My DS is 5 and at 18 months had a speech regression. This followed two very heavy colds and we arranged a private hearing test and was diagnosed with glue ear at 20 months. We had another hearing test when he was about 24 months where we were told the glue ear had resolved itself.
6 months later, at 2.5 years, he was referred for autism assessment. His social skills were poor,, couldn't flow any instructions, still not talking. We started to get single words about 3, and two words together about 3.5. We spent 18 months paying for private SALT and she introduced him to PECS.
He got an EHCP and started school in September at a speech and language resource base in a mainstream primary. He's absolutely flown, talks all the time now, made friends, academics age appropriate and loves school.
His speech is still about 12 months behind his age, and still is slightly behind in his social skills but the gap is significantly reducing.
We are still waiting for ASD assessment, but I don't think he'll get a diagnosis now. At 2.5 I was convinced he was and we had a private paed willing to diagnose him.
Whether he had intermittent glue ear for most of his toddler hood, 'just' a speech delay, the SALT at his school doesn't think he has a developmental language disorder, or something else yet to be diagnosed? But all the things that had me convinced 2.5 years ago that he would get an ASD diagnosis no longer exist.
It does feel like a bit of a mystery.