Expert: Valerie Herskowitz - 4/23/2009

Question
My son is 19 months old and uses very little to no speech at all, he is just now starting to say mama and dada and that is just about it. I have been doing alot of reading about Autism and I am concerned that he may be austistic. When I call his name sometimes he will ignore me until I scream his name and then he will come. When I tell him to do something he will go pick it up and bring it to me, avoiding eye contact with me. When he sees me after a long day he does run to me for me to pick him up. I have contacted ECI for an evaluation and they came out and informed me that his expressive speech was 2 months behind, but he was on mark for all other areas. I informed them about my concerns with Autism and they informed me that they did think he was Autistic, because he was totally engaged with them and was very social and made eye contact with them. My son is not around other children that much, but when he sees other children he gets really excited and laughs uncontrollably, he will interact with them and so on. Is it possible to be on the specturm even if a child is very social, I am just concerned because I see some of the markers, such as shaking his head, and some tippy toe walking every once in a while.

What do you think.....

A concerned mom

Answer
Hi Raquel

Did ECI say they thought he was autistic or not.

If you have concerns, I think you should bring him to a developmental pediatrician. He may have some developmental issues without it being full blown autism. For instance, you should be getting speech and occupational therapy regardless of the diagnosis as he is having speech delays and some toe walking (indicative of a sensory issue.) So for now, you should start speech and occupational therapy. You may want to go see the developmental pediatrician as well. Keep me posted.

Valerie Herskowitz, MA CCC-SLP
www.valerieherskowitz.com