Hi everyone,
I don’t really know what I’m asking really because deep down I know the answer. It’s a long post if anyone wants to read 🤞🏼
My little boy is 2 years 4 months. I started having suspicions of him being autistic when he was around 18 months.
Around this age He had been unwell quite a few times from being quite young (no ear infections) but long periods of coughs / colds/ temperatures etc.
He had a big handful of words but pronounced most of them them incorrectly. Words such such as pear, star, daddy, peppa, teddy, cheese, no, ta, pig.. quite a few more actually… but a lot said in the wrong pitch but almost always like he was deaf (if you know what I mean). He’d had animal noises since being 12 months. He imitated me in both making noises and pulling faces and repeating words when he could, had always loved kisses and cuddles. Smiled, cooed & laughed on time. Always loved playing peekaboo from a young age, clapped and did the actions to twinkle twinkle from being a small baby. But now he’s older I look back and realise he didn’t really babble properly until 10 months, pointed around 12 months on his own terms but only when he could be bothered, properly started pointing at 15 months but not for shared attention (not sure when that started that but he does do it a lot now) and waving., but again on his terms really. and then started pointing at and naming things in books around 19 months. He would request things by asking (things like his bottle, dummy, biscuit). He always followed my point. Great eye contact most of the time. He would chose between items in my hands, get excited to see his cousin and family members.
I was getting concerned because even though he wasn’t calling me mama he could count 2-10 and recognise the numbers written down around this time of 18 months but not 1! Haha! Now he is up to 20 and recognises but isn’t obsessed with numbers and doesn’t seek them out, nor does he count much unless I encourage him. He started bringing me things for attention at around 19/20 months, showing me and bringing me things of interest, however he didn’t react to his name a lot and often ignored when I spoke to him. I felt he was vacant a lot of the time and especially in the car he would stare into space. I didn’t really feel he reacted to my expressions much, but was a happy and smiley child so it was hard to explain this to people as he was always and is still laughing and smiling. He wasn’t retrieving items when asked or following simple instructions.
A health visitor came and suggested she thought it was his hearing which subsequently turned out to be glue ear in one ear. A few months later it hadn’t cleared and had actually formed in his other ear too and he had mild hearing loss. He had grommets fit in January this year so we are now 3.5 months post op.
before his op he would start singing Hakuna Matatat from the Lion King or 1,2,3,4 from the jungle book, I thought it was cute because he loved them. Although it would be random, we did watch them a lot because he asked for them so just assumed he was saying what he could say.
Fast forward 3 months and his speech and pronunciation has definitely picked up a lot however he is now quoting A LOT of stuff from books. He still does pronounce words a bit differently but others in a normal tone. He’s saying 200+ words.. He can name most objects and is started to say things like
Where has gone (could be anything.. daddy, an aeroplane, someone we were with, an
animal, a toy he’s put down somewhere)
take it off (regarding his clothes)
Mummy’s turn, LG turn, himself turn (trying to practice turn taking and he says this often when he wants to do something)
has occasionally self referred such as “MINE” but tends to use his own name
mummy, open (door/packet/something) please
mummy fix it please
wanted me to get in bed with him and he said “mummy… bed. Here” and pointed next to him.
says yes and no appropriatly etc
it started with a paragraph from Elmer in around February but is now scripting small chunks of books several times a day. He begs to listen to the same books every day, I hide them he forgets about it and locks onto something else and starts quoting that. He’s currently taking the same chunk from around 3/4 books and will just randomly say lines from them not in context, however this is amongst his conversational language. He does answer appropriately and He doesn’t do this when we’re out in public or if we’re doing something stimulating. He just seems to do it when we’re at home together doing not much and they have noticed it at nursery.
he passed his 27 month check no problems, scoring slightly lower on the social side of it but not in any referral zone. he also passed his check up hearing test (as in the glue ear has gone) but also understand where they ask to complete an instruction every time a noise sounds with no problem. He understands most yes/no questions, can retrieve things for me, loves showing me things, points things out to me, asks me to help him do something
The HV knows I’m very worried so even though she didn’t hear any repetitive stuff she has agreed to come back.
I know he’s behind 100%. But until yesterday I was sort of thinking it was just echolalia (which he does have some of too) but now I’ve read up on scripting and I cannot find one forum where someone who’s child scripted was not ASD. He goes through stages of repeating
“hello mummy, what you doing”
and can say it a few times even if he asked me 5 mins ago. I would answering saying what I was doing and say what are you doing and he would answer appropriatly.
He also started to engage in play / role play at 23/24 months. He’s absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs and rawrs quite a lot a day as well as wanting to read books / watch programmes/ play with toy dinosaurs . I think he must say the word dinosaur 50 times a day!! He plays alongside/with other children. we had a baby at Christmas when he was 2 and 2 weeks before his op and he just cannot bond with her, he very occasionally makes reference to her “baby sister” “baby sister turn” but has hit her too. He doesn’t try to talk to her or would never hold / kiss her.
Now I’m wondering if all of his language is all echoed and he’s just learnt to use it appropriately. I know I’m being very stereotypical but he has never done the following as far as I’m concerned:
Lined things up
Head banged/tip toe walked/any physical stimming
had meltdowns (will tantrum to manipulate 100% though!)
slept or eaten poorly
had any sensory issues
however he has recently started doing things like :
has obsessions with books(that last days but still quotes them weeks later)/programmes or films (that last weeks)
bolt down our road but turning to laugh at us as he does it
licks things but looks at me and laughs as he does it
being overly friendly with strangers
eye contact not as great as it once was but still is there, mostly on his terms
not sure he recognises emotions… he says happy face and sad face when he sees a drawing, and can recognise the flash cards I’ve bought him but I’ve been so upset yesterday and today that yesterday when he cried he sort of pulled a false sad face and started pretending to cry but this morning just ignored the fact I was crying and rawhed at me! I feel he’s not empathetic but not sure when that’s supposed to start.
There’s just something odd about his behaviour / him which I’ve never been able to put my finger on.
i’m just so heartbroken. Until yesterday like I said I assumed it could just be late development due to hearing loss but now I’ve found out what he’s doing is called scripting I just can’t see any way other than that he is ASD? Obviously I absolutely adore him but it’s just a shock that suddenly people are started to recognise what I recognised long ago and I’m feeling overwhelmed again (nursery are picking up on some stuff). We have a check up in 2 months with HV to see how he’s doing if he needs to be referred (but if I didn’t have any Concerns she wouldn’t have seen us again because she wasn’t concerned) and private SALT assessment next week.
Does anyone have experience of ASD symptoms and glue ear, or scripting without ASD?
sorry for the long post it’s just taken me an hour to write and I know I’ve missed out loads of stuff he does that Is good and also bad but I don’t know. There was not major RED FLAGS , maybe just a bit emotionally immature and behind, but now I’ve convinced myself for sure.