Is my toddler autistic

[Blinkdudette]

Hi just looking for some advice! I’m wondering if my 21 month old may have autism: He is not saying any words apart from Daddy and sometimes sings ey I ey I ooo. He loves his blocks/pen lids and is always carrying them around, he likes to line them up, drop them from different heights. He is very affectionate and loves cuddles and kisses. His eye contact with me is very good but with strangers he looks away. He is very good on his feet and runs around the kitchen chasing his sister. He sometimes responds to his name and communicates by pointing and bringing me things like his bottle when it’s empty , and dollys! I’ve had his hearing tested but has come back fine! Any advice would be great/ anyone had similar experiences? I’ve done the M chart autism tests and his results came back as 4 (some chance). Thanks

He sounds pretty normal for his age. Most of them don't make decent eye contact, don't read into that. His communication sounds on the lower end of normal, but certainly not concerning. I wouldn't be worrying just yet. See where he is in another 6 months, health care professionals are unlikely to do much before he is 3-4 at the youngest anyway.

How does he score on this SLT progress checker @Blinkdudette?

Sorry, it's here.

He sounds totally normal. Is it the not talking that is worrying you? Because that's not a concern at his age as long as he is showing understanding.

He shows some understanding but is not consistent! I’m hoping he’s just a little slow! Thanks for your responses, I guess I won’t know for a while unless he suddenly comes on with language

He sounds like a typical toddler who is maybe a little speech delayed. My DS had speech therapy and they recommend lots of things to do to try and encourage speech. Give him choices, so 'orange or apple' and make him point or gesture. When playing with toys, try to encourage noises eg vroom, whoosh. See if he will copy. Make your sentences more simple eg don't say right it's stopped raining now so we will go out and play in the puddles. Just say 'coat on, puddle jumping'. He's more likely to then try to copy your speech. Don't ask questions eg what's that, what are you doing, where's dolly? Instead make short statements eg car zoom, blue fish. Consider using makaton.

My DS was eventually diagnosed as autistic, however, he had lots of other issues not just speech delay. He didn't point or wave, he couldn't coordinate himself to kick a ball or pour a watering can, he was very placid and happy to have all decisions made for him. He is now 17, doing his A levels and on course to smash them! Just give them lots of love and support and autism or not they'll be fine.

Ok if it's showing that his understanding is not consistent I'd fill in the 22 month Ages & Stages.

The scoring is at the end. You can score it yourself or ask the HV to score it for you.

It's pretty normal for them to score grey in a couple of areas, if he's scoring black in any area or grey in more than 2 areas I'd ask for a referral to a Paediatrician.

Please do not let the HV adopt the "wait and see" approach. Ours did this and it's taken years to get DD any support.

If she does want to wait and see if he catches up, get her to book an appointment for 2 months so that she can do the 24 month check.

Sounds totally normal to me. I'm not a medical professional but a childminder. I have experience of loads of 20 month olds. I personally find at this age there are vast differences between them with speech. The odd one speaking full sentences (rare) and plenty saying next to nothing. Just keep speaking to him all day and sing lots of songs. Does he attend nursery or a childminder? He might be different there too.

Just to add that you've had a lot of reassurance on this thread. I similarly received a good deal of assurance about DD and your DS could be fine but if the Talking Point progress checker is saying he needs support, I'd go with that as it's a very reputable SLT charity

At the moment it is quite hard to tell unless he has severe difficulty. I know plenty of children that didn't speak much until 3 or beyond. I would probably keep an eye on things for now and see how he scores at the two year check. You can talk to a health visitor, just appreciate they are unlikely to be experts.

My little boy also had hearing tests around that age as he wasn't talking. He bloomed around 2.5, he doesn't shush now ever at 5. I wouldn't worry yet! If he watches TV, shows like miss Rachel seem good for encouraging speech.

He does sound like a typical toddler to me too. When strangers look at my toddler he covers his eyes and looks away! But fine with people he knows.

I can't imagine what you think you're seeing here that suggests autism? All perfectly normal toddler behaviour.

Maybe speech delayed

Yes he goes to nursery 3 days a week! Autism signs I would think the lining things up, not always responding to his name, carrying objects around all the time (blocks or pen lids) not always gesturing like waving unless I prompt

Mainly the speech but also Not waving unless I prompt, lining up and holding objects, not even saying baa for like a sheep etc! Hard also as I have a daughter who was doing all of these things at 12 months

Did you manage to fill in the 22 month Ages & Stages @Blinkdudette?

Yes 🙌🏼 he didn’t do too well x

My ASD child had no speech delay but my NT child did!

If you’re worried, don’t ignore those niggles in your head. My daughter was similar to your son age 2 (except the lining up) and some things are still similar now at 3.5. She scored low across the board at her 2-year review last year and is on the waiting list for an autism assessment.

My DD could clap and wave since turning 9 months old (waving was only ever prompted) but she stopped waving soon after turning two. She is still non-verbal, no functional words or animal noises etc, can’t point to things in books, limited understanding of receptive language.

She hand-leads and brings us her empty cup/plate/bottle if she wants more. She’s never pointed. In hindsight, her eye-contact seemed fine with me (although this has now lessened) but she avoided it with others.

She has always been very active, doesn’t consistently respond to her name but can be quite affectionate with me. Role-play/imaginative play is limited.

Maybe try speaking to the nursery SENCo, just mention your concerns and see if they also have any. No harm in asking a health visitor for advice, although they may tell you to wait for the 2-year review.

in my experience, if there are concerns it’s best to get the ball rolling as soon as possible as we’ve had endless back and forth and delays with referrals.

I started raising concerns about my DD’s speech delay two years ago and raised concerns about autistic traits one year ago and only recently was she placed on the autism assessment waiting list.

I don’t want to worry you further, just wanted to share my experience as I had similar concerns but doubted autism and so did family around me but looking back there were other signs too that perhaps we had missed earlier.

@Ponche thank you! Yes he is on the waiting list for speech referral. I was very adamant about that as I know there is a waiting list where I live so I said to them if he suddenly speaks then he can come off the list! Yes my son sounds very much like your daughter! He has no interest in looking at books, he won’t sit still in a baby group unless there is singing and then he’s suddenly interested! A lot of people say it’s normal toddler behaviour but he really doesn’t understand so much that he should x

At your son's age we got our HV out for an assessment of my daughter's language.
By 10 months she had 3 words but by 20 months she still only had 3 words and instead of building a vocabulary she dropped an old word every time she learnt a new word to the point she lost mama and dada. The going backwards was a slight concern to the HV so she did an assessment and she scored ok on the 12-18 month language assessment but 0 points on the 18-24 month assessment. We were given some exercise on how to build her language. Narrating life and having a conversation with her rather than talking to her. This got her to keep old words when learning new words. The HV arranged for our nursery to do the assessment too but unfortunately it closed before they could do so.
At 2 she started a new nursery after a house move. She had about 10 words in her vocab and almost exclusively communicated by pointing. She could follow commands quite well but didn't respond to her name that much. To be honest she's 3 and still doesn't always do that. We had a hearing test at 7 months as at 4 months she didn't respond to sounds at all no loud bangs or turning to our voices. She also didn't smile. This all changed when I removed dairy and soya from her diet and had adequate reflux treatment.
Around 26 months she started communicating in short sentences rather than pointing. She is 3.5 now and we have no concerns about her language and she will be starting school in September aged 4 and 3 weeks. At 2 we were not optimistic about her being ready for school at 4 and needing to defer her entry but she is now have no concerns about this at all

@Superscientist thank you so much for sharing this! It’s made me more hopeful 🙏

@Blinkdudette this could be a long shot but have you any update on how things have progressed since?