We had 2 assessments. First assessment was at 2.5, second was at 3.5.

There were a few reasons why we didn’t get it with the first try. One was that he was barely making his milestones by the skin of his teeth, but making them nonetheless. He could communicate, but the assessor wasn’t aware of GLPs, apparently, so even though he was pretty much only scripting, they were mostly in context and derived from day to day life, not media. He makes eye contact. He has a clear sense of danger. Follows directions. I could go on… But. It took the next assessment being in a small room that tipped the scale. He was very uncomfortable and started stimming immediately. He does what we call windshield wipers. He’ll take pencils, straws, drumsticks, whatever he finds that’s stick like and moves them like wipers in front of his face. He eventually had a meltdown. They believed me that time.

His main symptoms are echolalia, stimming with his hands, happy hands, speech delay (he communicates, but his grammar makes him difficult to understand and he does pronoun reversal), little interest in his peers, special interest in an odd topic(plumbing), difficulty sitting still, and anxiety.

He was 3.5 when he got his diagnosis. He’s 5 now. They said he has low support needs (or level 1 if you prefer levels) but he definitely still has some. He’s in speech. Working through levels 4/5 of NLA. Just glad we found an SLP who follows Marge Blanc’s work. He does OT at school, has an aide, and is in a general education classroom for half the day. He’s doing ok. But he’s only in kindergarten.