Is it Autism?

My son who is 5 years old has a severe communication delay.  He only has a small spoken vocabulary but I suspect he can understand a lot more.  He has a wonderful sense of humour and is very affectionate but he is very, very shy.  This makes making friends virtually impossible.  He is an only child which doesn’t help his social skills.  He attends a special school for communication-delayed children but they seem to have labelled him autistic and give him lots of sensory-related tasks to do.  (He has no problems in this area).  I would love to know if his speech will get better but when I ask his teacher, all they can say is “some autistic children never speak”.  I feel so worried for his future when I should be enjoying my bright, energetic, loving son.  From my brief description, could he be on the Autistic Spectrum?  If so, how can I get the school to tailor his learning needs to that of speech and not just sensory issues without sounding like a meddling parent?  Any advice or comments would be appreciated.

[Rachel Thompson, Ph.D., BCBA]

I admire your approach to your son's education. It is very important that special education services are tailored to address the specfic needs of the child. In your son's case, it sounds like language should be a primary target. It can take strong parent advocacy for children to get the amount and type of services that they require. The IEP process is a perfect opportunity for you to advocate for the distribution of services that you feel your son needs. You should not sign an IEP document that does not adequately address your son's educational needs.