Can Autistic children point or copy some acts (prior to intervention)?

[ASAZ19]

Hi

Apologies my post is really long. This is my first time writing on any forum.

My son is 25 months old at the moment. We became concerned about his development around 20 months as he had delayed walking. So basically he started walking with support around 14 months but he didn't take his first unassisted steps until 20 months old. But since then he only walks without support in an area where there are object closeby to hold onto incase he falls down.

But during this time we noticed he hand flaps a lot. By a lot i mean in every situation he mostly takes a break for hand flapping and returns to the same activity like before. Soon after we noticed other autism red flags & his paed felt there is possibility of him having mild autism

My son did not have much of my attention before this time as i had another daughter 13 months after having him. But soon as the autism red flags became visible i started giving him attention and kept a close eye on his development.

So before this (at 22 months old) my son did not have any words, very easily frustrated, very low compliance, not very social (we would barely go out because of my younger daughter), would only shake hand when asked, would never point, would not wave or do hi five, eye contact was inconsistent so he would make eye contact but then look away, liked playing with cars and looking at them on the road, would not really give attention to his sister (we always tried to keep her away and he didnt oppose that) etc

Soon after i started to interact with him more, kept trying to teach him things. He started to pick up words so initially he learnt to say 'oh no' 'fan' etc and slowly the vocabulary has been increasing so he picks up one new word almost every week at least, he has started waving bye, he would sometime copy things from tv or us, he covers his eyes to play 'peek a boo', recently he has started to point to things he want or would point to show few things like 'shoe' 'flower', raises his hands when he wants picked up or if i say come, he has compliance of some things like now if i say come, give me but only very basic things, walking still the same, very social now, engages very well with other kids and adults, he hits his sister a lot & bites us and enjoys it. He fails to understand that we are angry and tellin him to stop. Still hand flapps the same way. Eye contact still inconsistent.

So i am really confused and scared about whether he has autism or not; and what will be his future like (becoming independent, getting married having a job)?

We are waiting for his autism assessment next months but in the meantime i am becoming overly anxious

Would really appreciate to hear others experiences and thoughts about above behaviour

Thanks

Hi! Your son Sounds very similar to my son although he does more spinning than flapping and did not point at all until he turned 3 in March. He also only started to talk in December so he was significantly delayed. Have you had your assessment yet? My son was just diagnosed two weeks ago with ASD and gets higher rate DLA as his behaviour and aggression is significantly bad atm. I understand how you feel it's nice to use these threads to get advise and to know you're not alone. If you want to message for advise x

@ASAZ19

Yes, some children with autism can learn those things. Some are delayed in development but get there eventually. Many autistic people get married and have important jobs. A supportive family is everything.