Expert: James Michael Roan - 3/17/2006

Question
My son is 4 1/2 years old.  He has a speech delay and have been through all of the hearing tests to make sure that it had nothing to do with his hearing.  After that we entered speech therapy, seems to be working a bit.  I started noticing that he covers his ears to noises that seems to be loud or sensitive to him, knowing that his hearing is fine.  With this sign and him having a speech delay is it a possibility that he would be autistic?  His comprehension is wonderful, about a first grade level.  Can you help?  I do plan to talk this over with his pediatrician and speech therapist.  I just need some kind of I guess direction.

Answer
Hi Melanie;

It is rare for children with autism to have good receptive language skills.  It is true children with autism often have sensory sensitivity to certain noises at a certain pitch such as air hand dryers in public restrooms, vacuum cleaners, leaf blowers etc. Remember, many children have sensory difficulties unrelated to autism.

In autism, we are most concerned about social awareness, social development, and social interactions. For example, I would expect your son to make reasonable eye contact and hold a simple conversation/dialogue with you, to point at objects that interest him in an attempt to "share" with you. I would expect him to turn around and look at you most of the time when you walk into his room and call him by name. I would expect him to play normally with his toys rather than just spin the wheels and line them up. I would expect him to engage in pretend play.

Are these behaviors present?

Let me know when you can about his social behavior with you and peers.

Kind Regards,
Jams