Anyone else’s little one on ASD pathway?

[Mummytobr]

My health visitor has passed my three year old onto paediatrics for assessment for autism - he isn’t delayed and he’s verbal but socially struggles so much.

Is anyone else in a similar situation?

In a similar situation, also have a 3 year old DS who struggles socially in the nursery but then he is also speech delayed - he is a gestalt learning processor but has recently made massive improvements. What is interesting is that in his old nursery he made so much progress but in the new one (we have moved) he has totally regressed. It’s heart breaking to think that he isn’t able to connect with anyone as he does want to be around kids. What is your DS like?

Thanks for your reply @Nevermind2020! Was it the health visitor who referred your DS? I think nursery think he is so shy but it’s because he’s only been there since August and that he’ll come out of it but I’m trying to explain he’s been like this his whole life. He is excellent at speaking and like your DS he does ‘like’ to be around other kids but if one speaks to him he shuts down. It’s almost as if he doesn’t know how to communicate. He will happily play chase with other kids though, he would just literally have someone chasing him all day. He’s extremely anxious and can’t even look someone in the eye if he isn’t extremely, extremely familiar with them. He also scripts when he’s uncomfortable - so if the lollypop man says good morning for example my little boy will just look at me and continuously say the latest quote he’s saying (right now it’s ’two years old’!) What is the nursery saying about your DS’s referral?

Nursery are doing a referral, they say he is scripting all day there without using unique language (though that’s not the case at home) and doesn’t interact with other children. At home when we have visitors he tries to do some simple role play and chasing games are also a favourite. When he warms up to new people he is very affectionate and does great eye contact but it’s not immediate. I have ADHD and I think it’s highly likely he has it, we are now on waiting list for ASD assessment but realistically have no idea how long we’ll have to wait - I’m thinking at least a year? Do you have any ideas of timelines and what will you do about schools next year? We just started going to open days and hopefully will find somewhere that has good SEN provision… but given that he’s not fully conversational I do worry how much support he’ll get in a classroom with 30 other children.