Expert: James Michael Roan - 8/17/2007

Question
Hello,
I am not sure if I have asked you before about my son but he just turned 2 and has a speech delay. My husband also had a speech delay so I got him into early intervention at 18 months. He talks alot of jargon, nothing makes sense. He does have some words but not alot, maybe 20 consistently. He mimics alot of stuff also. The early intervetion people went to his daycare and said they were concerned because he would rather play by himself or the latch on the gate. The things that concern me are:
1. He used to be obsessed with wheels from a young age, like 10 months, he would just spin them and watch, not it has moved onto buckles, he wants to click and unclick them and he wants you to help him and if you don't, he gets very frustrated. He will go on doing this for hours if I let him.
2. He isn't very interested in the kids at daycare, he will say bye bye and play sometimes but I thought most 2 year olds do parallel play?
But he is social, at the park if he sees kids his age, he will run after them and say "hi baby" and wave.
He makes eye contact, smiles, laughs, but he doesn't have alot of pretend play skills. They are going to do the M-CHAT on Monday but I am just wondering what you think? Thank you.

Answer
Hi Jasmine;

It does sound like your son has some features of mild autism. The parallel play can result from a speech delay. I really need to know more information along the lines of the M-CHAT in order to give you a reasonable opinion.

You can download it from my website at:

www.autismspectrumdisorderfoundation.org

Kind regards,
James