Is my son autistic ???

[Guest guest]

I am the mom of a 3 1/2 year old little boy . We have been back and

forth with him since August of last year when we finally decided it

was time to figure out what was going on . My son has been to Early

Steps , Seen by Dr Resnick ( Neurologist ) and evaluated by the

public school system . Dr Resnick asked him a few questions (5 min

consultation) and told me he was NOT autistic but prescribed OT and

speech . His Occupational Therapist evaluated him and found him to

have Sensory issues ( hypersensitive) , weak muscle tone and delayed

fine and gross motor skills . The Speech Therapist found him to be 1

year delayed in expressive and receptive language and now feels that

his biggest problem is pragmatics . His speech therapist recently sat

me down and asked me if I have ever had him evaluated for autism .

After beating around the bush for a while she told me she feels he

would be on the spectrum . I have felt since he was about 2 months

old that something was wrong . I always felt like he and I were not

bonding when he was a baby and I constantly felt guilty and wanted to

know what I was doing wrong . He cried A LOT . He was a late crawler

and walker ( walked at 16 months ). As he got older he became more

affectionate and is very affectionate ( to us ) now . At 2 1/2 we

placed him in daycare and that's where he started really isolating

himself . At this point he was echolalic, echoing was probably the

only speech he had , yet we potty trained him easily . He developed

eczema and many respiratory issues we contributed to allergies . He

was tested for allergies and was negative to everything but continues

with the allergies. He was very repetative , had difficulty making

eye contact and was having meltdowns . He also had repetative

behaviors like opening and closing doors , pushing buttons and

switching lights on and off . He never played with the other children

and was not even ever around them . I would watch him through a hole

in the fence at his school and he was always alone playing with

leaves in a corner . I eventually pulled him out of school and he got

better . His language increased and many of his repetative behaviors

became better . Now almost 1 year later he has a lot of words in his

vocabulary but no social reciprocity , inverts pronouns etc. He can

ride a tricycle and a little bike with training wheels . He can jump

with both legs and sometimes even plays pretend . He still has some

repetative behavior and lacks social skills with kids his age but is

very chatty with adults ( even though most people dont understand

him) . Recently he actually approached a little boy that said hello

to him by grabbing his arm very hard ( which he does to everyone) and

got in his face and yelled " what are you doing in the car!!! " the

boy got scared and walked away .He was not being aggresive he was

just being himself , he does not understand personal space and his

tone of voice changes when he gets nervous or excited. This was a

long one and I am sorry but can anyone tell me what they think .