Expert: James Michael Roan - 8/24/2006

Question
I took that M-Chat test for my son and he doesn't score any of the questions "wrong".  THe only question that could have gone either way was "does he respond to his name?".  Sometimes he does, but most of the time he ignores it.  

However, the test didn't ask any of the things that I am concerned about, for instance, when I come home from work after being gone all day, he is not very interested in seeing me.  He is far too busy working on a toy.  His favorite objects are mechanical...  like the TV remote, cell phones, cars, etc.

He seems disinterested in real language.  He babbles all day, but only knows about 5 words (ball, up, hi, bye, dada...  maybe a few more).  

He is very energetic and smiles and laughs constantly.  Loves peek-aboo.  Points to everything.  Imitates everything we do, like if my wife is vaccumming, he pretneds to vaccum, if we're talking on the phone, he grabs an object and holds it to his ear.  However, sometimes at the park, he just stands there and stares at the other kids without playing with them.    

I'm a little confused as to what to do.  

Thanks.  

Answer
Hi Mike;

I would certainly recommend you have his receptive and expressive language tested by a speech and language pathologist. If you live in the U.S. your school district will do this for you at no cost. Just call the special education department in the school district and say you want to refer your son for a special education evaluation. List all your concerns. Make sure he has his hearing tested as well.

All children have an innate ability to observe others at play and judge their own communicative and social competence. If they feel they can't keep up then they will not enter into play. It's hard to say if he has a communication delay or a social delay. I am guessing it is a communication problem and not autism. Let me know if you can what the outcome is.

Kind Regards,
James