Just been told by peadiatrician that my 18 month old is probably autistic, what now...

[JustPondering]

Hi, I have just had an appt with a peadiatrician about developmental delays in my 18 month old, she thinks he is autistic and he may also have to have some special shoes as his ankles roll inwards, he is flat footed and sporadic toe walking.

She said they will have a first steps meeting that I don't need to go to but I can if I like. I will be contacted by their special needs pre-school who will be coming out seeing DS and also I will be seeing a physiotherapist and that the speech therapist might want to see him but he may be a bit young yet.

What happens now once everyone has been out and seen DS? I'm a bit surprised really as I always thought my 6 year old was autistic, he has a language disorder and other problems but I wasn't so sure that DS3 was.

I don't know what am early bird programme is but I will ask the special needs nursery when they get in touch.

Is he old enough for pecs? I can't imagine him using them as he wouldn't understand what to do with them. He currently goes over to the kitchen cupboards or fridge and cries when he is hungry.

Just looked at PECS on amazon, the behaviour set look useful, I thought they were for the child to give to an adult but it looks like I show them to DS when I want him to do something.

Hi just we use them on a basic level (not picture exchange) to show dd what she is doing during the day, who is involved, how she will get there,
or give her a choice between 2 activities, or 2 types of food. (Eg, Banana or apple)
My dd has controlled photos. As she takes the pictures literally, eg, orange juice in a particular cup = she has to have the exact replica of the photo or all hell breaks loose
We do "now and next" too. The now is something we want her to do, the next is something she wants to do.

If you start with basic pics and then slowly introduce more. Eg juice or milk, and whichever he points to, you give him that, so say he points at milk you give him milk. It has to be immediate reward, so having the juice and milk ready.

at car and choo choo. DS3's remaining words (he had more, but has 'lost' them) are 'crash' and 'voof voof'. Crash for crashing his cars and voof voof for woof woof for dog. (Yes, my completely English son sounds German. I have no clue why).

PipinJo - I don't have £5k, that's half my total yearly income for a family of 5.

Can I ask if it is normal for a child with speech regression to start making up their own signs?

My DS3 has made up his own sign for his milk, based on the fact that because he never reacts when I say milk, I shake the bottle near him, as I have to anyway to mix the powder to the water (he's on a milk replacement due to severe allergies).

He now raises his hand and shakes it when he wants milk.

Is this something I should encourage?

You could squeeze your hand to mimic milking a cow and he could start to adapt that sign.

Sally - his milk has nothing to do with cows though! I have no issue with the sign he has picked for that, what I mean is should I be encouraging signing for other things?

If he is trying to sign to you then yes definitely! I meant that the milk sign is (as you described it) "his milk"! Just semantics really over whether it's pepti junior or cows milk. Meaning that it would be more recognised by others as a sign for milk. iyswim I think that it's fantastic that he is trying to sign to you.

My DS can now sign hello and says mama and no with increasing consistency. He is 5, has non verbal ASD and is deaf. The communication is hard because I tend to be quite tuned into his needs, so it is trickier for others to understand his needs.

we are running a small home based aba programme (around 5-6k a year, I do most of the ours myself and just pay consultant).

I fund it with DLA and the extra tax credits... couldn't do it otherwise.

have you applied for DLA yet?

I haven't applied for DLA yet, I didn't know that I could?

CouthyMowEatingBraiiiiinz my son had more words before he was 1 also, he said Hiya, Mum, Oh No, and No, but he also lost them shortly after.

at your sons german accent.

Also does anyone know if toddlers wrists are generally flexible as according to the beoghton test DS' wrists are hyper-mobile too, his thumb can easily touch his arm. I will ask the physio when his appt comes through but was just wondering if toddlers could do this anyway.

*beighton