I have a boy (4yrs 8months) who is currently being assessed for autism. I had his report from the speech therapist back and here are the findings:
Child indicated he has the ability to communicate with adults demonstrating a number of strengths.
He was not seen to be communicating with his peers
Due to Childs strengths communicating with adults, it is not felt at this time that he is presenting with a social communication disorder.
child and parents invited to attend social communication training session, where advice and strategies will be provided to support child's communication with his peers.
restrictive and repetitive patterns of behaviour:
child played with a range of toys and observed using imagination in independent play (earlier in the report it says he played alongside his peers, showing an interest in what they were doing and copying their play once his peers had moved on to another activity)
he appeared to cope with an unexpected change of room for a lesson with no difficulties.
when he was 4yrs 3months he saw a behavioural specialist who noted some sensory issues but this was not observed by the speech therapist. The behavioural specialist and teachers noted that at that time he seemed to play with the same toys in the same way each time.
His first teacher has left and has been replaced by one who seems to see less problems with his behaviour, though I think she might not be noticing things that are indeed happening as I was told he was socialising well and the speech therapist observed absolutely no interaction with peers, even when they initiated conversation with him.
It would be nice to hear other people's opinions on whether they think he has high functioning autism, another possible diagnosis, or is simply a bit quirky. I'm feeling quite anxious about the whole thing and it would be nice to hear other people's advice and opinion for what is coming - diagnosis or just quirky.
Thanks for reading my super long post!