18 month old talking/behaviours

[Strawberrybuba]

My son just turned 18 months old and started nursery and is going through a sleep regression (all happening at once) but I've been concerned about his talking for a while now, I spoke to the GP and Healthcare visitor and where we live even if he does need help he'd need to be over 2Years4months old. He has spoken and had about 10/15 words but as of late everything is just the same sound "dack" his first favourite word was "duck" and "truck" but it's now all the same sounds. He is still using his sign language of 3 words I've taught him.
He is also absolutely obsessed with the washing machine and as of the last couple of days is picking all his cars up to spin the wheels. His social, loving, make eye contact but there's just a few things I'm concerned and want to help him if he needs it.
As I say he started nursery literally this week so I think if there are any real issues they will see them, but the wait and see approach has been hard for me so any guidance or advice would be really appreciated.

Google will tell you that losing words means autism, it doesn't always, there are many speech disorders but not as common as autism. The being obsessed with spinning wheels, washing machine can again be a sign of autism but it can equally be a normal developmental stage (Piaget stages of development).

The website teachmetotalk is really useful for things that you can do proactively in speech delayed toddlers.

Oh and lastly insist your GP (not HV) refers you for a hearing test and also to a paediatrician, the waiting lists are long and its only the paediatrician that can put support in place if its needed e.g. support at nursery via your LEA and speech therapy. You don't want to wait until 2.4 and then discover its 12 months wait to get an initial appt.