What is your name? Ds 3.5 can't answer

[Unstuckduck]

Ds has a referral in to a paediatrician - just to preface this but I'm more interested if anyone has experienced similar.

So ds has only started talking in the last 3/4 months and I'm not sure if I'm expecting too much. He is good at stating what he wants e.g. juice please and generally answers questions like, do you want a biscuit,? do you need help?

He understands well in general but I've been trying to give him answers to common questions and he just doesn't seem to understand at all. I'm not sure it the concept is too abstract

My DD only started to answer "What is your name?" around her 4th birthday, we did lots of practise on name and age. She has ASD. Her speech started like your DS with requesting things like juice from age 3 but very limited conversation flow. From age 4 she was able to have very mini conversations around concrete concepts. She is now 4 yrs 8 m and is slowly gaining more abstract ideas and talking about things that happened at school, she can tell me her favourite teacher, what she had for lunch and "[name] spilled their milk on the floor!" Your DS having good understanding and being able to answer concrete questions is really positive.

Answering questions can be tricky for some autistic kids. IMO modelling is the best thing to do, especially when he’s newly verbal. There’s something called Blank’s level questions which will help you track how things are developing, it starts with concrete and moves on to more abstract ideas. Don’t be in a hurry to push him though, make it fun and playful.

My little girl was 4 in October and only recently started to answer what is your name? But it’s pretty programmed the way she replies “my name is x” and point at herself every word she says. It’s about the only question she will answer and really only talk in one or two words. She was diagnosed today with ASD and GDD. She simply doesn’t follow any instructions, answer any question apart from what is her name? and no real awareness of the world around her.