What was your autistic child like as a toddler?

[Jackofallmasterofnone]

Hi, I've got a 10yr old, 2.5yr old and 1.5yr old.
My 10yr old talked from the day he was born, (or it feels like that) and hasn't stopped since.
My 2.5yr old says not a word. He babbles constantly. Chatting to himself mostly, but no words. He isn't quite in his own world, he likes to do his own thing, but regularly involves his brother's or my partner and I in games and looks to us to laugh along with him if he's finding something funny etc.
He does a lot of hand leading and if he's hungry, normally he'll go in the kitchen and grab himself some cereal from the cupboard.
He does respond to his name more and more but not every time.
He won't follow an instruction like "go and get your shoes" but he will stop something when asked to and put something down you've asked him to stop playing with. Also "spit that out" is a phrase I've used more regularly than i ever thought i would and he follows this instruction, if reluctantly.
I'm wondering if he is autistic, we're on the pathways currently but i figure there's no better expert than the parents who've been here
Were any of your kids similar? How are they now? Did they ever speak?
The 1.5yr old isn't saying any words either yet but had a better understanding of what's being said to him and does follow instructions more, his babble is more like a conversation too, so I'm less worried about that.

From my experience you need pretty significant evidence to get anywhere near the pathway. But yes, speech delay, food restriction, lack of emotional regulation and sleep were the main issues at this age.

Have they had a hearing test and been referred for SaLT and Portage and have you had an Occupational Therapy referral for them too?

How old is your little one now? What have you found helped well?
We're not having the emotional regulation or sleep issues. Speech delay and what I'd call a beige phase, 100%. He used to eat anything but now it's relatively limited compared to his brothers.
My eldest did similar for a while.

He's got his first SALT sessions next month. Its such a convoluted pathway though. These sessions will decide where he's referred to next (which we've already done twice to get to this point).
I hadn't heard of Portage, his health visitor is referring him through paediatrician and working with the nursery to evidence any concerns, i suppose that will be where that's heading.
Thank you for taking the time to respond

You can ask for Portage and Occupational Therapy separately to the referral to a Paediatrician.

We found that SaLT did help as did reading up on ARFID.

If you do the progress checker with Speech & Language UK they will usually send you some links to resources if your LO does need support.

Have Nursery asked for the area SENCO to come in and observe him yet?

I second all of bunny's advice but also double check if portage take self referral as they do in my area.
It sounds positive that they are joining in with siblings games and respond to their name and some instructions so they ve got some receptive language there.
My 4.5 year old was similar at that age but he had no receptive language at all and hes non verbal now.
I ve known people say their 2 year old did speak and had some understanding and have gone on to develop some words or in some cases randomly go straight to full sentences one day.

Portage were good, SALT was 4 hours of being told I was a good parent and they had nothing more to teach us before discharge (learnt how to do intensive interaction and other strategies myself as the waiting list was a bit long). Nursery got the specialist teachers involved who had some advice that was useful but more so helped with evidence for his EHCP to go to specialist school. His nursery has gotten him from only hand leading his parents to attempting to do so with any adult he meets and letting other children be in his space and offer to help him, he even invites their chef to sit with him when he's restricted diet means he won't eat her food 😂

I d say at 2 it's very much they could go either way at this point so just trial and error any strategies you can and be prepared that it might be a case of following them for a while before you see a difference so work on not being disheartened if you don't notice things straight away.

There's lots of information i had no idea about there thank you! Why don't they make this stuff easy to access?!
The nursery has an on site senco, so they're doing regular observations

That's really helpful thank you. It sounds like you've got a great little character on your hands😂.

I'll definitely look into portage.

Yeah mine went from being pretty much non-verbal to coming out with a 7 word sentence.

And I have no idea why they don’t make this stuff more accessible. Nobody even hinted that my DC2 was showing any signs of ASD.

Thats amazing! Here's hoping!

How is your little one getting on? My 2.5 year old sounds very similar x