My son is 3 and half. His speech has been very delayed, although he babbled he said very few words and often stopped saying them during 1 to 2 years old. We started speech therapy at around 2 and half, shortly after starting the SALT referred for a pediatric development assessment. We always had concerns about his tongue as he was always sticking it out, his suffers regularly from croup and his nose would be very congested. We notice he particularly would stick his tongue when his nose was congested and try to touch it. Although he passed a hearing test, we decided to go private to ENT to see if there was problem with his adenoids as he was mouth breathing and snoring as well as the tongue protrusion. They discovered he had glue ear, both were graphs flat so recommended grommets. The consultant said after op his ears where jam packed full of glue which they removed. Speech increased, but his pronunciation still very poor but his vocabulary expanded and he started putting two / three words together although still not talking in sentences. We had his development assessment today. I was expecting to be told he had a developmental delay, perhaps even speech disorder the consultant was pretty sure he also is autistic. He had no eye contact with her. She believes his tongue is a form of stimming and she noticed other facial expressions. His development is around 2 and half. so a year behind and she would say moderate learning difficulty. Health visitor and nursery have also previously noted lack of eye contact. On the upside he is such a good wee child, sleeps well, eats well, no tantrums, potty trained. So sociable with his family including his cousins. But with people he doesn't know as well, he definitely seems to lack eye contact and his speech is so badly delayed. I'm still not sure about the tongue stimming as he had a high-temperature both yesterday and today and was really not in good form, and when she checked his tonsils they were red. So I still wonder if the tongue protrusion is coming from infection. But anyway, I suppose I just need to hear some positive stories as I've cried all afternoon. She believes with one-to-one a mainstream school will be fine. I can't even believe I'm writing this. Thanks for reading x