Does this sound like Autism?

[furrowed]

I have a 35 month old son. I apologize if this is a little long. We have some autism concerns, and have had him evaluated by the school district twice, first at 27 month and then at 33 months. Our primary concern was language development - our pediatrician recommended a screening based on our son's diction.

At 27 months our son had well over 50 words (I would guess over 100-150 at that age) and 2 word combinations. Still he was diagnosed to be somewhat speech delayed for his age, but they didn't offer interventions thinking he would "take off" when he went to pre-school. We never saw any sensory issues (or at least never noticed any - I understand they can be subtle) but our son DID have a difficult time transitioning to a 7-4pm daycare. It took 6-8 weeks for him to feel comfortable there (he was usually fine after his nap they said) He ate wonderfully until he started preschool - he rarely eats lunch there (usually just fruits and snacks, with the occasional entree) and has become pickier at home.
  
He was reevaluated at 33 months, and his expressive and receptive language were found to be at 106 and 98 out of 100 mean, respectively. He sounds on target, except for his pragmatic language. He seldom asked anything except "Where" questions (but would "ask" things like "wanna read it, daddy?") But in the past month he has started to ask more "what" questions about his environment and some "how" questions (Does "How about Pancakes for dinner?" count? :) )
  
He has also started to be able to answer "How are you" type questions now, and is starting to be able to tell us somewhat the things he did at school during the day. This developing skill wasn't present at either of the previous evaluations.
  
Socially, when we are with him and schedule a play date, he loves other kids, will offer them his toys and play/run around with the collaboratively. He is genuinely enthusiastic with other kids, although we are told he doesn't play much with kids at preschool. It seems inconsistent with our experiences.
  
He is also starting to show interest in potty training which he had shown none prior.
  
He does have some quirks with his language. His pronouns are becoming more consistent, but he does still mix them sometimes. He answers questions, but when given a choice, like "want milk or juice" he will respond with "OR milk". He will almost always add the "OR" in front of his answer, even if it was the first choice, not just the answer choice following "or". This started a couple months ago, and has lingered.
  
Like I said, we have never really noticed any repetitive behaviors or sensory issues. He has always been very affectionate with us and those he meets. Eye contact is usually good, but on occasion it take a few repeats for him to respond to his name. Doesn't always spontaneously greet or say Bye to others. Sometimes, not consistently.

We are in a LONG wait for a developmental pediatrician, and just wondered (knowing you can't make any diagnosis) if this might be consistent with a child going through a delay in language (questions, some pragmatics) or to what degree this might be PDD-NOS or autism, etc. Would we likely have seen other behaviors other than the language delay that should have clued us in more, by this time?

Thanks all :)

[tdub321]

I think to be concerned about Autism or related disorders, you would expect to see marked impairments in social functioning as well as repetitive, atypical, or stereotyped  behaviors in addition to language delays.  

From his testing it doesn't sound like language is truly a major concern and even pragmatics seem on target -- who, why, how, how many, when questions are absent in many typically developing 3 year olds.  My typically-developing 35 month old uses only what, where, who, and consistently.  She may occasionally answer how or why questions (often inappropriately) but never produces them on her own.  

Do you happen to know what test they gave him at 33 mos?

[MJIthewriter]

This isn't really much help... When I first started talking I often confused "I" with "You"

I mean how could I not call myself "You" if everyone called me the word "you"?  They always referred to themselves as "I" so I thought they were called "I"

I hope that makes sense somehow.

I just barely remember that line of thought, though no solid memory.  I often reffered to myself in the 3rd person as a child. I don't remember when exactly I outgrew it. Eventually I learned to talk in the 1st person, and reserve 3rd person for my self talk. Eventually I learned to use 1st person most of the time, even when engaging in self talk.