2 1/2 year old nephew The jumping might be sensory-seeking.  It sounds like your sister-in-law is already aware of sensory issues, but here's a couple resources that might be helpful background info: Sensory-related checklists/charts: http://www.sensory-processing-disorder.com/sensory-processin g-disorder-checklist.html - for identifying sensory symptoms http://www.tsbvi.edu/Outreach/seehear/archive/mannerism.html #Chart - for identifying self-stimulating behaviors ("stims") under various sensory categories (for some reason I couldn't get this website to come up today, but it will probably be fixed shortly) Thankyou I will go look at that site. YES my nephew does show joint attention (where one year ago he was not)and that is the thing we are thrilled about most. As far as imitating others I'm not sure about that. Have not seen that. His eye contact is definitely 100percent now.  He is definitely not "in his own world"that's for sure. Here are a couple of scenarios-my Mom asked him if he wanted a pretzel recently.He came over to her-should his whole body up and down excited in a yes response,took the pretzel and walked away.(She thought that was great and said she'll never forget it) He is aware of others kids too- for instance if another( non autistic) child comes over he will play with him in SOME way.By some way I mean if that child builds a tower he will go to knock it down or say,if he's at a park and sees a child he sometimes wants to  stop and get that childs attention to chase after  him. Like a game where that goes on a few times..stop and chase. One more thing - I do have to say he does like to jump..on the bed or elsewhere!         You might be interested in this article about the functions of echolalia (repeating).  http://groups.msn.com/TheAutismHomePage/echolaliafacts.msnw Echolalia can be used as functional communication, and the article  includes a chart showing the phases that autistics can go through, where echolalia has most of the communication functions at first, and spontaneous language has most of the communication functions in the end.  Autistics can stall out in any of the phases, so it's impossible to say how far your nephew will go, but if he starts using echolalia to communicate, it's far better than nothing!  The list of functions might help your nephew's family "translate" his intent when he uses echolalia. Does he do any imitating otherwise?  And does he show joint attention, switching eye contact between the adult and the object of interest?  These are also good signs for future communication. Good luck with everything.  Thankyou everyone for your valuable input. I do so appreciate it-and will pass along my enthusiasm to my brother and sis in law.What a nice supportive message board this is! (And to answer another poster-yes my nephew is getting alot of help-alot of state aid too)   Well, part of teaching my son to talk was having him repeat words/phrases.  We modeled language for him all the time (& still do).  Once he learned a word/phrase, he would start using it on his own.  If your nephew is starting to repeat words, I would say that's something to be very happy about.If he is approximating the word it is a good sign:) Hopefully he is getting  intensive speech therapy to help it come in:) Speech has to start somewhere!  Awesome! I agree...Mason started that way too...he still repeats a lot of what he hears, but he can definitely say things on his own too!!  In the 3 years Mason has been in speech therapy he has gone from non-verbal to now learning sentence structure and grammatics...he is learing to say  "This is a dog" rather than "This dog" or "dog"...things like that. Your nephew is on his way!!  Be very proud!! Honestly, I think you should be cautiously optimistic.  ASD kids can be really varied in "getting" stuff.  Just the other side of the coin...  my dd is 4 yo and she every once in a while she'll pick up of some approximations of high interest words like ti-ti-ti for tickle or bu for bye but she quickly loses them.   My dd also needs to be cued for "words" or sounds and doesn't use them to get my attention.  This doesn't mean she won't ever speak but it may still be some time.  This is a good first step. Hi.I would like some input on this.  I'd posted awhile back about my beautiful nephew who has been diagnosed with mild autism (sensory issues as my sister in law calls it.) I would say that from what I see his biggest delay continues to be verbal.He has made big strides since about a year ago (makes full eye contact now) is a little more social,etc but again the verbal is still lagging.When he was diagnosed about 2 they said he has the speech of a 6 month old infant. Well my brother sent me a video of his son in a swing yesterday and he is having fun being hosed with some water while in it. You can see him smiling a second and swinging back and forth (he has wonderful motor control)as the water comes at him.Anyway, my brother and sis in law are saying "kick it" meaning to kick the water as he swings into it and suddenly you hear a screeching of delight and what definitely sounds like he's saying KICK IT.My brother is so happy this AM he asked me if I heard his son saying it in the video. I said yes it surely sounded like it. Do you think this is a milestone that maybe he will start to talk soon? Or in reality is it just repetiting of the words he's hearing his parents say. I want to know the truth. Thankyou for any comments on this
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