Is he is speech therapy with a licensed SLP? I know you said 'Early Childhood Speech program -- but the quality of those programs can vary widely, and an ineffective program or one that's geared toward a problem your son doesn't have won't do much (if any) good! My younger son had a great deal of difficulty with speech, but luckily for us, a good friend put me in touch with our city's best resource -- so my son's speech problem was diagnosed quickly and correctly (childhood apraxia of speech) and we began appropriate treatment right away. Within a few weeks, it was very clear that the treatment he was receiving was effective, and we began to see good results. But then we moved, and he was enrolled in our local school's Early Childhood Speech Program. It took me several months to ferret out that their "treatment program" was what is called a "language enrichment" model -- In a nutshell, they assumed that the child had been language-deprived at home, and that all he needed was lots of exposure to good language models, a little encouragement, and time to develop. WRONG! It took 3 meetings, finally bringing in the district's head SLP to get the school to provide appropriate treatment -- at which point, positive progress resumed. Ninos - I've seen your writing, and it's clear you're able to provide your son with good speech and language models, so just being around more good speech won't cure your son's speech problem. If the other kids his age are teasing him because of his speech, your son needs speech therapy. If it's just a few sounds that are problematic and he's speaking in complete sentences, then it's probably not as serious a problem as my son's, and just a few months of good therapy should be able to really help. I'm linking to a site called Apraxia-Kids.org. I'm not suggesting your son has Apraxia (unlikely) -- just that this site has the most incredible resources for early childhood speech problems. Here is a link that might be useful: Apraxia-Kids

You know -- There are so many stories, and so many different outcomes because our children are all so different. In other words, my son's outcome and progress would tell your NOTHING about yours. I know you want to see into the future -- but I'm sorry -- you just can't. But there are some common threads that we see in varying degrees in different children: - Some children have genetic differences or syndromes that are probably at the root of their autism issues. (Mine probably does, but we haven't found it yet.) For these kids, they can improve, but they will never be 'cured' by anyone's definition. - Other children appear to have been damaged by certain toxic exposures -- possibly vaccinations, heavy metals, PCBs, pesticides, food intolerances, unknown other substances. Some of these kids have made remarkable improvements (or even recoveries) once the underlying problem agent was removed. These kids often have severe digestive or skin issues that can provide valuable medical clues. - Other kids seem to have been influenced by their early surroundings - Eastern Orphanages and such. They can also make big gains, but generally still have traces of 'stand-offishness' and interpersonal difficulties well into adulthood. To me, these are the saddest cases, because it just didn't have to happen. - Many others just seem to have been born that way, and we never have any idea why. I think that may be the hardest group because the parental guilt just has no escape valve. - Most autistic kids have speech and language impairments of some sort. Some will repeat long scripts verbatim. Many repeat key phrases over and over. Some develop huge vocabularies ('little professor syndrome') and others never get more than a few words. I'd say most high-functioning kids have 'functional but odd' speech by the time they're 8 or 9, and continue to sound different somehow throughout their lives. For many, the main difference is in prosody, the musical rythem of speech. - Statistics say that about 75% autistic children have IQs in the mentally retarded range, but I personally, don't believe that's true. I do believe they TEST in the MR range because the test protocols are so far out of sync with the way their minds work. But I've seen such a lively intelligence in many of these kids. And I've seen too many kids who tested in a MR range at age 4, but in an 'average' or even 'superior' range by age 10. (My own son doesn't test as MR, but I'm pretty sure he has a significant cognitive impairment.) - Most autistic kids do not have many other 'typical' children for friends past age 7 or 8 or so. It's sad, but true. Our kids are just too different and 'don't play well with others' because social interractions are just too complex to teach. But my son has many adult friends, and I'm hoping that when he's an adult, he will still have adult friends. He's also friends with other 'special' kids. But even those friendships are a lot of work relative to the rewards he gets. - In school, most autistic kids are in special ed. Some for academic reasons, some for emotional and social. Mine is and clearly has to be. He works one on one with the special ed teacher for reading, writing and math and is mainstreamed for the rest. We put him in private special school for age 3 to grade 4, then enrolled him in public school, repeating grade 4. The good news is that our son is extremely social, very affectionate, and about as happy as any child you've ever seen. He knows that 'technically' he's different, but also that 'Everybody's Different!' and that he is wonderful and very much loved. Try not to worry too much -- Just keep watching and 'therapizing' and loving your son. If he IS on the autism spectrum, it will be revealed to you as it becomes evident in his behavior. If he isn't, the therapy will only help him. He will continue to grow and develop and improve, and the best you can do is provide him the therapy and loving support to help him develop to his own best potential, whatever that turns out to be.

thank you for your thoughts. my son does have some health problems. he was born full term but was born jaundice which was not the same as typical newborn jaundice which occurs several days after birth. his hemotologist said that his bilirubin was not severe enough to cause cerebal palsy but he may have been more sensitive to it which could have caused some brain damage. the jaundice was caused by the fact that he has hemolytic anemia. so his hemoglobin is always low (normal is 12-15, for his first year of life he was around 7-8, sometimes lower) he required blood transfusions at 3 weeks and 5 weeks. but he is really doing the best he can possibly can be doing. his hemoglobin went up after his first birthday and is now 9.6. as with most people suffering from anemia he sometimes can be sluggish especially when he is sick. but he has been healthy lately and numbers have been good so he is much more active. i am just really concerned about him gaining and loosing skills. his pt was the one who suggested going to the developmental pediatrician. hopefully they will get back to me soon with an appointment. the guy is so busy that he has a team that you talk to first and they decide if the child gets an appointment. also early intervention is giving me a hard time about evaluating him for speech. i might have to wait until august to get him evaluated at his comittee meeting. so i guess we will see. if they still give me a problem i can probably go through my insurance.

I have read this whole thread as my son is also having similar problems. He didn't crawl till after 1, he didn't walk till later, he always made gibberish sounds with little words. He didn't start putting words in sentences till he was almost 4 and its still only a few words. He has a small attention span unless its something hes really interested in. To get him to cease doing an activity usually results in him getting very upset over it and us having difficulty calming him down. He can get rather loud and hysterical. He will keep doing behaviours he has been told specifically not to. Of a morning before we are up he will just screech & make bird noises out the window, he makes beeping noises like his grandfathers van that backs out and throws things & just general bad behaviour until we get up. If you ask him a question he will just repeat a couple words back of the question at times, if its one he knows hell answer. He had trouble making choices he will decide one and then when given that he will want the other and get upset over not getting it. He will say hello to people, look at them and us and smile and laughs, sometimes he just gets the giggles. I don't know how to toilet train him, he goes to school next year and he just doesn't know when he needs to go, he will pee if put on the toilet but that's it, there's no regularity to when he goes. He loves to sing & do action songs like clapping etc, loves TV, he knows and recognises both numbers and the alphabet, knows shapes, colours, knows his name and can spell it as well as his Nan's and pops and dads. He cannot write it, doesn't take an interest in drawing can draw a circle and a line and the letter L but that's about it. He has been attending daycare since before he was 1 as he is an only child and we have no friends with children and don't go out a lot. They referred us to a speech, physio and OT therapist who he has seen a few times a year. He is progressing but very slowly, he is way behind other children. They also put him into an early intervention group to try and get him ready for school, he loved the activities, he loves being around other kids he just doesn't interact with them. They find him strange. He has now been referred to a team to see if he is on the spectrum, they have done a part evaluation of him and are referring him to a developmental psychologist in January before deciding their diagnosis. He also has trouble with toe walking and W sitting. He refused to feed himself off and on for awhile until i took to counting to 5 and if he hadnt taken a mouthfull I put him straight to bed without finishing, he now eats his food thank godness for now especially if mummy starts counting. This is all new to me, I am a first time mum, I was an only child and also used to toe walk so did my mother. I have little experience in knowing what's normal for kids at what age so this has been tough. Its been tough realising that a lot of parents are having conversations with their kids by now and telling them things and are able to teach them things about the world etc and I have never had that communication with my son. Yes I am afraid of what putting a label on my son will do but I don't feel qualified to help him alone. I am worried about his future and am hoping he will continue to develop. He is a happy little boy mostly he loves to smile and laugh and sing. He loves cars and trains and anything electronic, going out anywhere is a great time for him. He has no problem with strangers or new environments, he loves to explore and learn how things work. Just don't leave him with a book or a picture as he will rip it up in tiny pieces even though he's been told repetitively not to. When he was younger he used to like opening and closing doors.