Edward's medical notes

                            1) Moderate Autism Spectrum Disorder
                            2) Developmental delays

The points about Edward seem to be at 23 months:
"only recently started to point"
"has said some words he typically does not use words to communicate"
"Edward does not respond to his name or any verbal instructions"
"Hearing test is underway" - (which came back as no problems)
"He seems to respond to sounds"
"Edward is in his own world"
"He cuddles on his terms"
"Eye contact is poor"
"He has occasionally pinched his mother for no reason and shown no remorse."
"He has little interest in other children" (talking about our experience at ygym)
"He has no interest in a foster child in the home" (He was noticing Edward's complete ambivalence to our Foster baby who was a year younger trying to get Edward's attention)
"Suzanne has been teaching him signs however he simply copies these" (he means NZSL alphabet and a few basic words)
"No pretend play or imaginary play"
"He can perform some insert puzzles/matching shapes but he typically likes lining objects up and grouping them into colours"
"He stacks items"
"He earlier flapped his hands with excitement"
"He is sound hypersensitive, becoming scared if the front door opens even when his father arrives home and also if someone sneezes"  (not in his notes, Edward would jump a mile when someone knocked at the door and also when the phone went.
"He eats cardboard books"
"He licks objects"  (not in his notes windows, toys, tiles, chairs, sofas, remotes, phones, gates, TV........ the list goes on and on.)
"He does not temper tantrum"  (since then we have had a few)
"He is still in nappies" (and 2 days away from 3yrs and 1 month he still is showing no signs of wanting to potty train, we had a moment of hope for about 3 - 4 days.... then it went backwards)
"Still having difficulty settling to sleep"
"He avoided eye contact"
"He did not initiate any interactions or respond to any interactions."
"He ignored greetings and he ignored  verbal instructions from myself and his mother"
"He only made simple sounds and no words were heard"
"There was proto-imperative pointing but no shared attention or sharing of humour."
"He repetitively turned on the water tap."
"He liked crawling into enclosed spaces."
"Physically non dysmorphic and no neurocutaneous stigmata" (if someone could explain this to me that would be great)
"head circumference 48.5cm on the 60th percentile"
"Impression:
Edward clearly has a more moderate severity Autism Spectrum Disorder associated with developmental delays however at this stage it is difficult to know about his future developmental behavioural profile"..... (then it goes on about getting tests including karyotype and fragile x and getting support from MOE (ministry of education)

We have come so far, some things are still there, but we are most definately been going in the right direction.  I am not the mother in the car bawling my eyes out on the way home anymore.