Expert: James Michael Roan - 12/28/2007

Question
hi i am wondering about my sons behavior he was 2 on 6 oct 07,over the last couple of weeks his behavior is worsened,from temper hitting all the time to head butting and pulling strange faces,he did have problems with food tolerance when he was born and was vomitting a lot,he has a lot of understanding but wont put more tahn 2 words together,can you give me advice is this normal or am i panicing as my other two children did not show any signs like these
thanks a lot
lindsey

Answer
Hi Lindsey;

My guess is his behavior is a result of an inability to express himself. Call your school district's special services department and make a speech referral. Also download the M-CHAT and scoring key. Write me back if he has any risk for autism. Generally children with autism have very low language understanding.

M-CHAT: http://www.utmem.edu/pediatrics/general/clinical/m-chat.pdf


Scoring:

http://psychlops.psy.uconn.edu/ED/downloads/M-CHATscoring.pdf

Kind regards,
James