Does my child need help?

[t_c_1970]

My son (age 2 yrs, 10 mos) has odd behaviors.  When I mentioned this to his pediatrician, he suggested that he be evaluated at an autism clinic. My son has a good relationship with his immediate family and several close family members. He doesn't seem to be bothered being around strangers, but doesn't make eye contact with them or allow anyone outside of our immediate family to hold him. He goes to Mother's Day Out twice a week and doesn't mind me leaving him at all. However, he doesn't interact much with the other children and stays to himself alot. He has an extreme fascination with the alphabet and his numbers. When watching TV, reading books, or driving down the road, he  always points out numbers and letters. He picks up groceries from inside my cart and "reads" the letters. Every clock we see, we have to stop and point out the numbers, we also have to do this at home before going to bed as part of our night time ritual. We also have to point out the letters of his name on the wall twice before lying down. Most of his playing still consists of blocks and puzzles, with alot of stacking and tower building. He also loves watching Sesame Street and Blues Clues, and plays out the scenes he's memorized sometimes even when he's not watching TV. I've never thought he could have a form of autism, because he's capable of communicating most of his needs to myself, my husband, and my other children. I've played his quirkiness off on the fact that he was born to older parents and his siblings are 13, 17, and 21. BUT, I'm noticing more and more autism-like behaviors as he gets older. The other day, he was playing with a tub of toy dishes while I visited with family. When I looked back at him, I noticed that he had stacked the plates in color order (biggest on the bottom, smallest on the top), knives together, spoons together, forks together, spatulas, cups, etc. Some were even layed side by side in size order. That same day while eating at McDonalds, he made a long line of salt packets instead of eating.He also a severe issue with getting his hair cut, worse our barber has ever seen. I guess what I'm asking is this: Are these behaviours enpough to warrant an evaluation at his age or do we give him time to see if he outgrows this?

[t_c_1970]

Thank you for your replies. I filled out the paperwork last night to begin the process of having him evaluated.

[dojoandky]

You are the best judge of you child's behavior, and you know from having older children what they were like as kids, and yes, your son does sound like he is exhibiting autistic-like behaviors.  ANd no, the best thing is NOT to "wait to see if he outgrows it", because then you are wasting valuable time for the proper patterns for learning to develop in his brain.  Once more "autistic-like"  patterns develop and are "hard-wired" in his brain, they are extremely difficult to change or remove.  Please don't wait.  See a doctor who specializes in Autism diagnosis or a D.A.N. doctor (Defeat Autism Now).  You won't regret doing everything you can for your child.

[AntonReiser]

Well it seems he has some behaviours from the autism spectrum which means asperger syndrome.
To me asperger is not a disease but a way of life. So don't make it a disease.

Have you already seen the youtube videos of Temple Grandin?
Please see them.

Regards from Germany
AntonReiser