My son learned some skills but then stopped doing it

[Tuan]

Hi all,
We have a 3 year old boy and he has some traits of autism He can only say sine words but not consistently. He understands some instructions but not questions. He has eye contacts but not all the time. he rarely responds to his name. We tried to teach him some skills like picking up some toys or waving goodbye. He seemed to do it first but then stopped doing it or only doing it occasionally. It made it harder for us to help him as it is like we are back to square one many times. We read online but still got confused because they said it is normal that children forget what they learn but it should comeback in a couple if weeks. It is not the case for us. So I want to ask if any not you has any experience in this.any suggestions would be most welcome. Thanks,

My ds is 8 and was diagnosed autistic at 4. When he was about 9/10 months old he learned to wave, did it for a weekend and then not again until he was two.

Have you spoken to the GP and/or nursery about your concerns?

Thanks, we did talk to the nursery and the GP but still no solution yet.

What do you mean by solution? I’m not sure there is a solution to regression of skills other than re-learning, which can take time. Is your son being put forward for assessment?

Sorry for not being clear and concise. What I meant was the nursery staff was not sure what happened and we just keep trying to teach him things. We are waiting for the community pediatrician to give us an assessment. The SEN consultant and a speech therapist visited the nursery and gave the community pediatrician their report. We read about regression but it seems it does not apply here. Our son does not behave worse than before. It is just that he seems not interested in doing what he learned to do.

What did their report say? Is he being assessed for autism?

In the reports, they only mentioned problems like lack of eye contacts, solitary play, not understanding instructions, lack of communication. They only mentioned the possibility of autism spectrum disorder.

Isn’t regression just a loss of skills previously learnt? I’m not sure it only refers to worse behaviour.

His behaviour is kot getting worse. It's just that he is not doing what he learnt before.

Sorry, I think we’re at cross purposes. Regression is a loss of previously learnt skills and this is what your original post was concerned about.

We are very concerned that he is not doing what he learnt. It could be skill loss or lack of interest. Any advice here?