Late Talker or maybe ASD?

[Timepasses]

My ds is 2.3 and has a speech delay, we are currently seeing a speech therapist and are due to see a portage worker in the next few weeks.
He only has a few words although he babbles non stop and seems to be really trying to talk. He understands some basic instructions; if I ask him to go upstairs he will go stand by the stairs and will sit on his chair but won't pass his shoes if I ask him to.
I am worried about a few other things though
He is a very fussy eater and gags when he touches "slimy" new foods.
He flicks his fingers when excited
He doesnt point or wave but will clap his hands and tries to communicate.
He is very affectionate with kisses but rarely cuddles.
He loves playing with cars; he lines them up but also ?plays? with them.
He has good eye contact and responds to his name, although not every time.
I work full time and he is looked after by DM and DMIL who are great with him. He goes to playgroup 3 times a week but plays on his own rather than with other children.
His hearing test was fine.
He is a very happy well behaved boy.
I suspect he may have ASD and don?t know what to do next.
Sorry for the long post but I am desperately worried, any advice would be greatly received.

Thank you. I will make a gp appointment. I am just devastated at the moment and just want to help him as much as possible.

Does anyone else have any advice? Thanks.

Look up CHAT and MCHAT questionnaires online.

Look also for symptoms of dyspraxia and Auditory Processing Disorder.

Make a list of everything that fits your ds and then give a real life example or two for each one. Hand it to your GP.

With a document like that he/she won't be able to refuse a referral to a developmental paediatrician, which is essentially what you need to dx or rule out any problems.

Many many difficulties can be improved dramatically with early intervention, but unfortunately the wheels are slow and budgets are being protected. You need to get going asap.

Thank you starlight. I will take a look.

Hi Timepasses, I'm sure more of the lovely people on this board will be along soon with some good advice. I just wanted to say that I know how scary & overwhelming this is, but the thing to remember is that you are the person who can help your DS the most, in so many ways. You are his voice - it is you that can speak for him now. I totally agree with zzzzz that you should ask your GP for a referral to a developmental paed. Has the speech therapist made any suggestions or mentioned anything?
A good website to look at is firstsigns - I'm sorry I can't work out how to do links on DH's computer, but if you type firstsigns into Google it should come up. I also found a book called "More than Words", by the Hanen organisation helpful. I ordered it from Amazon. It is about helping parents to promote communication in children with ASD. I am not saying at all that your DS has ASD, but the strategies are very helpful for any child with difficulties in communication.
Above all, trust your instincts - your DS is lucky to have you.

Marchduck. Thank you. Speech therapist has only seen us twice and Was pleased with the progress ds had made. We have been working on eye contact, play interaction and turn taking. His eye contact has improved dramatically in a matter of weeks. Interaction is good just need to work on the turn taking more. He is saying more words I just don't know what they are yet. I am going the portage lady that is coming in a few weeks will help. I will check out the first signs site. Thank you.

Timepasses, so brilliant that your DS is making progress. I bought many games to try to help with the turn taking, but DD didn't seem interested, or didn't seem to get most of them. The one that did really help though was Tomy Pop-Up Pirate - very simple and great fun.
Star's advice is brilliant about taking a list to the GP, just in case they are dismissive, or say that your DS has plenty of time to catch up etc etc. There is another website which is I came across recently, called Talkingpoint, which has great information on the communication milestones which children should be meeting at various ages. The only proviso I would say about websites like these is that whilst the information is good, I sometimes found it a bit of shock to see how delayed my DD was.
I'm not sure how it works in your area, but my DD was referred to a speech therapist by the HV following her 2 year assessment, as she wasn't reaching her milestones in speech. The speech therapist saw her once & referred her urgently to multi disciplinary team, which included development paed. I have never actually spoken to my GP about her development at all! If you are not happy with the response from your GP, it might be worth phoning the speech therapist to ask her to refer your DS.

Marchduck, thankyou (again) I did speak to my GP about 3 weeks ago about my concerns but he said ds was too young to be diagnosed and said he would see what happens with the speech therapy. We seen the HV for ds 2 year check about 7-8 weeks ago and she said her only concerns were his speech dealy and as he was already seeing a speech therapist she would call me in a few months for an update. I felt that the HV just dismissed my concerns, she actually told me that as my ds sleeps very well it was unlikely he had autism and children with autism dont sleep well. I am due to see the speech therapist at the end of june, should i wait to see her or call GP/HV again? I dont know where to start. This is making me so sad.

Timepasses, I really feel for you, it is so difficult when you know something is not quite right, but everyone around you is telling you not to worry...
In terms of the advice from your HV, it's not correct. Yes, many children with ASD have difficulties with sleep patterns, but many do not. My DD slept through the night from 6 weeks and has continued to do so since. Definitely no sleep problems!
There are many parents on this site whose children whose children have been dx'ed before three. If I understand it correctly, in my area children are not referred to the specialist asd team until they are 3. But that doesn't mean that your DS couldn't be referred to development paed before this (as my DD was) - I would go back to your GP and insist on a referral.
I don't want to worry you unnecessarily, but if the speech therapist is suggesting working on eye contact, interaction and turn taking, your GP should be referring you straight away.
I think I'd not bother with your HV, and go to the GP again and insist your DS is referred now.

If I was you I would go to your GP again, and push for a referral to a developmental paed. It is not the case that at 2.3 he is too young to be assessed - and given that there will inevitably be a long waiting list he's likely to be nearer 3 by the time an appt comes along.

If he turns out to be fine and your worries unfounded, you haven't lost anything. But if you are still concerned you can be reassured that you haven't wasted any time. Early intervention is so important with ASD (if it is that, not saying it is of course - and many of the problems you've listed could easily be down to speech delay rather than ASD).

In the meantime, to help him, I would look at all the areas which you think he struggles with, there are ways to help him.

communication - def look at More than Words. Keep language very very simple. When you want his attention, touch him or make sure he sees you when you call his name or talk to him. Label everything clearly for him (eg "mummy's got some juice" touch the juice). Use third person rather than pronouns if this confuses him (ie mummy, ds name, daddy etc rather than me/you/I). When he responds as you'd like (to anything, request or whatever) give him huge huge praise. Try visual aids (pictures of things) if you think he would understand this better.

play & interaction - get him socialising as much as possible. When you do (at playgroups, playdates etc) don't just leave him to it as other mums do - you'll have to get in there and help out to make sure he's learning how to interact. Start a game going with him and 1 or 2 other children (somehting like bubbles, racing, cars) and make it really really really fun - make sure he's involved. Show him that it is so much fun playing with others (more fun than playing on his own). Great time of year for this, as you can do loads outside with things like water, sand, soil, which all kids love.

He sounds like a sweetheart, and it's a great sign that he seems to be working hard to communicate - if you can help him with this you have helped solve a big part of any problems he might have.

Btw the HV is talking absolute rubbish about no sleep problems = no asd. My ds (HFA) has always been a fantastic sleeper

Timepasses, you mentioned your DS doesn't point? Has anyone mentioned to you that you may be able to teach him this?

My DS didn't point. One of his consultants (he is on the road to a ASD diagnosis) mentioned that you can sometimes teach kids to point: it is absolutely vital for language and communication development.

If they haven't, I'll let you know what we did. Don't want to bombard you with information that you may already have!

Also important to mention that not all kids who don't point have ASD. My DS has a lot of other markers.

You've already had lots of good advice. I'd also recommend More Than Words by Hanen. Winslow is the cheapest source I've found, usually cheaper than Amazon. It was my bible for a few years when DS2 was younger. It gives you and your family something constructive to be doing while you wait ages for the appointments to come through. And if your DS doesn't have ASD, it's not going to hurt him at all to get going with some Hanen type SALT at home.

Wow. Thank you for all the advice. I will definitely get back on to my go.
Chelseagirl. How can I teach ds to point?
I have the it takes two to talk book is this similar to the book you recommend? X

Ah, yes, 'It takes two to talk' is similar to 'More than Words.' They are both Hanen, but More than Words is ASD specific and looks at sensory issues as well. It takes 2 is generally for DC who want to communicate but haven't got there yet, and More than Words is more about showing reluctant communicators that it can be fun and in their interest to communicate. I think that was the main difference I saw between my speech delayed but neuro typical (NT) DS1 and my ASD DS2, DS1 wanted to communicate and tried to share interests with me. DS2 was happy in his own world unless his needs weren't met. He had to be taught that communication was useful to him.

Timepasses,
I mentioned to one of my DS's consultants that he didn't point and she said: "sometimes you can teach pointing."

At the time my DS would gesture with his open palm and fingers spread out in a vague way towards say - something he wanted on the table. We would then have to play a guessing game as to what it was he wanted which was annoying for us both!

What we did was move his favourite toy just out of reach onto a table/shelf. When he gestured towards it, we would then take his hand and make it into a point and then 'force' him to point to what he wanted and give it to him straight away. We would also name the object: "here's your car" and give lots of praise.
That way he learnt that there was a reason for pointing.
And also that different objects had names - one of the keys to developing language.

If your DS likes a type of food you can do the same with that. My DS doesn't really eat so that never worked for him!

It can take a long time for kids to grasp the concept but with DS, he is now pointing by himself to things he wants.

We also would look at picture books together and make his hand into a point with our hand over his and make him point at things in the book and name them.

I think it's made a huge difference with DS. He's now 2.8 years and he has about 100 words (he had no words until two months ago).

Your portage worker may well help you with this and be able to give you some more tips.

Hi I will order the 'more than words' book. Thanks for the advice.

hi, i dont really have much advice but just to say he sounds quite similar to mine in a lot of ways, we are still waiting for a dx too
is he on the waiting list for a multidiscaplinary assessment at all, thru the cdc? if not then i would try to get that. i got my ds referred to that thru the speech and language person he saw at initial slt assessment, so if he is seeing speech therapist maybe that would be a quick way to be refered or else try to get it done thru gp? waiting lists very very long though so u will have a frustrating wait. maybe be worth looking at private assessments, i have been considering that but not gone any further with it yet, its really expensive but if you look thru the sn board here you will get some names of private specialists that people have found good

Thanks for the advice. We have got a gp appt next week. Who should he be referred to? Been told development paed. I am having a very bad week with it all. Devestated doesn't come close to how I feel at the mo

Hi timepasses there are people on here who know a lot more about all of this than I do, but we've just been through dx process and I wanted to send you a big hug. It's tough and I'm still (sometimes, at least) in the devastated stage myself. Our DS (3.2, HFA) was dx after being seen by a paed first, and then SALT.

Definitely discuss all your concerns with your pediatrician. You will want to get a speech and language evaluation and a referral to a pediatric neurologist. In the mean time you may want to check out www.littletalkers.com. It was created by a speech and language pathologist and has free videos you can watch to get you started on working on speech and language skills.

speechmam - Thanks for the link, I will take a look
zzzzz - DS has only a few words, car, ball, dada. He does seem to have his own little language. He says the same things regulary but i dont know what there are.
Would using a book be a good place to start to teach him to point?
We have a GP appt tomorrow.

Sorry, also meant to say that he will look at his cup then back at me if he wants a drink or he takes me by the hand to where he wants to go.
He is quite a calm boy and rarely gets frustrated. We have been singing lots of nursery rhymes to him lately which he loves and he has started clapping after singing at playgroup.