Confused about regression in my DS

[confusedofengland]

DS2 is 3.7. He has delayed speech & language skills, has been seeing SALT since just after his second birthday for this. We have also had one paediatrician appointment & have just had the letter through the door to book a second. They are investigating the possibility of autism - the last paediatrician in August said she wanted him to see a senior in a few months as he didn't engage much with her in the appointment, although he did with her 'assistant' (?) and she didn't notice anything else of concern nor anything from the history we gave.

About a fortnight ago he had a new SALT visit him at preschool. She said that autism couldn't be ruled out, but she thought he was just SAL delayed & that led to other difficulties, eg playing alongside other children not with them, interaction with adults was good.

Since about his 3rd birthday, DS has come on leaps & bounds in all areas, such as learning to jump, going from around 40 single words to using 5-6 word sentences, potty trained, following instructions better & other things. However, in this last fortnight, he has started to play with the cupboard doors in the kitchen & also has started talking about one thing incessantly. So, for example, today we were round a friend's house & he saw some clocks which he called 'Bedtime hour'. He went on about these for maybe 15 mins, refusing to talk about or play with anything else, even after I'd lifted him up for a good look. In the end, he had a little cry about it, then my friend switched on CBeebies which distracted him & he then played nicely for the next hour or so until we left - reading, colours on a colour keyboard, taking turns drawing on a Magna-Doodle with friend's DD as well as eating snack. He did also have a couple of minutes where he was opening & closing the lid on a toy box, but I distracted him out of this with a book.

Also, he was potty trained in August & became dry at night pretty much straight away. Then about a fortnight ago, he started to wet the bed again, so we took all pressure off & went back to pull-ups - out of 7, all but 1 were wet. Last night, we didn't have any pull-ups so just sent him to bed in pants & PJs & said how happy it makes us when he keeps his pants dry & he stayed dry! I went in to him at 7 & he came to the toilet & did a big wee straight away, so we gave lots of praise. I know nighttime potty training is not a worry at 3, but we found it strange how he seemed to regress & I wonder if this is linked with the other stuff?

I would welcome any thoughts on this - I think I should mention it to the paediatrician at our appointment, but I don't know what, if any, relevance there might be?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts

Thanks for replying zzzz. It's hard to know what to think sometimes

To answer your questions:

He eats very well! Most things except baked beans (which DH & I can't stand either) Happy to try new things, especially if he sees big brother doing it too.

No issues with noises/textures/lights except that he is not keen on hats/hoods - but if it is raining & I put his hood up, he will cry about it for a couple of minutes then forget about it.

When he is bored he tends to snuggle up with DS1 on the sofa & watch CBeebies or sometimes play with baby DS3's toys (there is one of [[http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fisher-Price-Crawl-Cruise-Jungle-Playset/dp/B0015KTUKK these]] which they all love Or he will come & see what I'm doing eg if I'm cooking in the kitchen.

He is fine to sit wherever & use any plate, although we do tend to have the same seats at the table. Sometimes he asks to use the DC table in the lounge rather than sit at the dining table & he'll ask a couple of times but once he's told no he's fine about it.

One thing I will say is that he is very heavily influenced when with DS1 (nearly 6), he absolutely worships him & seems more 'normal' when he's around. So, when DS1 had a friend round in the half-term, the 2 big boys played together & DS2 was like their little shadow, copying their every move, screech, jump etc. It was actually very cute to watch! DS1 in turn is really good with DS2 & can understand some speech that we can't etc. The first SALT we saw said that he is very good at copying & that for this reason she would not recommend special school for him, as he will copy the behaviour of the NT DC & learn from it at mainstream school.

"The first SALT we saw said that he is very good at copying & that for this reason she would not recommend special school for him, as he will copy the behaviour of the NT DC & learn from it at mainstream school."

Yes, because copying is so important. It's why our children are right up there with their peers and not markedly different at all......oh..... wait a moment

So what if DD picks up a few extra flaps and screeches at SS? At least for the other 31.75 hours of the week the curriculum is taught with her learning in mind!

I get utterly depressed with the representation of SSs as dysfunctional ghettos where the freaks are kept.

Sorry Lougle it wasn't my intention to offend anybody. I was just putting down what I've been told by the professionals I've seen so far. The schools issue is on my mind at the moment as we have just received our application form for school.

It was your professional who offended me

It's something that gets parroted as fact constantly without anyone stopping to think of the logic.

If imitation would fix it all we'd be sorted

I've no idea about regression but I wanted to say that you seem like you're doing a very good job with your ds. Keep distracting him whilst he's engaged in repetitive behaviours, push change in his daily life and keep him interested in more appropriate activities.