Common behavioral traits for age VS autism.

[vega86]

Hi, I'm looking for guidance regarding the behavior of these little humans, as some things intrigue me as a first-time parent.

• My only child is 2 years and 3 months old.
• Has a flexible routine.

-He is still a little shy at school but engaged in class activities. -He has good eye contact when interacting and answers by name when we call. -He occasionally plays alone for a few minutes but usually prefers to play with some company. -He loves games like tag and hide and seek. -He is very creative in games. -He had a very easy daytime defraulde. -He knows how to communicate his needs (hunger, water, sleep)

• Makes himself understood by pointing a lot and nodding "yes" or "no" with his head.

-He lives smiling and rarely complains about anything. -He has excellent hand coordination and fine tuning of the fingers. -Sometimes he is shy but sometimes he interacts easily even with strangers. -He imitates dozens of animal sounds and babbles many syllables and loose vowels. -He is very affectionate and loves physical contact (hug, kiss, tickle).

• Has excellent understanding when we talk to him and give him instructions about something or ask him to show him something specific.

-He knows how to recognize when he did something wrong and apologize for it.

• Eats very well and sleeps well too.

That said, there are two interesting things I've noticed and that's why I made this post:
1 - He still doesn't pronounce many complete words, only about 10 simple words, lots of sounds, syllables and loose vowels. He is already being followed up by the speech therapist.
2 - Sometimes he has a rather intriguing habit of lining up side by side or lining up some carts and gets upset if someone "dismantles" his organization. It's almost like an "organization craze" or something, but it doesn't happen all the time, just a few times.

We know that sometimes speech delay and other behavioral characteristics can be signs of autism for example, but at the same time they are just two isolated variables that can just be characteristics of his age and personality.

I wonder to what extent these things should be concerns or if there should be more red flags.

Sorry for the long post, but human development intrigues me as a parent.

Any suggestions/thoughts are welcome.

As a SENDCO I’d say that your son has a few indicators but also a lot of contra indicators. 2 is very young to be diagnosed unless it is very obvious. A period of what our Educational Psychologist likes to call ‘watchful waiting’ might be the best thing. Your son sounds lovely by the way

Thanks a lot for the feedback.
Each child is really unique and I think we need to watch carefully but at the same time KNOW how to wait calmly.
My son is still very young, but father's heart is always concerned and SENDCOs are always very important to help us.
My goal with this post is to get thoughts from well-meaning parents and professionals.

I have two children with ASD. I would say that at the moment, just watch. He may just be developing a schema of learning, or just enjoy the look of his toys lining up.

If you look up play schemas I'm sure there's one about organising stuff and all of the things you've said sound pretty typical to me. Speech can come on really quickly at this age so getting support with that is great but I wouldn't be too concerned yet. There's a huge range of development at this age.

Your words perfectly describe my theory of the moment.
He seems to me to have some speech delay that is slowly progressing and likes to play with his cars as if he is "parking" them.
Thanks for sharing his experience.

He's so young, at this age I saw nothing to suggest my ds would be diagnosed with ASD by 11. I would make a note of the things that concern you and just add to it if other things come up. This can be really useful if at a later date he does have an assessment for ASD.

I also think you are right. In these last few days he began to speak some unpublished (albeit simple) words.

Lining up is a typical toddler play. If your concerned about speech you could ask for a appointment with salt. Has he had 2 year review? I'd keep an eye on it but overly concerning.

He's had a two-year review recently.
As he has this difficulty with speech, he has been following up with the speech therapist since then.

My son was diagnosed at 2. He had absolutely dozens of behaviours. I wouldn't say from my experience the two you've flagged are enough but obviously I'm not a paediatrician or psychologist.

Thanks for sharing.

Incidentally my son doesn't line things up.

At this age the look for behaviours across three areas :

Communication and Play
Social interaction
Repetitive behaviours

You need to have markers across all of these to be diagnosed. In my experience that is. Different local authorities may have other approaches.

Are you in the UK? At 2 the expectation is children should be starting to put words together. You need to ask your GP referral for a hearing test and your nursery should have asked you if they could refer him to SaLT much earlier.

I'm from Brazil.