2 Year Old Nephew, worried has autism

I am very worried about my two year old nephew. It seems his parents are in denial about the possibilty of him having autism.  Not until just recently did they finally have the State funded program (can't remember what they are called) come and assess him due to his speech delay. They detemined that he qualifies for speech therapy, and that is also delayed Socially. They apparently ruled out autism, although I am sure they are wrong.

My nephew only says about 3 words total, and often repeatively.  These words include: Yuck, (or duck or something to that degree), "Oh no" and "no".  He will say these words over and over, in no particular order. He has no socialization skills, he does not often greet you, or seem to want to interact. He more or less watches videos on the computer.  He does walk on his toes (not always), flaps his hands, ONLY eats oatmeal, crackers, and milk, and bangs his head into the wall in a tantrum fit leaving welts on his forehead.  He will not call to his name after repeated attampts and also does not interact when playing with him.  He seems to have a exteme amount of energy at times, and is hard to control.  He can however, listen to instruction for example when his mom tells him to "put on your shoes", he can do so.  

The reason for this post, is our family is extremly concerned about him and his antics. They seem to represent Autism to us, although we would like a second opinion.  It seems silly that the state ruled out Autism when evaluting him at their house. All they did was have an hour appointment with them!  To actually watch and see him on a daily basis, you would see that his behavior is definitely out of the norm.  It seems to us that the parents are in complete denial about his unique traits, and treat them as "normal 2 year old" behavior. Any advise or suggestions based on the information I gave you, that could potentially help us would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time, and look forward to hearing from you,

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

From the vantage point of a seasoned professional, it actually is possible to rule out a condition (like autism) along the Pervasive Developmental Disorder spectrum during a home assessment like you describe. So all by itself that doesn't concern me. What would be prudent is for his parents to arrange a comprehensive developmental evaluation, in light of the fact that, at least in two areas of development (cognitive/speech-language and social) he displays some developmental disorder.