Dyspraxia? ASD?

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I am new here and I am still in the phase of knowing there is something "off" with my son who is 31 months but not knowing exactly what it is. I've read several books that I thought would help with his speech development such as "Teach Me To Talk", "Engaging Autism" and "The Verbal Behavior Approach", and as I am reading these books it makes me feel like my son does NOT have autism. I say that because my son is not hard to engage, he never has been, I never had to teach him to want to play with me, he's never in
"his own worlds". In fact, he wants me around too much, which I guess can be a sign of ASD. He never had issues with responding to his name, pointing, gestures (he started waving goodbye at about 26 months still doesn't say hi but he really hasn't been introduced to this). He's always been able to nod his head yes or no appropriately and reach out his hands to be picked up. He enjoys the company of others and will go up to kids at times but doesn't say anything (much) (today he grabbed a kids hand to come play with him on the playground) but at other times can seem scared of kids but still wants to play ( if that makes sense) I've mentioned before that he didn't start talking until 26 months and is up to 2-3 (3 words occasionally) words sentences but still lacks a large vocabulary and others say it is hard to understand him but I understand him perfectly. He makes great eye contact with family and his ST, doctor and others I've mentioned ASD to have said that it can't be because he makes great eye contact. I haven't noticed any severe sensory issues, no repetitive physical movements, no obsessions. So these are his strengths. His weaknesses are: he is very shy around others, most of time he will turn his head (sometimes he smiles and looks back at the person, flirty behavior??). His imaginative play is minimal and copied. He will play but it is always something I taught him. However, sometimes he comes up with his own stuff (very rarely) like he is a cat or dog or will do something different with a toy. His play is sooooo repetitious! He was late to talk and still is very limited. He talks all day but usually it is to describe something, He likes to tell me about it but its things like "blue car" (as he points), or "Anakin shirt red". He also says stuff like "Mama sit down", "Want lollipop" but still nothing too complex or made up. He doesn't use pronouns and doesn't talk in sentences. He is starting to echo (maybe appropriate??) what is said but will still answer questions and does not repeat questions or scripts or anything like that. He copies physical things and will often copy what other children do and facial expressions, he will even copy the movements or faces of our pets ). He NEVER crawled and bum shuffled at about 7-8 months and walked at 13 months. He can crawl now. So those are his weaknesses. After doing some research online I came across Dyspraxia, and to me, he sounds more Dyspraxic. But of course it is not that easy because apparently Autism and Dyspraxia can be co-morbid. Does anyone have information of Dyspraxia? Apparently it causes problems with language development and imagination which are his biggest weaknesses. Does his profile fit any of your kiddos with Dyspraxia?

Everything except the part about copying other children reminds me of my son at 31 months. He was tested and found not to be on the spectrum at that age, and retested and diagnosed with Aspergers (if tested today the label would be mild ASD instead) at age 5.

Someone that I know who had an older son with Aspergers and a younger son with dyspraxia said it was very clear that the younger child was fully engaged socially, even though he couldn't talk. That's just one antedote, though.

I had only heard the term dyspraxia to mean a synonym of Developmental Coordination Disorder, which is generalized coordination problems, sometimes accompanied by muscle tone problems. My oldest has that diagnosis. He had very severe fine motor delays at that age (no pincer grasp, a 9 month skill, until after he had turned 3). He is clumsy and extremely awkward looking when he runs. He's had to be taught pretty much all his physical skills. Like he was totally incapable of watching someone kick a ball and then him a kick a ball. Someone had to manipulate his body through the motions, over and over and then fade to verbal prompts and then fade those out. Hand writing is still an issue. The goal with that now is to get it good enough to be able to fill in forms and sign his name.

I've heard the term Apraxia of Speech, used to mean a pretty severe coordination problem with all the systems used in speaking. Could you give a link to one of the comparison pages you've seen?

I seriously looked at several but here are two:;

http://voices.yahoo.com/what-symptoms-d ... html?cat=5
http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/r ... rders.aspx

What I found interesting is that Dyspraxia can cause delays in speech development (which he has) and imaginative play (he also has).

If he has autism, I would presume that it is high functioning, but not sure if it would be aspersers because he is late to talk and he is definitely not articulate and does not have a large vocabulary, however, he is only two and half years old.

I really appreciate any feedback. I love this site. I love that you all are very active in the development of your children!! No one seems to take me seriously! Not even my husband. He is military so we had Tricare insurance which required a referral to a specialist. I brought my son three times in the last 6 months trying to say, "Hey, something isn't right' and NO ONE believes me:( I just want some guideance. I have since changed, in the last month, to Standard Tricare, that way I don't need a referral but still Developmental Pediatricians in my area have at least a 6 month waiting list. I haven't tried but if it is Dyspraxia maybe OT would help?? He does seem to be clumsy but isn't every 2 year old?! He does have issues with gross/fine motor skills but doesn't seem too far behind (yet). I'm just trying to get some insight and the professionals are NO help thus far!!

I have observed from being on this site a while that professionals do not seem very good at properly diagnosing children who are very young and who are not textbook cases of a diagnosis, That and honestly despite all the emphasis on early intervention they are not apt to label a very young child unless there is a dramatic issue. There seems to be a lot of false negatives and misdiagnosis at the youngest ages, especially. I say this b/c it is really easy to get caught up in the label. When my son was diagnosed, I was sure he was AS (aspergers) and not HFA (High Functioning Autism) . It bothered me even though I knew that the AS diagnosis was set to disappear. It did not matter, and it sure does not matter now. But it bothered me then.

I say this only to say that right now the overall diagnosis is not as important as honing in on what delays there are and addressing them. So, when you see the specialist, I would mainly focus on emphasizing those specific things that concern you unless you need a more global diagnosis to get your insurance to pay for those specific things. For example if your insurance will pay for speech based on a speech delay (and anything else you think your child needs) without a global AU diagnosis, then it doesn't matter if you don't get the global diagnosis at this point. I don't know a whole lot about dyspraxia, as a diagnosis, so I won't speak to that; but with autism it is not uncommon for kids who appear social at a young age to not show up on professional's radar. The differences become apparent when they are able to be assessed on social skills that are lacking as opposed to just inclination.

So continue to read and research and figure out what you need, and go from there, is my advice.

my son made beautiful eye contact, was extremely socially interactive, had some words, had gestures, LOVED to play with toys, he copied me and imitated household activities. he pretended to vacuum, sweep, clean the house, talk on the phone, feed baby doll, etc...

I ALWAYS knew something was off with him. The above list were his strengths, he had issues.

It took me many years to get him a diagnosis. He was almost 6 and I probably could have gone many more years if I weren't so insistent to taking him places to get evals until someone understood.

the reading you have done is mostly on more classic autism and in that case your son wouldn't qualify. Our higher functioning kids usually can go under the radar for many years!

I'm guessing you are in the US, since you said Tricare. Have you tried asking early intervention to evaluate? And, he is almost old enough it would be the school district, but the early intervention people could direct you. If you aren't sure how to reach them, call the county health department. Because you will get more, and it would be free, through that route than through insurance.

Agree that the specific diagnosis it not as important as addressing the specific concerns that exist. It's my impression that getting services is helped once the child is in the hands of the committee for preschool special education by child being in a group setting where teachers are worried or by having a diagnosis from a physician or psychologist. So, if you are in the US, I would call early intervention (0-3 years of age) now. They or the district will evaluate just based on your asking. And give you some concrete numbers about where his speech and language development is relative to other children his age. Even if they don't find your child low enough to justify services (in their minds) if there are delays that worry you, you hand the pediatrician the written evaluation and let him or her decide whether to worry. Much more likely to give you a speech therapy referral with low scores that aren't low enough for the county or the school to pay looking at that written evaluation if there are any delays documented. And I believe they seal the record of both upon entering school, unless you choose to say it should be made available. Not sure how reliable that is, but if you are moving a lot, this could easily just disappear with no record available if you want it to as your son, hopefully, makes progress.

If you are not in the US I don't know what the procedure would be, what exists, perhaps someone else can help?

verbal dyspraxia and apraxia of speech is the same thing. I was diagnosed with dyspraxia. then apraxia of speech and limb apraxia. then it was found out that is the same diagnosis.

Our pediatrician referred us for 8 hours of testing with a neuropsychologist through Tricare. She did a full battery of tests and evaluations and it was covered 100% with Prime. Now, we are having to work the system to get our son the help he needs with Tricare, although they are better at covering the long-term needs and goals over the initial testing and diagnosis. My oldest is now almost 8, and like others have said, he presents pretty normal, but there are some things that are quirky. I had a difficult time getting his pediatrician or even teachers to see the need for help. His current teacher is fantastic, and after many hours battling Tricare, I know how it feels. Best of luck!