Autism...?

[goldnugget19]

Hey all, need some advice as I think my DS might be autistic. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

He's 21 months old and currently knows two words (mummmmmum and daddddaaa). He isn't pointing at things yet, and I find it really difficult to play and engage with him. He enjoys pushing his fire engines along the floor, but I can't say I've seen him engage in imaginative play. Sometimes he will turn when he hears his name, but other times he won't. Since the age of one he has developed a habit of head-banging, which he does repeatedly when having a tantrum or just being told no. It's got to the point now where he will actively seek out a wall or area of the floor to bang his head against. We have hard floor through-out our downstairs, and he will even do it on concrete pavements and brick walls. Quite often there'll be a bruise on his forehead from it.

I'm really worried about him, and feeling a tad alone. The GP has referred to a paediatrician, but this referral was rejected. We are on the waiting list for a speech and language therapist. We are also on the waiting list for an appointment in paediatric audiology to have his hearing checked. All this time, his self-injurious behaving seems to be getting more frequent, and it's clear he's getting really frustrated.

I'd be relieved to hear of any similar experiences? Thanks all

@WoMandalorian thank you for the recommendation. I've tried previously to get him engaged in nursery rhymes on YouTube, but he just sits there and watches it like it's his favourite tv programme, no clapping or singing along etc. Any ideas how to engage him?
@BackforGood fair point - I certainly don't expect GP's to be experts in everything. The doctors that I have spoken to so far have all been really understanding. My husband has spoken to another doctor today who is going to extradite the original referral as he thinks DS does need to see a paediatrician, so hopefully they won't reject it again!! He said it should be three weeks before we get a letter with an appointment. I think we are being referred to CAMHS too.
We'd really like the portage service because it seems as though it has greatly helped a lot of other people on here, but we are going to put him into nursery soon (trial day on Wednesday), will this matter? He isn't actually a member of the nursery yet.

@MistyFrequencies that's a very good point, didn't think about the twins / multiple children scenario. Thank you so much, your comments made me smile and lifted my spirits 💐

@doadeer it certainly has been a cocktail of emotion. Really pleased to hear you had your diagnosis in 5 months. We are going to do some more research into private diagnosis, my DH's colleague has recommended a company. How much is reasonable to pay for a private consultation?

@TerribleCustomerCervix thank you for your kind words, I think you're bang on about this thought process being a rite of passage but I'll try to be kinder to myself in future. I'm on anxiety medication too but I can't say I feel like it's really helped me much recently.

@Generalpost thank you, I'll definitely try pushing the health visitor again.

@TheStarMachine and everyone else thank you so much for all your advice and kind words. I can't put into words how grateful I am. Like many of you I just wanted someone to take away the worry and tell me my son will be ok. I have ordered the Hanen book, that should be coming by the end of this week.

Thank you all so much for your support it means a lot. ❤️

I think portage only work with little ones who aren't at nursery.

I think our 5 months is really rare most people it seems to take ages. The private diagnosis 100% accelerated it for us. It was about £1000. But I'm in London so this is probably expensive.

My LO is in nursery and SALT said they'd do a portage referral. It depends on your area op.

Oh sorry for giving bad info, in my area it's only for those not at nursery. They come to my house every 2 weeks for about 90 mins

It might depend, area to area, but, where I work, Home Visiting Team can't support children who are in Nursery.

Nurseries have SENCos, who are supported by Inclusion Officers or Area SENCos (names vary but same support), so the limited resources mean that if a child is accessing Nursery when the referral arrives then it is passed to the Area SENCo Team. If the child starts Nursery when on Home Visiting / {portage caseload then they support with the transition and then withdraw.

@goldnugget19 mine was the same for the first week or so but after that he suddenly started to join in. I did try joining in too to show him that it was something that he could also join in on but I don't know whether that actually helped or if it just took him that long to understand 😅
My DS is still behind in speech but has definitely improved since he started watching their videos. If anything it also helped me to see the techniques they use in speech therapy to help them learn so you can try using them at home while you wait for referral 🙂

@goldnugget19 how is your little one now?
Sounds exactly the same as my 19th month old and I keep getting fobbed off!