Autism or Terrible 2’s

[LOISMUM25]

Hey, sorry for the long paragraph.
I am a SAHM of 2 children. My boy is 2 years old and my girl is 8 weeks old.

I have been concerned about my 2 year old boy for over a year now with being slightly delayed to milestones.

My little boy has always been at home with me and we are always around our families and friends. From the age of 6 weeks he has always attended classes such as Baby Sensory / Toddler Sensory, Bloom, Little Learners sensory play, Diddikicks. Although we had to take him out of Diddikicks and Toddler sensory as he was throwing tantrums every weekend whilst attending (before his sister was born). We have him out in play centres, days out, swimming etc every weekend and plenty of walks. We have been on holiday with him twice.

However, the past few weeks have been HELL. His Dad and I are battling between Autism or terrible 2’s.
He is still not talking yet he can say a few words, lots of babbling, making animal noises etc. The tantrums have become horrific, happening daily and multiple times a day. I cannot take him out anywhere he just screams the place down. He has this week started hitting, pulling my hair, kicking, throwing himself on the floor, today he head butted the floor too. He throws everything around or smacks things out your hands.

he didn’t take to the birth of his baby sister too well, he is still unsure about her so not sure if he is feeling the change in his life there but also we started him in nursery 3 weeks ago so not sure if this is a huge change in his life too as well as his baby sister so not sure if he is acting out for attention. With him not being able to speak yet, unsure if it is frustration.

We have his 2 year review next week but looking through the questionnaire there is more he cannot do yet compared to what he can do. He is good with loud noises and we do not have to separate foods etc. He jumps up and down quite a lot but unsure if this is an autism trait or excitement as he loves dancing around too. He lines all his cars up perfectly either next to each other or behind one another.

so unsure. I know the health visitor next week will be able to advise and over time nursery will too but wanted some quick advice on whether a lot of change in his life is happening right now or whether it is Autism.

Also if this is a normal period in a 2 year olds life, is it normal for the throwing himself on the floor and kicking, hitting me etc?

anything else I can add to help give better advice to me please ask.

Congratulations on your new DD.

It’s hard to tell from what you have said whether things are all as they should be or if he needs monitoring and some support.

It’s fairly normal for the tantrums to ramp up before the new sibling arrives and then continue for a while. They usually subside and then start again once the baby becomes mobile and starts to touch their stuff.

Tantrums aren’t really a concern unless they are lasting more than 15 minutes.

Equally most toddlers will go through phases of sorting things like his cars. Will he sort other things if you set up an activity for him that requires him to match things or put one item in one bowl and another item in another bowl?

If you’ve noticed that his speech is a little behind, if you do this simple progress checker it will send you some resources if it says that he needs some support.

As for the Ages & Stages that you’ve been given to fill in, do you know how he’s scored? It is fairly normal for them to score in the grey in one or two areas. Has he scored in the grey in more than 2 or in the black in any area?