autism?

[nepters]

Here's some background, before I get to my question:

My girlfriend's son is now 4 years old. He's never been diagnosed with autism, but I'm not sure she's taken him to the most competent professionals. When he was about 24 months I talked her into getting a speech pathologist to evaluate him, and they said he was normal. I was skeptical, and sure enough at 42 months he was finally evaluated by the school as having a severe speech delay. Still no autism, however. Anyway, the main reason I'm still skeptical is that his speech is not only delayed but it's also very repetitive and idiosyncratic. He talks A LOT, and he's quite loud. About half of what he says is unintelligible babbling, and the other half consists of short, repetitive phrases like "what's that?", followed by the same "that's a ___" over and over. He has yet to learn when and when not to use articles (so if you ask him "who's that?" and point to his mother he'll say "that's a momma!"), nor has he learned to use pronouns (so if you point to him and say "who's that?" he'll say "that's a Gideon!").

I can't say his non-verbal communication skills are particularly bad. He makes eye contact and points at things he wants, but he also doesn't seem to understand how to play very well, in the sense that if you try to play a pretend game with him he's unable to. He's obsessed with his trains, and if you play trains with him he'll talk a lot but he doesn't really seem to understand how to take turns and share the playtime.

He also throws tantrums a lot. I haven't seen him as much lately so I can't say how many, but between 1 and 3 years old he probably threw upwards of 10 a day. That seems like an awful lot. And he's also only recently been toilet trained. He finally started going in the commode around his 4th birthday. He still wears a diaper at night.

At any rate, here are some questions I would like answered if possible:

1. Is that sort of repetitive speech typical of children with speech delays, or is that something more often seen only in children whose speech delays are the result of an ASD?

2. Is that a red flag that he doesn't pretend play with me better? Given his speech problems, it's hard for me to understand how he could pretend, since he doesn't have the vocabulary to talk about what's going on in the game.

3. Are these things by themselves enough to warrant a further evaluation. My girlfriend tends to bristle at the suggestion, since the doctors have already said he was ok and we should just leave well enough alone. I don't think she likes to think it might be something worse than just a "speech delay".

Anyway, I'm concerned. I'd appreciate any info or advice you could give me.

[pyxlie]

I am not a doctor but have done a lot of research on Autism and Aspergers. My son was finally diagnosed as being bi-polar with an emotional disability, this year, after nine years of developmental delays, inability to communicate properly, anger, temper tantrums, violence, and the list goes on and on.
The Autism Society of America has a website with really good infomation. It's hard dealing with pediatricians and other doctors when it comes to developmental delays, etc. I don't know why, but I've hit many brick walls with them. I finally went to a behavioral therapist (child psychologist) and she sent us to the right place for the autism testing. Good luck and I hope you find help soon.

[jeneg]

I am not a doctor either, but have grown up with a brother with autism. I had a girlfriend that had a son with autism, I saw it the first time I saw him, but was about 4 years old when diagnosed.
Does he swing his hands or arms? Likes spinning or fast movement???? (spinning plates, gyroscope, movie screen credits).  I know that the severity of autism can be widley ranged, maybe its possible he has a milder form of it? There are other things she can look into as well, neurologically. It could be totally possible for a neurological condition to cause speech and mood/fits
I would recommend what pyxlie said about child psycologist, they have many resources available, m aybe the right one for your friend so can get further testing and evaluation. There is nothing worse than knowing something is wrong when no one will take the time to really look at things and help. Good Luck!