Expert: James Michael Roan - 8/11/2006

Question
Hi,

I have a 3 year old with autism.  He was diagnosed at 2 and looking back now that I am educated, we would have know at 12 months when he wasn't talking, pointing, or waving bye-bye.  I also have a 14 month old son.  He has a vocabulary of about 20 words, he points, and he waves bye-bye.  He doesn't say mama or dada though.  This week, he started flapping his hands periodically when he gets excited.  He is also a picky eater for which he receives speech and OT.  I am driving myself stir crazy over him.  So, my question is, can he still regress at this point even though he has progressed so far?  And, do you think this is a sign that he is starting to take a downward turn.  I don't want to go through this again especially after thinking he has been okay all this time.  Thank you for your help!

Answer
Hi Amy;

First, let me apologize for taking so long to get back to you, I have been away from my office.

Regressive autism usually occurs near the age of three, not 14 months. It sounds like your son is doing fine. I would expect him to have some charateristics such as the sensory delays and the hand flapping. Hand flapping is not exclusive to autism. I suggest you download the M-CHAT. It is a good screener for children 18 to 36 months. I know your son is only 14 months, but you can get an idea now of his risk in a reliable way and can periodically review it with your son. The M-CHAT is at  http://www.firstsigns.org/downloads/m-chat.PDF

The scoring instructions are at http://www.firstsigns.org/downloads/m-chat_scoring.PDF

Please feel free to discuss the results with me if you like.

Kind Regards,
Jim