How did your autistic girl present at 3 years old?

[Ozarkz]

DD (3) has been put on a waiting list for autism assessment - I’ve been told it will be years before we hear anything further.

She currently presents as:

1. With me she talks normal but with other close family members (such as her grandmothers) she will talk almost robotically in short sentences. She often goes non verbal, especially if a few people are present. Often puts on a baby voice in which she doesn’t talk properly at all but makes baby noises.
2. Barely eats - will basically eat chicken nuggets and pasta. Nothing else.
3. can’t tolerate noise, needs her ear defenders if noise is even slightly elevated
4. when she has a book she puts her face really close to the pages and traces the pictures with her finger almost trance like
5. memory of an elephant, call recall stuff that happened when she was barely a toddler
6. won’t look at, talk to or even acknowledge people she doesn’t know very very well. Including most family members and refuses hugs off everyone unless it’s me or my mum.
7. does not communicate with other kids
8. plays by herself and gets wound up if anyone moves her stuff

there are other things too but I’m interested to hear how other ASD girls presented at this age

@Ozarkz our DD was diagnosed with ASD age 3 but has quite a bit of delay at that age. She did not respond to her name, was pre verbal but with no functional speech, she didn’t point or use any other gestures and could not understand simple one step instructions. She is 4.5 now and has come on loads since then. Her speech is still very delayed but she understands a lot more and can express her needs. Still not playing with other children but there’s a lot more interest. There is now more spontaneous imaginative play and a lot of the sensory sensitivities she had have reduced. I can now hoover when she is home! She’s just started reception at a unit attached to a mainstream school. X

DD turned 3 in July.

She has very limited speech - can name a thousand nouns but could not answer a question such as 'What did you do in nursery.' She is a gestalt language processor. She can put together some simple 2/3 word sentences at a push. She is 99% non-verbal outside of the home. This is by far her biggest ASD trait.

She very recently started a happy stim in replacement of what would probably be an excited scream - in fact it looks like shes silently screaming for a second in excitement.

Noise sensitivity has improved and we have noted its unexpected noise that upsets her. Children crying is her biggest trigger. She could walk past a brass band but a baby whinging would set her off. We have got over sirens by making sure we point to them so she can see them coming.

She loves watching other children, copies them, can follow their lead on basic play but does not communicate with them.

She can do some imaginative play but anything like role play goes over her head.

She has great eye contact, is affectionate, joint attention, does not need routine, no obsessive interests (she will love a book and read it over and over for about two weeks then suddenly go cold on it). She never lined toys, no sensory issues When the speech therapist observed her in nursery they said you would not pick her out as being ND in a room full of children,