Let me start by saying I love my son, no matter what comes our way. My son is a little over 2.5 and has an expressive language delay. I called in early intervention birth to 3 as soon as I could see he wasn’t meeting his milestones. Now we are to the point where he turns 3 in August and soon those services will no longer be offered. I had him referred to the school district in our town for continued speech therapy through the therapist there. He has had two evaluations done by special ed, the speech therapist, occupational therapist, and the school psychologist. The first one he did great in as my husband and I expressed our concerns. The second one today he seemed easily frustrated and easily overstimulated more and more because he just couldn’t find the words to explain what was wrong. He ended up being super warm in the room and we figured out he wanted his jacket and shoes off.

The speech therapist asked me to bring him in for a group setting speech therapy lesson with kids about a year older than him who go to the same preschool he will be going to come September. He went in by himself and I thought that was a great sign. She brought him back out an hour later and brought up some concerns about some behavior that might indicate autism.

My son is easily frustrated and has meltdowns easily. He has trouble getting used to new environments. I knew today may be hard for him because of the fact that it was new people, new environment, no momma in the room etc. When he does get super frustrated he will sometimes hit himself. At home we easily can calm him down and get him to stop by taking him away from the activity and getting him to breathe. I call them resets. She also stated that he had no interest in playing with the baby dolls they pulled out. My son has never played with baby dolls ever so this didn’t surprise me at all. I did purchase him one after this situation though so he can learn what it is to play with a doll especially because I am pregnant with his sister. She said he was kind of off in his own world exploring rather than sitting down in the group. Again this was his first group setting. We get him out and about often enough but it’s always around people he knows and is comfortable with. These were the red flags she saw, while birth to 3 has never indicated autism.

I’ve have had eval after eval done on him and every single one that has come back says he scores high in receptive language/emotional language but that his speech in general is delayed causing the other issues. I have done research after research searching for signs because I believe early intervention is key to success in general for any child who may have delays. He makes eye contact, he is affectionate, he takes direction well, he helps with chores or anything else I ask him to do, before he finally started to speak (probably at 100 words right now), he was more than willing to sign, he has made leaps in speech and communication, meltdowns still happen but have become less and less, he responds to his name all the time, he dances, imitates, and roughhouses with his dad and dog, he loves to learn new things and be independent, and he is fully potty trained! I’m just having a hard time seeing that these things she saw indicated an autism diagnosis. In all honestly I’m just venting and am scared/worried for him. No one ever wants their child to struggle you know?

He is so smart, but he is particular about certain things. He does qualify for the extra speech therapy, and occupational therapy. Both of which I would gladly want him to do. But I think now because these things she mentioned I should go and get him tested by a professional. I have already contacted his pediatrician and I see his speech therapist next week. I’ll ask her for her honest opinion as well because she sees him weekly. I do not want to wait and hinder his progress any more. I work with him every single day with speech activities, lessons and so on. I work my butt off for him, and I would gladly do it all over again. I just, I don’t know. I felt like I was hit by a truck when she came out and told me these things because I wanted so badly for him to do well.

Does anyone have any stories they’d love to share! Any insight? Please give me all the positive vibes.