I think My 5 year old has a form of Autism

Hello, my son will be 5 in Nov and I've been reading up alot on Autism lately and I think he may have it. The symptoms he has are speech delay which right now he's in pre k and he recives speech therapy 2x's a week, but also since hes entered pre k his speech is getting alot better, he's always in his own world, he chews on everything you can think of and sometimes i dont even know if he knows hes doing it. Then with us in the family hes ok but when he goes to school if other kids come to close to him he backs away or if they touch him hes bothered by it. When the speech therapists come to his classroom he wants nothing to do with them. So i dont know if at this point i should take him to a specialist, but I DONT want to put him on any medication thats for sure. What should I do?

[Rachel Thompson, Ph.D., BCBA]

I do recommend that you schedule an in-person assessment with a qualified professional. It is critical to intervene early with autism and any other developmental delay. Currently, there are no medications that have been shown effective in treating the characteristics of autism. So, I would be very skeptical of any professional who would recommend medication as a first step in the treatment of autism.

[Sally44]

You don't have to agree to anything you are not happy with and that includes medications.
If you have concerns about autism you can ask your paediatrician for an evaluation by a multi disciplinary team that specialises in diagnosing autistic spectrum disorders.  You might also want to consider asking or getting an assessment from an Occupational therapist because his behaviour around being touched may be down to a tactile sensory issue and if one sense if out, then the chances are that others are also.  
He is over or under sensitive to light or bright objects, noise, smell, touch, taste, appears clumsy or unco-ordinated?

[jflo513]

Thanks, and the we have noticed that when we go outside and the sun is really beaming he covers his eyes but I mean so do I, and I did notice the other day we went to a party and they had on loud music he did cover his ears, and he asked my friend if she could turn down the volume, yet my 2 1/2 year old was there and it didnt bother him so I dont  know. I think Im just going to take him to a specialist a see what happens. But thank you for writing.