Language development: mistaking words, speaking at 2.5 years

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I've made an appointment with my psychiatrist regarding AS and I asked my family members about language development, as it's an important factor to consider when evaluating a diagnosis.

Surprisingly, they told me that I started speaking quite late (not sure if it is considered late or not). They don't remember exactly when I started speaking, but I didn't say any words properly or messed up everything. For example, if i'd like to say "go here" i'd say "there" or if I had to say "dog" I'd say "bod" or something which doesn't sound completely like the correct word. I would always use the same word, i.e I'd always say "bod" instead of "dog". This applied to absolutely all words and I started speaking individual words around the age of 2. I remember being kind-of forced to talk. Then, I didn't speak a word until my grandma took me to pediatricians, who said that everything is all right but suggested me doing some sort of physical activity. There were groups for clumsy and late-developed childern like me; when I learned to walk I was extremely clumsy and walked badly, as my family describes. (also off-topic but I rarely cried at home-only when something unusual happened etc-, I started crying when I was with other children or away from home and would then cry or scream constantly), and I couldn't be in those groups since I started crying. Then my grandma took individual lessons for me, and I was extremely afraid of those aerobic balls.. Anyway it was extremely difficult to get me doing these things, but they said that afterwards, when I was about 2.5 years old, I spoke more often and started speaking in very long, full sentences; at 3 I was reading independently and would read a lot. I didn't speak then with other children and would always carry my favourite book in preschool. It was a complete nightmare, I'd behave badly there, I was crying, I had meltdowns and panic attacks and my mum had to take me away often. I was happy when I could be alone in our flat and I could play in my room with legos and puzzles or read another book.

Is it normal for AS or is it something else? Because I fit for all charecteristics of AS otherwise.

It's definitely normal for autism spectrum. It'd be more what I associate with classic autism than with AS, but really that doesn't matter all that much since they are functionally identical in adulthood anyway. The late-developing speech and idiosyncratic speech are both classic-autism traits. Now that you're grown, it probably doesn't matter which it was, since it'd be handled the same either way.

I was speaking in full sentences by 16 months - and this is why I was 34 before I achieved a diagnosis. They are currently planning on removing language delay from the DSM criteria in the next version because some do and some don't.