take him to a speech therapist if you haven't already, your child could be just a little slow with words, the therapist a good one should be able to determine if it's just a language issue or an underlining issue to go with, not claiming to be an expert here have some issues of my own but my mom is a speech therapist for our local school system so do know a little about those things hope this helps.

I would recommend asking your pediatrician or local department of health how you can get an Early Intervention (EI) evaluation completed on your son.  In some states, this type of evaluation is done through your county of residence, with no charge to the family.  A solid EI evaluation will assess the major areas of development - cognitive, social/emotional, motor, and language.  A referral from your pediatrician should not be necessary.  If there is a delay significant enough for intervention, like speech or language therapy, then the evaluators will be able to point you in the right direction.  States and school districts typically pay for early intervention evaluations and services.  Good luck.

Hello there and thank you for writing in your question and thank you for joining friendsofquinn. It sounds like your son definitely had ADHD and maybe a late bloomer; but the one thing that I would if I were you is to get him use to playing with other kids his own age and interacting with them in way you can. Also my mother would never let me sleep with her or in my parents bed; because they will get use to that and in the long run it will hurt them become independent. The other thing that you need to show him is that he can't tell you what to do all the time, you have to show him some force of restraint. Though I have said all of this, at the same time you do this, the most important thing you can do for him is love. I was a late bloomer, and I am doing pretty well for myself because my parents believed in me and they showed me their love. 

Hi there

I would really like it if you could come back and tell us how his evaluation goes.  I know a lot about autism...my son has autism and I was also a special educator for many years.  There are a lot of myths about autism including that they never give eye contact.  This simply isn't true.  Neither is it true that they lack any imagination and so forth.  My son looked us in the eyes...had pretend play...and he was still very autistic. 

My eldest son was a late talker and did things like become very obsessed with trains and things like this but...he does not have autism. 

Several things to really look for...

1.  Is your child pointing?  Does your child show you things?  Does your child ask, "what's that?"

2.  Does your child consistently respond to his name?

3.  Does your child use your hands like tools to get what he wants...as in pulling you to the fridge to get drinks or food?

Late talking in and of itself isn't a true sign of autism.  And too...many children who have Asperger's Syndrome...a form of autism...are quite verbose. 

It will take a skilled evaluator to make the diagnosis and don't be surprised if you end up getting a generic diagnosis such as "developmental delay."

I know this is a worrisome time.  This may or may not be autism.  But you are doing the right thing by taking him to get tested.  Whatever happens you are always going to love him.

Let me know if you need more information...

Thank you for reaching out here.

Well, we are having an evaluation done for him on Friday 11/06/09 at 10:00. The state is comming to let us know if it is just a speech thing or something more serious. I am very anxious to find out what it is.... I will post more after the eval.