Diagnosing ASD

Hi everyone,

I guess I’m hoping to get some opinions as to if I should be worried about my son’s development, he has just turned 18 months old today and I’m quite concerned that he has autism. Basically a bit about him:

• he can say 2 words (bye and go) both which he doesn’t always use functionally

• he stopped clapping and waving at 11 months but has recently started doing them again 6 months later (regression?)

• he doesn’t point to anything he wants but put his hand out in the direction and opens and closes his hand to kind of show what he wants?

• never responded to his name but recently he has gotten a little bit better

• he flaps his arms quite regularly throughout the day (mainly just in excitement when he’s happy about something)

• I feel he has no receptive language - he’s not understanding any directions such as “get your shoes” or “where’s your bubbles” which are things I practice with him regularly

• he used to respond when I would ask him “what does the cow say” and other animals and tell me the sounds but does not do this anymore

• he is highly fascinated by drink bottles, cans, squishy tubes and will hold on to them for hours

Overall, he is a very happy boy and loves being around people, all other milestones were on time such as walking, crawling etc, his sleep is fairly normal for his age, not fussy with food, mostly plays functionally with toys unless he’s bored, loves being outside, he babbles allllll day and makes so many sounds as if he wants to talk and many more positives. He has such a big personality and I guess I just don’t know whether these things could be considered a “delay” or autism.