Autism Support Community

my son started showing signs around 2. he flaps his hands and has trouble making eye contact. it takes a specialist to diagnose autism. he developed normally until one day he refused to talk in front of anyone. sometimes i would find him hiding somewhere reading books outloud to himself, but in whispers so no one would hear him. the best thing i did for him was show him i loved him every day and speech/language therapy. he is currently 8 and in public school. there is a huge support with teachers, therepists, drs and family members. all of it has made a tremendous difference in his learning and ability to deal with social situations.

My son did not respond to his name and flapped his hands particularly when excited. He would get very distressed by baby toys with lights and music and scream when we went into shops etc. His language was delayed, no words until 2years and it was very difficult to gain his attention.He reacted strongly to washing, hair washing,brushing etc and loud noised such as hoovers, hair driers,also the phone etc.He would only cuddle on his terms.He did not look if you pointed to something.He liked spinning things also, saucepan lids,wheels etc and would lay all his toys out on a raised surface without playing apart from repetedly opening and closing the doors on toy cars etc.He would just wonder if we took him out.He would spin things up close to his eyes and watch tv from an inch from the screen.
He was also delayed in his motor skills and had poor balance.
When he was very young I used to think he was delayed in his development and hypersensitive, maybe adhd as he had such a short attention span.
There were lots of signs that pointed to autism and certain things became more prominant the older he got. But it wasn't obvious to other people unless they knew him or studied his behaviour. I was unsure right up until his diagnosis at 3.
I know to get a diagnosis they need to meet a certain criteria.
Have you done the mchat online assessment as it will tell you if your son is at risk from autism and also give you something to present to the doctor. all the best

Your paed has infuriated me. That is not a conclusive way to test autism! If your son was high-functioning, he may do just that. Please see a different paed. If you are still concerned (i know it was such a long time ago now) seek a full autistic assessment. Here's my story

My daughter avoided eye contact until nearly two. I worked hard at training her out of it otherwise i don't think she would be doing it now. She was also uncomfortable with touch and again, i worked on it so now she is happy getting cuddles but doesn't like to be touched from strangers. She spoke less than 10 words at 2yo. After speech therapy, he vocabulary improved greatly. My daughter enjoys social situations and interacts with other kids...for the most part. She will eventually get upset and hide away or do repeditive play.She is high-funcitoning autistic, as am i. There are so many things my daughter does that 'is not typical of a child with autism'. But that is what has put her into the "high-functioning" range. she is still autistic. Not everyone with autism is the same and not everyone is equally as severe as the next. If someone threw a pen in a room, my daughter would pick it up, and hand it to someone in the hopes of them throwing it again. She may or may not give eye contact (she may prefer to focus on the pen or their hand) depending on whether she wasn't sure if she had to say something to get them to throw it. If that makes sense - something learnt in speech therapy.
She uses my hand as a tool when playing games. She spins in circles and walking on her tiptoes. She gets upset easily and is hard to settle (how do you settle someone who may not want to be touched).
I would love to hear how your son is going and what's happened since you posted.
All the best