ASD?

martacaroline

When he was 23 months old in April, I had my son evaluated for a speech delay (EI in NYC) and was definitely taken aback when his evaluator recommended he be seen by a psychologist for possible ASD. A week later, the psychologist diagnosed him with ASD, stating that his lack of ANY words, not following one-step directions, not always responding to his name, picky eating, and preference to play alone when he was evaluating him that day all added up to ASD. My son then started ABA, speech and OT on May 19th. Fast forward to today, just over two months later, my son's initial evaluator, whom we liked very much and ultimately chose as his ABA therapist, said to us that perhaps "his diagnosis isn't on target, but it's great that he's getting all these services for his delays". I didn't prod for more information, as I don't ever want to seem like a mom who cares so much about her son's label, but it took me by surprise that the same person who recommended we have him see a psychologist is now saying he may not have been correctly diagnosed.

As of today, after two months of therapy, my son's strengths are that he has about 30 words, can count to 10, can say and identity all of the letters of the alphabet, has great eye contact and joint attention, says a handful of phrases like "oh no," "there it is!," "Which one?". He is affectionate, greets visitors at the door and walks them and waves and says bye bye when they leave, getting upset when we he sees something sad- like say we are watching Frozen and Anna is hit by the icy power- he'll cover his face and say "oh no!"

His major delays are language-- speaking, understanding things you tell him and following directions he is not familiar with. 

What do you think? Could my son just have a severe language delay or do language delays of this nature typically always mean "ASD"?

oandmplus1

I am not an expert by any means, just a mom with a kid who got a diagnosis of ASD around that same age as well.

Did they do any formal testing? Our psychologist used the ADOS for diagnosis and had a full report for us to explain the reasoning. From what I know, the things you initially listed can definitely be red flags for ASD, but the lack or words and following directions could also be just a language delay. Picky eating is typical in toddlers, so I guess that one could go either way depending on how he is picky. Preference for playing alone at that age seems not completely out of whack depending on how often and how he interacts with his peers.

Just based on the things you listed, it seems like they would need more for a diagnosis of ASD, but again I am no expert.