Yes huge developmental delay, I can’t remember exactly without getting all the paper work out but at the end of nursery when he was 4.5 he was around 2.5 years delayed, more in some things and he’d come on quite a lot from the previous year . He stared at almost 3 being assessed at around 11-14 months.
He started talking around 3 but he didn’t really start catching up until after xmas this year just before he turned 5. We knew from about 3.5 when his speech started coming along that he was really good with numbers
He didn’t start trying to read until January this year and he turned 5 at the beginning of Feb. He’s now on level 7 but doesn’t even struggle with that. He’s difficult for them to assess though as he won’t always cooperate
He can also write now but refused to pick up a pencil until March time, they used to do mark making in sand with a stick because he wouldn’t draw or write with pens/pencils.
He does have a fantastic memory though, he memorised all the letters of the alphabet before he even attempted to read.
He came out of pull-ups in the day the month before he turned 5
He was dx just after he turned 2 and it was an easy process for us, took about 4 months and by that point we had had hearing yeast, specialist salt , portage and two peads appointments
When he was dx he had no verbal or non verbal communication, didn’t share interests, so didn’t bring us things to look at etc. Lacked eye contact, didn’t sleep for more than a few hours a night. Was increadably stimmy, spun round in circles under lights, flapped, stiffened and squealed when excited. Spent most of his time lining up cars on the windowsill because it was at a good level for him to watch the wheels go round. Head butted the floor, ran at windowsills head first when upset, bit and scratched us and himself when upset
Was very sensitive to noise, we couldn’t take him anywhere for years, parks, holidays, buses. Even taking him for a walk in the pushchair was awful because he couldn’t stand the cars, noise of lawn mowers, the wind in his hair. Couldn’t cope with too many people around him
Obviously all children are different and not every child will take so well to school, unfortunately not every child will have the same support from the school and outside agencies that we have had, which is awful
But I do remember being where you all are now and how anxious and frightened I was , so I just wanted to put this out there
If someone had said to me a year ago , two years ago that we would have come this far I wouldn’t have believed them. Actually I’ve bedn on mn 10 years and lots of rookie told me that it gets easier as they grow and I didn’t believe them
We still have struggles, at home and at school though, but I know the school work hard to support him, that’s probably the biggest thing. I trust them totally , it took me a long time to find a ms school that I was happy with.