Im so confused!!!

[sleepyhorse]

My ds1 who is 3.3 yrs old still isn't talking, he understands a lot and can follow simple instructions. He can say about 50 single words but not very well. He has been having speech therapy but doesn't seem to be making much progress.

He is currently under assessment of a pediatrician as were worried he might be autistic so we decided to get him checked out. She met him for the 1st time in June and after assessing him for 2 hours she ruled out classic autism and decided to take a "wait and see" approach as he is still young. She will see him again in November when she will visit him at his nursery.

So does this mean if he doesn't have classic autism he could still have some degree of asd? what does it generally mean when a child isn't talking?
Is it likely he is just delayed and will eventually catch up with his peers?

Sorry for all the questions but just finding the whole wait and see approach very frustrating. Any advice please on what I should expect would be hugely appreciated

thanks x

My ds is 2 and we were given a wait and see approach too by nhs. Which was fine as he is so young but we wanted to help him and I felt I needed to get a second opinion before I could make any important decisions about how to help him.

So we went private to a dev neurologist in the end and he was given a working diagnosis. It doesn't really change anything but it confirms to me that he does need extra help to learn, which is what we suspected and would have done anyway. None of that probably makes sense! Wanted to say, I know how you must feel.

Guess what I was trying to say is that seeing another professional might clear things up for you, especially if they specialise in asd, not all paeds have a good understanding of asd. Think that's the only realistic way to bet some of your questions answered.

Hi Mango, thanks for your advice - what is a dev neurologist and what do you mean by working diagnosis?

The lady we saw is a paediactric developmental neurologist, meaning she specialises on how childrens brains develop, there's not many consultants that specialise in this specific field, they are usually more general. I can pm you her contact details.

Working diagnosis means that we assume he has asd based on what we know now and try to help him with it, but as he is so young and has visual issues too, it might turn out that he doesn't and it was just the combination of other factors causing him to display asd behaviours. Still a wait and see approach I guess but at least I now feel confident that early intervention would benefit him.

And how did you realise at the age of 2 that there was something wrong as most children don't start talking til about that age anyway do they? Its great that you have got in there early! How is he doing now?

oh yes please, if you can pm me her contact details that would be great. Thanks so much! I am in Bucks so not sure if thats close to where this doctor is based?

He's very behind with his play skills and non verbal communication. He has some repetitive behaviours, he has some sensory issues and a general lack of typical interest in his environment. Just lots of little things that add up to the point where they are interfering with his ability to learn and develop. He's doing good, hoping to start a verbal behaviour approach with him soon to encourage his communication skills.

oh ok sounds quite similar to my son apart from the sensory issues. Did you do the Earlybird course?

No, don't know much about that, but it's with NAS right? Feel free to pm if you want to chat.