My 2 year 4 month old toddler doesn't speak or understand instructions

[lolaandange]

Hi
I'm a worried parent, my 2 year 4 month old toddler hasn't spoken a word yet and doesn't appear to understand what I'm saying beyond, "no", "don't do that", "lets go", "go to bed", "go outside".  She doesn't point, when she's looking for food, she leads me by the hand and takes me into the kitchen where she looks up at the press for food.  When she's looking to outside or upstairs she leads you to the door/stair gate and puts your hand on the handles to open them.  She doesn't wave goodbye (although we've only being doing this with her for a couple of weeks).  She lines up objects but not in obsessive way, she's not obsessive about her toys, she loves water but I wouldn't say she's obsessive.  She spins around to music.
On the plus side, she's very affectionate, hugs, gives eye contact, reacts to her name (nearly all the time), plays very well with other toddlers, shares toys, loves looking at and playing with other toddlers on swings and slides or will walk into a group of toddlers (we have friends with kids of a similar age) and will play no problem. No tantrums beyond the usual I can't get what I want tantrums  but they're not all that common. She smiles when smiled at, laughs.  She gets frustrated when we don't understand what she's looking for and will throw toys or hit whatever's beside her (but not violently).  She does get shy when someone comes into the house or she visits cousins for the first time and will cover her eyes and turn into my leg but after a couple of seconds she'll run away with them and play with no issues at all.
I am worried she's showing some signs of autism but not all.  She had an appointment with the GP who's referring her to a pediatrician as the referrals for speech therapy must come from her.  

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

You can relax about any prospect of autism - she does not show signs of any disorder on that spectrum. Her speech/language is delayed and that does invite evaluation, so it is good that you have already set that plan in motion.

[RishabsMom]

Thanks much for the information you have provided for your daughter. This sure gives us hope. My son has been improving with our working with him. I had also put him on gfcf diet after reading on the internet(even though our doctor doesn't think it helps). But I think he has improved tremendously in terms of eye ontact and total engagement at all times.

However for language we have to work very very hard with him as he is far behind toddlers his age. Thanks for encouragement. I have started the search for a good speach pathologist or some institute where they help with speech. Hope to get some progress soon.

All the best for your daughter's progress. I am sure our kids will catch up fine in time.

[lolaandange]

Hi there

Since I posted this I got her a speech and language evaluation and they said that she had speech and language developmental day.  I got her assessed about a month ago and over here the child gets a two hour session followed by parent course once a week.  I have to bring her with me on my next session where they video us and tell me what I'm doing right or wrong.  
I don't believe she's autistic anymore she has come on leaps and bounds just in that month.  Before we started her sessions she understood very little, she still is way behind other toddlers her age but she now understands more.  She's pointing, she's much easier to understand in terms of what she wants, she'll still lead me by the hand to where we want to go but she's now pointing to the press/fridge/item.  
She still loves music and still doesn't wave.  We just started turning off the TV altogether and forcing her to interact with us as before this she was consumed in the TV.  She's not great at playing pretend, but the speech therapist told us to "follow her lead" so just let her do whatever she wants and give her a running commentary of ONE word - it works.  For example when she wants to play football, we keep saying "ball" over and over or "kick" or "throw" or "catch".  The one word phrases work, she doesn't get it straight away and has to hear them for weeks before she understands what you're talking about.  
It will take a long time for her to catch up, she still hasn't spoke but she's trying to say "daddy" (we think).
I hope this gives you some hope as I really believed she was autistic and "slow" up until recently.

[RishabsMom]

My son has similar developmental delays. We had him evluated at 18 months today and they said he has global development delays and is equivalent to 10 month old in receptive and expresive language. Even imitation is limited and he doesn't point or ask for anything. He plays with toys but mostly throws them and feels very happy about it. He is always happy, sleeps perfectly, eats good, has up to the mark motor skills, good eye contact, very affectionate and other than when he is very engaged in this throw the toy activity, he mostly always looks back at us. He loves my singing and gets captivated by music specially melodious songs.

We don't think he has autism but we do loose hope thinking he has some retardation that is causing him to  not understand anything other than very simple commands that we have practiced over months and weeks. He just understands - Stand Up, HiFive, Hello, Come.

Do you see any hope in his case. The dosctors seem to play safe and do not want to tell us what they think could be his future. They just tell us what we already know. They have prescribed just 1 hour of speech therapy weekly for him. Both I and my husband are working very hard but with very slow success.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Kavita

[lolaandange]

Thank you that is good to know!

[lolaandange]

I forgot to mention she loves playing peek a boo, and she'll stand in the middle of a room of people once she's comfortable and she'll clap her hand and pat her thighs and look around waiting for everyone to do it with her and then she'll laugh.