Ev31 Months Old - Not Conversing/poor Eye Contact

Call Early Intervention. There is no reason to wait. They will do an evaluation and help you take the best path. It's free, so call Monday morning.

Sorry - I missed that you've been through EI on my first read. How long ago was that? If it was more than a few months, I'd call again.

Other ideas are to get involved in a play group so he can interact with kids is own age. Modeling of good behavior by peers is a powerful motivator for kids (which can be good or bad, so finding the right group of kids might take a few tries).

Sounds like my nephew to a T. He was just diagnosed with ADD at age 6. The recommendations are to turn off the computers/electronics except for 2 hrs on weekends, have him join activities that encourage socialization. Could you try a music class or gym class with him?

Is early start an early intervention assessment or is it just an early preschool program? If it wasn't an assessment, contact the school district to get an assessment. If something doesn't feel quite right, better to find out and save yourself worry.

Please make an appointment with your pediatrician. At this age, from what you describe, it would be wise to get started with some evaluations, and a pediatrician's referral can help defray some costs, or at least get your providers so that if you meet the deductible, you aren't spending above and beyond. I couldn't tell you what this might 'look like', but sometimes a professional opinion is better than just waiting for them to 'catch up' when they are older and having those interventions be more profound.

After your SWH:

Are you getting him services after this evaluation? I'm unclear on that. Did the evaluation include speech/language? If I were in your shoes, I would have a speech/language therapist who works with kids on the spectrum do some work with your son. People like her who are in the trenches with spectrum kids can give you good advice after working with your child for a while. Including if your child is NOT on the spectrum...

Original:
I would stop with the aps and the TV. That's REALLY the last thing he needs right now.

You need an evaluation by a team of childhood specialists. One would be speech/language. You also need a developmental pediatrician. If you have a children's hospital in your area, start with them. If your insurance directs you to have referrals, have your son's regular pediatrician get you referrals.

It might not be "abnormal" for your particular child to not respond to his name while he's "engrossed". However, you simply do NOT know if it's normal until a professional in this field has worked with him. The last thing you want to do is make assumptions that could cost him precious intervention time. Get the evaluations done.

So he's 2 1/2 years old. You say he's been to Head Start/Birth to Three? Does that mean that he's had the evaluation for special services? If they did an informal evaluation that doesn't count. You need to make a formal request in writing that they perform a formal neuro-psych evaluation. You requested ... something, I don't know what since you're being somewhat vague ... with them but you didn't get any answers. Something told you, your Mom Instinct, to get them to help you for early intervention.

If you have insurance, you need to find specialists in your network that you can be referred to by the pediatrician. I'd be curious to know what the pediatrician thinks about his social and cognitive development, and if the pediatrician thinks he has global delays. Anyway, you can request to be referred to a Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician; Pediatric Neurologist; or a Child Psychiatrist. Any are qualified to evaluate your son.

It's not too early. He's at exactly the right age. Early intervention, if he needs it, would be valuable right now. The reason I'm suggesting an independent evaluation is because if there's something that comes up with it, if there's a diagnosis or diagnoses involved, then that trumps whatever the Early Intervention people say and they must take notice. A formal diagnosis would legally entitle your son under IDEA to special services and they can not then refuse a formal evaluation (if that's what happened).

I'm guessing that you're suspecting that your son may fall somewhere on the Autism Spectrum based on the signs you shared but it could easily be something else or it could just be that he really is developing at his own pace (and maybe needs a little help and nothing else). I would make a list in a journal about how he's been regarding each of his milestones through babyhood to now.

Check this link out and see if any of this sounds like your son. My 11 year old daughter has ASD, and hits a majority of the traits but misses the boat on some. Some of the traits she has are minor, some major, some are occasional, some infrequent, some rare, some moderate.

http://www.autism-society.org/about-autism/diagnosis/dsm-...

Call your school district and request an evaluation. Up until three, it is free. After that you are on your own. District will get the ball rolling.

I see that he's already done the birth to three thing... so I'll say this: My son is like that- totally engrossed and won't immediately respond to his name. He's not great with eye contact ... but for what its worgh neither am I.. I hate it. Is he around other kids alot? I know mine is a little behind because we don't get around too many kids. But that's how they get the conversing skills.. lots and lits of practice.. but if those are the only main issues he sounds okay to me. My sister has low functioning autism so I'm worried alot too.

If he's formally diagnosed many public schools have an early start program where kids with any sort of disabilities can start their formal education as soon as they turn 3 years old.

What this does for you is it gets all the resources the public school has and it takes that burden off you both financially and stressfully.

They have school psychologists that can observe him in the classroom, work with him to evaluate his progress, and they will be on the team to bring their ideas about further evals that could specify the issues more.

He'll also be around other kids who are working on similar issues. He won't feel set apart by having speech therapy or other types of therapy going on too.

Being speech delayed could be something he simply is behind in and will catch up one day. Our guy was behind at 21 months but started talking in complete sentences just a few weeks later.