Worried sick - 17 month old Autism signs

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Hello everyone, just looking for some reassurance or advice, really...anything.

My little girl has just turned 17 months. At her review with the health visitor I brought up that I was concerned she wasn't responding to her name or really speaking at all. They referred to audiology in case there was hearing issues and to speach therapy for the lack of talking. They mentioned her having a possible speech delay. Still waiting for appointments to come through.

Since then another health visitor came round and did a SOGS assessment. This is where everything came crumbling down. They assessed her as two stages behind in speech and one stage behind in cognition. She was ahead or bang on in everything else. They hinted at possibly having autism and now that's all I can focus on. She occasionally walks on tip toes, she doesn't really acknowledge strangers coming into her presence, she couldn't really be fussed about other children and isn't great with eye contact. She's not pointing at things It's all I can see now. I'm getting so worked up and upset it's affecting everything. They are reassessing her at 18 months.

Has anyone had anything similar? We're they OK and it was just slow to get to grips with talking?

Hey, I'm sorry you're going through such worry at the moment. Hopefully the reassessment will bring some clarity - I think the not knowing can feel so hard.

If your DD is scoring well in most areas, that's good. I'm not an expert in SOGS, but I think it's when a category/domain gets scored as 2 stages below that triggers further assessment to see if intervention is needed. The hope being that identifying potential difficulties early on means early interventions which can be more effective in helping children with their development.

If your DD does have a difficulty with her speech and language, early interventions can be really helpful. And if it's just that she's been focusing more on other parts of her development then she may well catch up quickly once she starts focusing on speech instead.

While autism is one potential diagnosis, it's not the only possible cause of a speech delay, and even if your DD does have it, she's still the same lovely person that she's always been. Early diagnosis can again be really helpful, as it means that, from an early age, you can tailor your parenting and her life experiences to her strengths and needs. Autism is a broad spectrum and a diagnosis doesn't mean your DD has a bleak future - there would still be every chance of her being able to fulfil her dreams and have a happy life.

This sounds like my daughter. My daughter is now 22 months and still has no progress. She was tested with audiology and there’s no problems with her hearing. She’s just started her speech therapy. And she’s been referred for autism and other things. The only advice I can give you is stay calm and go with the flow and read into it all to educate yourself. Hearing your child has autistic traits can be frightening this was a concern brought up at 16 months for my daughter. I’ve had time to process and go with the flow and honestly I now focus on little victories she does! She finally started clapping her hands 4 months ago and I was crying like a baby 😂. My daughter is non verbal but she’s the biggest character ever. Your not alone ❤️xxx

Going through the same
any updates with your dd?