Is This Autism?

[kimmers09]

I have a son who is 32 months old ( will be 3 at end of October )  5 months ago I noticed his vocabulary was way behind his peers, at that time he only had about 10 words that he used and they were all things like oh-no and uh-oh and wow.  Since that time I focused on developing his speech more and he now has a vocabulary of over 75 words.  He can count to ten. identify several colors and shapes as well as tell me the noises that many aniamls make when asked.  My concers are that he still does not follow directions or answers questions.  He can sometimes answer yes/no questions or follow a very simple one step direction with a visual que.  Otherwise he is social, affectionate, silly and loves to play.  He has no sensory issues, sleeps well, eat spretty well ( he is a toddler so definitely prefers fries, mac n cheese, nuggets etc).  He uses imaginative play ( will pretned to drink out of a cup, talk on a phone or use a pretend stethoscope).  He loves to read books and will point at theings and say "hey look" or run to bring me a picture he just colored. But he probably only responds to his name 60% of the time but does respond to familiar voices and gets excited when grand parents come over, it is often dificult to get his attention when he is watching TV

I have had his hearing checked and it is fine.  My GP was not overly concerned but did send us to a pediatrition as a referral.  the pediatrician thought things were ok as well but recommended a progress folow up in a couple of months.  He had a speech assessment recently and the pathologist said she finds him confusing because he does lots of nice things but she  also sees a few concerns like not responding to questions and he didn't look her in the face but she noticed he made lots of eye contact with my husband and I during the same session. She said she thinks he has a moderate speech & comprehension delay and recommended an early language play group.



I know Autism has such a broad spectrum of symptoms but to me he seems like he is missing many of the classic ones so I don't know what to think



I know this is a very long post, thanks to everyone who reads it through

[specialmom]

Try to work on this by giving simple ONE STEP directions.  See if you can help him progress and if not, keep that follow up and let them know what you've done and your observations.  That's all you can do.  He sounds bright so maybe there is a bit of 'something' going on but nothing you probably can't work through.  good luck