Differences between communication delay and autism in 2 year old son

[MummyJo25]

Hi everyone,
Im posting this message for advice and experiences from anyone who has been in a similar situation before. My first born son is 28 months old , he’s recently had a 27 month review with the health visitor (wales) where they said he’s doing well in terms of development but has a communication delay. My son walked late at 17 months and had one word at 18 months. Over the last 10 months his vocabulary has expanded, over 100 words. He loved learning numbers, alphabets, shapes. But he can’t gesture, point, waive. He pretend plays well, imitates actions like clap especially during rhymes and maintain eye contact. He doesn’t always respond to his name. He’s constantly busy talking mainly memorised chunks of language, he’s heard from tv or nursery rhymes. He has recently started to bring me things he needs help with like wanting to blow bubbles and open things. When he’s hungry he cries and then we know he wants something or he goes to the kitchen. Otherwise he happy, changes in routine don’t bother him, he goes to nursery twice a week and enjoys it although they’ve said he’s mainly on his own. He eats well, good motor skills, sleeps and doesn’t stim. His lack of functional language, gesturing and pointing is worrying me. He’s currently also waiting for an audiology test. Any advice or experiences that could be shared would be appreciated

Anyone experienced delayed echolalia and not develop autism because he doesn’t have other signs
sorry for the long post, just worried about my son and want to help him as much as possible

Has he had a hearing test? That would be my first step and a referal to salt.

Does he have any sensory seeking or sensory avoidant behaviours? Seeking or avoiding touch, certain textures etc? Sounds like food isn’t an issue?
Echolalia isn’t usually a concern unless it persists past the age of 3. Other factors would of course be considered too.
Doesn’t sound like Nursery staff are overly concerned at the moment. Do you have friends or family with children of a similar age or slightly older? Just wondering what his interaction is like with others away from Nursery.
He’s still fairly young and you have got an audiology appointment so maybe you can monitor things for now?

Thank you, No he’s got an audiology test this coming week.

In terms of sensory seeking, he enjoys playing with water and sand at nursery, but we haven’t noticed anything sensory seeking at home. Only passed few weeks he likes playing with my hair a lot.
All my family near me don’t have children his age.
he easts all his food and can use a spoon and cup well

what worries me is that he doesn’t call for mum regularly , maybe a few times a week like when picking him from nursery , as well as lack of pointing , gesturing and functional language like hungry, asking for milk
thank you for the responses

Sounds like my boy when he was that age
Health visitor and hearing tests and all the other things the Drs want to do before he was diagnosed with ASD and adhd at the age of 2.
He loved looking and still does into any type of reflective and spinning and has a humming noise
No to little speech
His way of communicating
I use flash cards with pictures

Thank you mizzsims for your reply, do you mind sharing what exactly concluded for a asd and adhd diagnosis. I’m just confused about what they would be looking for when making the diagnosis.

With ASD diagnosis every person is different that's why it is a spectrum

1. Social communication some individual may be extremely social or completely non-verbal while others use gestures or pictures while others may have an extensive and well-developed vocabulary

2.Some individual may have significant learning difficulties and significant barriers while others may have exactly high IQs

1. Restricted and repetitive behavior patterns interests and activities.

Sharing trays with autism could be Asperger's syndrome Fragile x syndrome Landau- kleffner Rett syndrome Williams syndrome Pathological demand voidance Passive development disorder. You can ask your health visitor about these. Early signs Not drawing the attention of parents or other children. Carrying out activities in the rigid and repetitive manner extremely resistant to change and difficult just into different schedules delayed speech communication with others apparent lack of imagination inappropriate behaviour such as bite in kick in pinchin hitting self-harm or Pica. The condition in which people put inedible things in their mouths But this is just a small part of what autism could be for someone the spectrum is so wide and having a diagnosis will change you and your little one's lives. You must go through the right channels and accept this change.

So my DS was diagnosed with a speech/language/social communication delay - as he had no words before 3 and no pointing until 2.5, by 4.5 / 5 years old, he caught up after speech therapy, the GP and Paediatrician both thought autism but after they did the assessments decided it was a s&l delay and not an ASD disorder.

An ASD assessment in young children in our area consists of a multi disciplinary assessment (observations done at home and nursery) and particularly an ADOS test given by a speech therapist, I couldn't tell you what she was looking for though even though I observed the test.

I wanted to mention that there are many types of speech/language disorders as well as delays but of course google suggests autism. As far as I know gestures come before speech in the normal course of things, however your child has 100 words already so he's much much further on than my child was at 28 months.

If you're able to see a speech therapist who specialises in young children and get a recommendation if you can - they might be able to give you more information. I also found the website teachmetotalk very useful, but only for the free resources, I didn't use the paid ones.

Thank you so much for the advice , I will definitely look into speech therapy

To encourage pointing, read picture books together and point at the pictures and name them and let him do the same. Book with a rhyme like the Julia Donaldson ones are particularly good for encouraging language and pointing.

Thank you parietal , will definitely try encouraging through books

It's all a bit something and nothing at this age, somethings that point to an issue can disappear with age. A child can have delays without having cognitive deficits and show signs that might be autism or might not be. Two of my autistic kids pointed, one had very advanced complex speech and hit every developmental milestone, two needed speech therapy, one's autism was only noticeable in hindsight before the age of 6. One had significant 18 month plus delays across the board at 5 years old, but 5 years later he's caught up and in some areas far ahead.

He may not be autistic, but if he is autistic the best thing you can do for him is to be on the ball and get him the support he needs and you're already looking into that. Early intervention can make a big difference with some things. Id start with hearing and speech therapy if theres no heating issues. It took 3 years of regular appointments but you wouldn't know anymore that my eldest had a very significant speech delay. He had a lot less words than your son at that age. Did you DS ever babble?

Hi mamma xx how’s your darling answering questions ? Can he do that ? Xx