language delay or autism?

My son will be four years old in January.  He was at average level in speech and was receptive until around the age of fourteen months.  He did have his immunizations at around this time.  He has since regressed and now cannot or will not answer questions--even yes or no--like his name or age, etc.  He does not have any other signs of autism that I can see; he has always had eye contact and plays with other children well.  He is in a Dev. Delayed PreK program five days per week/five hours a day, but he barely talks there.  He talks to me sometimes (on good days) but I can only understand about 50%.  I am worried the most about his not being able to answer me.  Please tell me what to look for and what your opinion is of a diagnosis.

[William L. Holcomb, Ph.D., BCBA-D]

With regard to a diagnosis, I suggest you talk with your son’s pediatrician and ask to have your son referred to your local education authority (LEA; your town or city school district that you live in) for further assessment, or specialists familiar with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).  If upon further assessment, the examiners feel that your son may have an ASD, then I recommend that you take him to a clinic that specializes in children with ASDs for further assessment.  If you live in the United States, since your son is already over three years of age, the LEA is responsible for performing a CORE assessment if you request one.  Contact your son’s school for information on how to initiate this process.  (Note: providing them with any assessment reports, etc. by your doctor or other professionals indicating their concerns would be helpful.)

Below are several websites with information about autism spectrum disorders (including information about early identification) that you might find informative.  Again, I recommend that you contact your son’s pediatrician and school team to help answer your questions.  

About.com Pediatrics
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/weeklyquestion/a/04_signs_autism.htm
American Academy of Pediatrics
http://www.aap.org/healthtopics/Autism.cfm
First Signs
http://www.firstsigns.org/
Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies
http://www.behavior.org/

Finally, the notion that vaccines somehow cause autism persists despite overwhelming objective evidence to the contrary.  Below is a link to The New England Center for Children’s online Research Newsletter.  There you will find several summaries of the legitimate research findings on vaccines and autism as well as other information on treatment.  

http://www.necc.org/research/newsletter.asp