pointing comes very soon after whole hand pointing :)

If using index finger in some ways, no question to that.. he uses his index finger 100x a day i dont know if that is pointing or what.. like he will poke my eye using index findex or into his nose using index finger, is that means pointing? I dont know.. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️ I knkw its different, and on the MCHAT there's a follow up question when you say "no" to that question.

And if i may add... @AladdinMum i mention it to his pedia about the pointing.. but she see it herself when my son grab my wallet in the bag open it and use his index finger to probably point at the card.. not sure if that is really pointing..

You mentioned that in your cases, are you a pedia or a therapist by any chance?

Unfortunately for these types of screeners/tests proximal pointing (so pointing to things that they can touch, so pointing in a book, pointing to body parts, etc) does not count, only distal pointing counts (so pointing to a plane in the sky to show it to you, pointing to something that they want but is out of reach, etc) - this is because autism tends to disrupt index finger distal pointing but not index finger proximal pointing. However, like I mentioned, many toddlers will start whole hand pointing before moving to distal index finger pointing while others start straight with their index finger. Though, moving from whole hand pointing to index finger pointing is a big step (from a development point of view) so it's why it's important to see it happen soon.

No I am not a clinician, but I work alongside pediatricians/psychologists on research into children's pervasive development disorders (causes, diagnosis, treatments, etc) and have followed the development of many children over the years to research outcomes based on early observations and initial concerns.