Expert: Trey McGowan - 2/9/2008

Question
Hi Trey,

My name is will and i am from autralia. Ous son Jai is 22 month old and my wife jeanne has always been very concerned with him from the age of 6 months, she belived he was autistic or had asperger. She always worry about everything so i did not listen to her. We still went to see pediatrician and, doctors and Clinical psychologist. I have also used this website. All the answers were the same: to this point no issues with your son.

My wife has been complaining that Jai is very hard to manage and that he was the odd on eout in play group etc.. i went to playgroup and he was fine.
Today we went to a birthday party (2 yr old). he was fine until he saw cars and trucks, he is addicted!!!  heplay s on his  own with him no lining up for now and tries to put them next to each other but not all the time, he plays with them too, although my wife reckons it is only to seee the wheel turning...
He speaks pretty well for 22 month old although he tends to repeat our words a bit lately he understands when to use them, i am french and he understands and starts to speak french... he does interacts well with evreyone (kiss cuddles, eye contact) not as good with his peers but okay. But if cars or trucks are introduced he will focus on cars for a while not forever but for a while playing. he also cries if we remove them not for long: 5-10 minutes max but he cries. He interacts a lot with us and he is very very cheeky.
My questions are as follow:
does the car/truck / tractor addiction on their own be autism or asperger?
can a kid his age experience that kind of addiction?
Could he still be at his age subject to the scary "regression"?
is it normal at his age to repeat new word like a parrot (he registers them too)?
Thanks a lot in advance, we are very worried...
will & jeanne

Answer
Hello there, Will!

I'll try and answer the questions in the order you asked them:

A) The addiction *could* be, but a single obsession or addiction to a certain topic does not autism or Asperger's make. Ask any parent about their children! You'll find that they will have their focuses, and they are focuses that may or may not change as the child gets older. It is a completely normal and natural part of growing up. It's simply when it is combined with *other* things, or when the obsession becomes all-encompassing, that it is a problem. From what it sounds like here, this is a normal childhood fixation.

B) At any age, regression is possible. Generally, it happens older than your child, actually, but it can indeed happen at the tender age of 22 months. You will know, however, if regression has occurred. It is not a small thing, but a very, very noticeable loss of language, skills, or whatever. I wouldn't worry about it until you start seeing it; small changes are bound to happen.

C) I've posted, in the past, a set of guidelines for language achievement, as given by one of the *real* experts in the field.
http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com/development/language_development.shtml
That link should show you the normal development skills. And as you can see, parroting is very much not out of the ordinary for an 18 month old, and as I've said, a child can be several months delayed without causing an uproar. So unless there are other signs that there's issues in language, I'd just assume that it's his way of picking it up. Particularly if he does understand and repeat the context later on.

Hopefully these answers helped out! As usual, questions, feedback, follow-ups, or whatever, can be passed back this way!

Trey