DS (15 months) going backwards in speech and movement... any thoughts?

[hes222]

Hi

DS (15 months) seems to be going backwards in development. Has this happened to anyone else/ Should I be worrying?

DS was merrily racing up and down the stairs on hands and knees a few weeks ago. We couldn't stop him... he loved doing it and was really pleased when he got to the top or bottom. He was also saying a few words (eg Tigger, car, ball, Daddy) pretty clearly and often.

Now he will not go up or down the stairs and just wants to be carried. He tries but gives up on the first step, as though he can't do it. He also isn't using any words at all. He is back to the babbling of around five months ago. He points and says "da" a lot, but no words, even when holding his car, tigger, a ball etc.

All of this just seems weird. I know that development isn't set in stone, but actually going backwards seems odd. If he hadn't said any words yet, I would be less worried and think that was normal / late development, but the fact that he had speech and has now lost it worries me. He also seems to be finding it frustrating and it getting clingy and upset more than usual.

I keep reading about backward steps in language being associated with autism.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

My first thought would be to take him to the GP asap as he could just be very unwell but with no obvious symptoms.

I'm sure they will take your concerns seriously and refer you accordingly.

We'll take him tomorrow. He has been projectile vomiting over the weekend so we need to go to the GP anyway and we'll ask about this at the same time.

Really sorry.... I just realised that I didn't say thanks for the comments. Rubbish. I made the mistake of reading the replies shortly after the projectile vomit, so was very distracted when I replied.

Sorry... and thanks very much for the posts.

don't want to dismiss this - get it checked if you are worried, but DS has done this with lots of development steps. it's as though he starts doimg something, can't get enough of it, then once he gets the hang of it gets bored. Then he usually just starts doing it again, with no fuss a few months later.