2 year old development

[Mumaj88]

Hi I’m wondering if anyone is going through or has been through a similar situation.

My beautiful son had his 2 1/2 year review yesterday. He did the puzzles and built the towers with the HV but wouldn’t look her in the eye. He did respond to his name when being called.

The HV said he has ‘some quirks’ which I thought odd. He has little vocabulary at present (which we know is underdeveloped for his age) he can say words like ‘Mam, dad, car, dinosaur’ and farm animals etc but can’t put two words together.
I’ve noticed he twirls his one hand quite a lot. Which is worrying me now since the questions she was asking me were aimed towards autism. I work in the sector. Am being overly concerned here? Any advice welcome.
He often seems in his own little world but I thought every two year old was?

It's hard to say as every toddler is different. If he's a bit behind with speech then perhaps she is just gauging what, if any, referrals need to be made at this stage. There's lots of reasons for delayed development that aren't autism, although it's understandable that's where your mind goes!

Had you had any concerns about him before this meeting?

Thank you for your reply.
We had concerns with his speech and have been encouraging him with flash cards which really helped but he doesn’t engage for long.
When we have visitors over he won’t respond to his name if they try to interact with him or if so very little but with his father his nana and myself he does. A few people have asked now if he has problems with his hearing, but he doesn’t.
We thought it may be due to the pandemic and not being around many people.
I have only clocked on to his hand twirling the past month or so and now I find myself dissecting his behaviour since the visit.
He also doesn’t point or shake or nod his head.

It's just so hard to say. My DD is 2.5 and has been talking in sentences for quite a while, will have conversations with other people, but in her peer group there's quite a big variance in speech ability and understanding. Does he understand when you talk to him? Has he had his hearing checked for glue ear? That can often affect the frequencies they hear, so some stuff they can hear fine but other things barely at all, so it's less easy to spot.

I think it's probably just a case of waiting and seeing and just carrying on doing what you are doing. If it is autism or he's neurodiverse in other ways then I think it will become clearer as he gets older. Does he got to nursery at all and if so, have they raised any concerns? They're usually very well placed to know the range of standard behaviours and development and when a child is deviating from them in a way that needs intervention.

Yes, I can tell he understands what I’m saying. He will look but won’t talk. What kind of play do you share with your DD to encourage conversation?

He started going to nursery one day a week in September because we were worried about his engagement and we are looking to up that to 2 days. The nursery has said he’s happy in his play and haven’t brought anything up as of yet, but the HV said she will be contacting them to get a more rounded description of how he is developing.

Ive not heard of glue ear, I will look into that thank you.