possible autism in my daughter

hey everyone, bit of a lengthy post coming. my daughter has been showing a lot of behaviours linked to autism so we had the health visitor out last week who said that these behaviours are something she picked up on when she visited 8 months ago and she thought she may have grown out of. she has sent a referral through for a diagnosis. i’m not worried about her having autism at all! i’m actually relieved because i’ve thought for a long time that i parented wrong and she was so different, it’s nice to know that this isn’t down to me and my partner as parents. the thing i’m struggling most is with her speech, she says a handful of words and will sometimes say a word that sounds like something but will not show interest in saying it again. we called for speech and language therapy but they palmed us off with a document on things to do for speech therapy and to call back in a few months if nothing has changed. i’m gutted because i feel like she is missing out on saying words and me and my partner are missing out on this special milestone also. i know some may think (speech comes on its own) but it is definitely something we have been trying for months and she is not interested in learning to speak, she just wants to do her puzzles or run around. i guess the point of the post is to see if anyone else is going through a situation similar? am i right to feel upset that the speech and language therapy can’t help us yet?

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Kind of like when people learn the alphabet (lmnop) is jiberish before we know it properly.

My son is awaiting his asd assessment. He's 2.5 he dose similar things as listed above. The nhs speech therapy sessions are a set of 3. 45 mins long which mainly seemed like assessment and giving me pointers of how to help encourage speech. I get my son to watch Yakka Dee on BBC and every we do around the house is in songs so its interesting and when he learns new word it's instantly in a phrase better he can say in on its own. He doesn't build his own sentence, but he can tell me what he wants through phrases. He's a gestalt language processing

Also I attend a additional needs group run by hv’s in my area, not sure where you based but ours is called sparkles definitely worth asking if you have one she has improved a lot on basic stuff like approaching a child although it’s rare and she won’t ever play with them it’s little steps. I’m waiting for her to have a space in nursery still there is one in my area with asd children there aswell as not on the spectrum as a lot of the mums at this group said speech started from nursery slowly and interacting although I was against it as she’s in her own world and it’s a worry people not knowing how she is and what she wants etc but I’m going to see how she gets on! Xx

That’s good! My daughter is behind a lot on most things, yeah it’s annoying people need to remember your the parent you know your child I had that aswell! Oh really I’m still waiting for them to contact me but that’s going to be no help as I try that now and have miss Rachel on repeat🤣 we have dada she can say mum but it’s very rare and sounds like she says baby but same as your little one it’s just sounds! It’s heartbreaking tho not being able to hear them speak yet compared to others but I’d definitely say educate yourself as the spectrum is such a massive one and not every child is the same, I’m currently doing a college course from home and I thought I knew about it but since doing this course it amazes me how wide it is and connected as such, as I personally haven’t had any educate wise with hv’s or professionals xx

@🤲🏽❤️ X thank you so so much!! yeah we’ve picked up on signs from before she was 1. she’s being very forward with everything apart from her speech so a lot of family shut me down about my concerns but i’m glad me, my partner and immediate family reassured eachother. yeah speech and therapy just told us to encourage small words and see how it goes, but we do it all the time. she says a handful of words such as go, dadadada and sometimes ‘apple’ apart from that we have screams and babbles, still no ‘mummy’ or anything to do with which breaks my heart😂xx

@Jenny hey! where do i start on behaviours… she does the tiptoe walking, heel walking also, lack of speech and understanding and not responding to her name. she also does a lot of the hand flapping and hates going out of routine… so so so much more but won’t bore you haha. it is frustrating when they tell you ‘watch and wait’ like you don’t know your own child!! luckily our HV is an absolute gem and made me feel so comfortable talking about it instead of shutting me down. i am thinking about going private for speech and therapy, they emailed my partner a document of how we can encourage speech but it’s very standard and nothing to do with our daughter possibly being on the spectrum. i would like them to just see her and see the concerns but it feels like it’s going to be a long process. :( thank you for letting me know i’m not alone! 🤍

Currently been referred to jades, ( stands for journey to autism diagnosis service ) waiting on speech and therapy but been told won’t be face to face until she’s 3. I’ve known since she was around 6 months but as she’s got older it’s more obvious! We still don’t speak and are always trying and haven’t got anywhere, what I will say is keep on to them and pestering them because they never take you serious! Always open to message if u want to speak about anything x

Hey, we are in a similar situation in that my sons preschool flagged some concerns around 18 months about his lack of response to his name, tiptoe walking, obsession with water and lack of speech and understanding. What behaviours are showing in your daughter? We are yet to see our HV for his two year check but have spoken recently to them on the phone and they have advised to “watch and wait”. We have gone against this a little and gone private for a speech therapist a couple of months ago and his understanding has improved so much and he also now has a handful of words that he uses in context. Still way behind where he should be but every day there is progress. Why did speech therapy palm you off? I have to say most of the speech therapy involved the therapist watching my son and I interact and then just gave me tips and homework to do.