possible asd??

[mrsdokflesh]

hi everyone, i have never posted on here so bear with....

i have a feeling DS2 age 2yrs is somewhere on the autistic spectrum. both his dads brothers male children are both high functioning. so anyway he has lots of traits, such as : DS2 rarely feeds himself he jumps too everywhere!, little or no eye contact, rarely answers to his name, ignores you most of the time, only says single words although on rare occasion uses two,can say about 15-20 words, shouts random words, makes funny noises, fiddles with his fingers, grits teeth shakes head, lines up toys, has a fit if something is not where he left it has massive meltdowns for unapparent reasons and apparent such as not wanting to go into a particular shop. wakes up screaming and is inconsolable for anything between 15-45mins, is obsessive with toys to name a few. anyway our HV came to see us this am and do an assessment, she too agrees he has traits after answering some questions and observing him, she is firstly referring him for a hearing test to rule that out and for some speech therapy. in the mean time can anyone offer any advice or give me tips i should be looking for?

This certainly warrants further investigation and you need to act yourself further on your hunch. You are after all, his best and only advocate here.

I would also ask your GP to refer you to a developmental paediatrician, your son needs to see such a person to. Am somewhat surprised HV did not mention this type of professional to you. BTW speech therapy and hearing appts can take ages to come through, a hearing appt may be arrived at quicker if you went via the GP.

Would write down everything you have written here and film him playing with toys. Keep a detailed account of behaviours. Look at the website of the National Autistic Society. Keep posting here.

Is DS at preschool?.

Ask HV to refer to Paed too.

keep on top of the appointments yourself, chase referrals, phone up and ask about how long waiting lists are. If you don't get a letter within two or three weeks confirming a referral, make sure they have received the referral. In my area the hearing test came through within a few months, so wasn't too bad, but speech therapy and paed referral took ages. Agree about getting on paed waiting list asap, as it can take several months even for a first appointment.

Go to the bookshop/library, and check out their sections on language delay (small!) and autism/aspergers (bigger) and read up on it, the advice for autism is helpful for language delay anyway IME. Two cheapish books I found useful were The Parents' Guide to Speech and Language Problems by Debbie Feit, and Playing Laughing and Learning with Children on the autism spectrum by Julia Moor. The Hanen books are v useful - they show you how to work on your childs communication (www.hanen.org) but can be quite pricey - £30 plus.

our HV spent 2hrs observing him and asking questions, she want to get the hearing and speech done first to rule those out as the consultant will require those first. we have no doubts he can hear fine, but very much needs some speech therapy.

DS2 is currently on the waiting list to start pre school in sept (with gov funding for 2yr olds) he was only 2 last week. our GP is aware and will lease with HV once she has done her notes.

i also have 2 other DS's, DS1 is 19yrs old and DS3 is 4 1/2 months. DS2 is completely oblivious to DS3 and its almost like he's not even here, doesn't show an interest in him at all. he does get on ok wih DS1 and some of his mates!

as for other children of his own age, he firstly will get VERY excited, squealing jumping etc and follow or chase them but doesn't really 'play' as such

Paed appointments takes month, we waited about 6 months for appointment and its not true that he will require them first.

HV referred ds to paed, SALT, dietician and hearing test at the same time, after 2 year check.

what's SALT?

Speech and language therapist.

My point being there is usually a long waiting list for these professionals, you could wait 6-9 months for speech and language, then after that another 6-9 months for paed. Then another 6-9 months if they want to refer onto someone else. Before you know it 2 years have passed just waiting for appointments, which is why it makes sense to refer to all at the same time, dont waste time.

Hi, my DS is now almost 3. I made my first call to the SALT and the HV last June/July as I had the concerns you had. not all the same but some definitely.

After lots of appointments (distressing for him) - He finally got some Speech therapy which started this Feb, we are still waiting for the paed assessment at the hospital. His hearing test was a disaster - they expected a small boy with concentration issues and frequent meltdowns to sit nicely in a chair in an awful room and play with some dull toys for half an hour why they tested him. So no diagnosis- but we think fine. So I wouldnt count on the hearing test to give you any answers!!
He can still only say between 5-10 words - these are not fully formed words either but we know what they mean.
You really have to explore all possible avenues at once in order to get something to happen within 6 months or a year. I would definitely ask for a paed assessment referral.

On the plus side our nursery (he goes 2 days a week) have been great. They have liaised with PRESENS and our DS now has 1 to 1 care on his days and he is hopefully getting a place at a special presens nursery in September for more 'intensive' care - inhouse speech therapist etc.

It just seems to take ages for anything to happen so really start pushing now.
Its only now I feel that everything that can be done, is being done or is in the process of it - but it has been a difficult year.

thank you all for your comments :) i think i will call the gp we saw on friday who is aware of the HV assessment and ask her to ref straight away while waiting for hearing and speech. i shall just stress that the waiting for the ped ref could take long time and i am very anxious. (i also think my anxiousness could prob do with being deal with too :/ i feel like i'm constantly living on edge and occasional feel i just can't cope anymore )