Question

I have a son who will be 5 in May..However my son cant hardly talk and when he does its words like mom,dad,bye, kitty. Its all one single words,The only full sentece i have heard him say is dont want that. The rest of his talking is babbling and you cant understand him, I can not get him potty trained, he refuses to do it. He will stand and pee hisself before going to his potty. He doesnt understand right from wrong. I have tried everything i can think of to try to help him. He is around kids his own age all the time. But sometimes he will play with them other times he will not. He will either start shove them,gets ruff ,or  wont let them play with his toys, or goes to his room and wont have anything to do with them.

I took him to his doctor and he referred him to a clinc for developmental delays. Is this  signs that my son could have autisum??

If so how can they determin it and what do they look for?

[portuguese mom]

Please have your local school district evaluate your son also. That is the law and you should have called the school district when your son was 2 years old.  At 3 years of age, the school district needs to start therapy to get your son ready for Elementary School at 5.  Before 2, the state should provide these services.  This is part of the law of "no child left behind" under the federal government of the USA.  Your son has a language delay. He should be receiving speech therapy on a daily basis since he was 18 or 24 months.  He can not speak or communicate and that is the reason that he can not play with other children. Is he in pre-school?  did the teacher not allert you?  Does he have good eye contact? does he kiss you and bond (love) other family members? can he use a coloring pencil to draw a line? beside speech therapy, the school district needs to also offer Occupational therapy to develop is gross and fine motor skills.  In some cases if the child is very delayed, they will offer free pre-school with all the therapies included.  You can also add on to the therapy  that the school district offers on a private basis if you can afford to pay. By the way, did the pediatician request a  hearing test? can the child hear? you should also have his hearing test performed.  Good luck and ask me questions if you have any.  You can not waste another minute when it comes to speech.  You need to get is hearing and speech evaluated ASAP in order to get the experts to help him with therapy. Call your school district on Monday morning.