Expert: James Michael Roan - 8/18/2006

Question
My three year old son has been showing developmental problems.  He has a speech therapist that comes to work with him once a week.  She seems to feel that he could possibly be autistic.  He constantly repeats phrases until you say them back to him.  He doesn't handle transition well.  He rocks from one foot to the other repeatedly.  However, he has been reading since he was two.  And when I say reading...I mean sounding out large words and reading phrases and books.  Yet, he will not carry on a conversation.  He only speaks one phrase or questions.  He does not have behavior problems.  He has not yet mastered potty training.  At times he acts like he doesn't hear you, while other times he's perfectly normal.  He has a fascination with tearing ANY paper into small/tiny pieces.  What is your personal opinion of his actions?  Could we please get the link for the full questionaire that you have mentioned in previous answers?  Thank you very much for your time and attention.

Answer
Hi William;

The behaviors you described would fit with OT and sensory problems only; however, I am concerned about the low social development. In autism we are primarily looking at social delays or even social aversion in some cases.

I suggest you first download the M-CHAT from here:
http://www.firstsigns.org/downloads/m-chat.PDF

Then get the scoring guide here:
http://www.firstsigns.org/downloads/m-chat_scoring.PDF

If there is any risk noted, you can contact me again to discuss the results. In any case you want to do two things:

1. If you live in the U.S. make a referral to the special education department in your home school district, and

2. Arrange an appointment with a university autism unit or an autism team at the nearest Children's Hospital for an evaluation. If need be, you can get the referral from your pediatrician using the results of the M-CHAT.

Kind Regards,
James