Peaditrician appointment help

[Fishandthechips]

Hello, my son is 3 in January and recently had an appointment with the peaditrician at the hospital. Im really regreting not going armed with questions as the appointment was over an hour long and my son was getting very agitated and just wanted to leave by the end. So I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on what was said.
Basically I was told his speech was at the level of a 16 month old and his social development at 22 months old. Will this always be the same or will he catch up was what im really regretting not asking. The pead also said that he was showing signs of autism and wants him reffered to a specialist nursery for a bit for further observation. Does this happen and it ever not be autism?
The traits he was referring to were repetition (he repeats lines of the tv said in the exact same intonation as the character who said them), he hits himself in the head when he gets fustrated but this comes and goes, so we will have a few months of him doing it a lot and then a few weeks where he may not do it at all. He is also very rigid in what he does, will only do or play with what he wants and in the way he wants to play with it and hes obsessed with wheels and things going 'round and round'.
I dont really know what im hoping to get out of this. I just feel there was so much more I should have asked or said and just didnt think of it in time.

He sounds quite like my ds at that age. My ds was diagnosed with ASC at 4 but we knew at about 2.5. I know it's quite a shock when someone first mentions autism but try not to worry, whatever happens he is still your ds. Books that really helped me at the time were 'the reason I jump' and ' fall down 7 times get up 8'.

Ds's speech started coming on a lot at about 4 after having a big regression just after 2. He's now 5 and although his speech is definitely behind his peers i would say the majority of his communication is verbal (often just nouns). I think it depends on the child as to how much/how quickly they start developing speech.

Have you been referred to speech and language and Occupational therapy? I would also look into Makaton as it can help children develop speech.

Your DS sounds exactly like mine, also 3 in January. All the same traits.

We've just had an initial diagnosis of ASD following a developmental paed appointment.

I would really recommend the observation in a specialist setting; this could be really helpful in understand what's going on.

If your DS does end up with an ASD diagnosis, and he may or may not, then it is so hard to take but also so important because you will be able to access all the help and support he needs.