18month old ASC concerns

[Fulltimeworkingmum21]

I was hoping for some reassurance and success stories to support me through my current battle attempting all measure to get my DS1.5 seen my professionals.

He is 18months and demonstrates a large number of traits that could be deemed as associated to ASC. I have working with young adults with ASC for 14years however being a parent and discovering the traits of toddlers is a new field for me and I feel helpless and in a dark hole. Google seems to always lead me down the AUTISM rabbit role with very little room for consideration of other issues.

My beautiful boy still has not babbled.
He does not mimick any simple commands thats I know he is able to do independently.
He does not point and struggles to follow my point.
He does not respond to my name unless I enter a room after being away for over 30mins. I think he turns to my voice in these instances rather than his name.
He is walking and now exploring the world of climbing and expanding this skill.
He has started to use my hand to guide what he is doing rather than bringing a toy to me he will bring my hand to the toy.
He will not eat finger food and really stuggles with textures and lump so he is very much presenting like a weaning baby at meal times still to this day.
We have failed with every attempt to transition from a bottle to a sippy cup for water- he refuses and gets really upset at any attempt of this.
He cannot wave or gesture.

I understand my darling boy is only young and I am already aware a lot of these red flags are there. I was hoping some of you have had some success stories with children at a similar stage to our son to share some positive outcomes other than ASC.
Some great skills he has is he loves to clap and will come to us to clap back to forth for long periods of time. He interacts well with peek a poo and enjoys suspense games.

Any positive support or words of wisdom would be appreciated. We have been referred for peadiactric and are paying privately for speech and language therapy. The have recommended PACT therapy but I am looking at alternative therapies that may be beneficial.
We do not have a diagnosis at this stage.
Keep safe everyone

I don't have any success stories for you but my son is a similar age and sounds almost exactly like your son. The wait for a paediatrician and SALT seems like it's going to be forever at the moment which is disheartening and frustrating. I'm also at a loss as I struggle to find ways to get him to interact with us but for the most part he's a very happy and contented little boy so I try to keep that in mind.

Part of me wonders if the pandemic has had an impact on his development as we've been trapped inside for so long and not seen many other people. I mean, the advice is now that households with babies under 1 can form a support bubble so babies can be socialised, but when all this started our children would have been under 1 but weren't able to socialise as the rules were different and now are over 1 so again are not allowed to see people and will also have a significant wait to access services for social developmental delays. It just feels like children this age are losing out more than others due to bad timing.

Having said that, we have been able to access audiology services and have his hearing tested. Has your son's hearing been tested? My son was found to have glue ear but despite this they wanted to discharge him. I refused to be discharged until we had a full picture of his hearing without glue ear but we're still waiting for another appointment.

Google will probably throw up autism a lot because it gets the most traffic. Autism can present as delays but not all delays are autism. No one but a professional will be able to assess your son properly. What I've tried to tell myself is to focus on the now and not get ahead of myself but to accept both outcomes. I'm in a sort of place where my son both does and doesn't have autism at the same time, no one will probably be able to give me a definite answer for a long time.

Sorry I don't have anything more positive to add but you're not alone. To echo other posts I've seen on here, try to enjoy your son as much as possible now as they're only this little for such a short time.

It sounds like you are doing all the right things and I can certainly understand your concerns. Is he able to follow simple instructions? things like get your shoes, close the door, etc? that would be very positive if so. How long does like to clap back and forth? while positive if more than a few minutes it could possibly be classified as 'repetitive behaviour' as five minutes is a very long time for a 18M old. If not done so already I recommend you take the MCHAT test online, it might bring reassurance and highlight those areas that toddlers with autism really struggle with. A development peadiatrician will certainly be able to help and hopefully get to the bottom of it. Autism is a very complex disorder and it could very easily turn out to not be that, in fact, in the majority of cases it will not be autism.

Hi lovely, thanks so much for your post i feel relieved I have other parents who can relate to my concerns and hopefully we can all support each other with good ideas and progress :). Our son failed hearing test only slightly by a few points as he hated the whole experience do didnt really want to engage. Equally he has such waxy ears they told us to try olive oil and repeat the test. I am awaiting this appointment hopefully any time now.

I'm concerns he has now started to guide my hand to what he wants help with like to open a book rather than to bring the book to me.
I'm desperately searching for support groups in the area or for therapy that is affordable. I am due to go on maternity leave in April and will have limited income over this time so feel helpless.

Thanks so much @AladdinMum for responding to my post.

MChat flagged as high risk for autism. I tried to think maybe he was at the younger age group for these results to be reliable but equally don't have my head the clouds that there are significant concerns i want to help him with. He has started to play ball with us like rolling it back and forth and enjoying this. He cannot follow any instructions at all but responds to music well. An example is: I sing a song in the bath and if I sing this song before bath time he will grab my hand and walk towards the bath. He links the song to the activity if that makes sense.