First off @A MyAutismTeam Member...you're awesome! Your responses and advice were perfect! @A MyAutismTeam Member, I feel for you. I can't believe there are no early intervention programs that provide resources and guidance where you live. My son was diagnosed "at risk" at 19 months and officially ASD by age 3 and he was labeled "Level 3 severe" at the time. We started ABA, Speech, PT and OT immediately and today, he is 6, verbal, HFA and gifted. I am a huge supporter of Speech and ABA. I also live in California. We moved here from Georgia when my son was just a year old. I knew then, but couldn't get the doctors to investigate or listen. I feel your frustration. I took a class called More Than Words in the beginning. It's provided by the Hanen Institute in Canada. They have a book you can purchase by the same name. It teaches you how to enter your child's world, encourage them to interact and communicate more effectively. They have a workshop in Macclesfield, Manchester and England! Just looked it up lol! Even if they're full...just contact them and they might provide some resources and additional information. It was a tremendous help for us! I wish you the best and Godspeed!

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A MyAutis...

A MyAutis...

Therapies are useful.
But I think the most important help a child should get is in pre-school or at home, because that's where he spends the most time at.
Groom him correct way whatever he does wrong, etc, its tough and tiresome, but repetitive grooming is the way to go.

Oh well then! Yep, outside of major cities it's much harder to find ABA therapy... although there are some things to be said for living away from the centre of humanity! =)
Max is similar to your son in that his understanding is very limited- you have to speak very slowly and remember to use simple words if you want him to follow. I have a really, really hard time with that!! Left to my own devices, I talk a mile a minute and skip from one subject to another- doesn't work for him at all =)
I'd suggest that you might make a "First/Then" board for him- with velcro signs symbolising some of the things he most frequently asks for or wants to do. That way you can kind of direct the sequence of events in his day, but lets him feel like he'll get what he wants in the end. Max has a board up on the wall that says: "What am I Doing?" across the top; then there are three strips below that say "Now" "Next" and "Later." I attach the next three things I want him to do to the velcro, and (if I'm luck!) he'll finish all three to get to the last one (which is usually the thing he actually wants to do). Sorry, did that make sense?! A board like that is useful particularly if you need to change his routine- it gives him a heads-up that something weird is coming up =)
Try looking at Pinterest- enter "first/then autism" or something, lots of ideas should pop up. Basically, I think the world just kind of confuses my son, and yours if he's anything like him! Things are overwhelming and he doesn't follow a sequence of events like any normal person. So having a step-by-step list of things he needs to do helps him. He also has a teeny-weeny attention span!! Don't let things get too overwhelming- there are a million steps in any path through this =)

Achh! I'm not sure my previous response posted.... I wrote half of it yesterday and tried to finish it this morning, and it may have gotten lost. I'll try again =) At the age of two, I was mostly concerned with speech delay. I figured that by that time, Max should have been picking up language really quickly; that certainly was not the case. He was actually born in London! We were there for five years- I was a special needs teacher, specialising in autistic students, so I learned all kinds of things that ended up being really useful in my own life =(
Max also developed behavioral ticks- repeating actions, making the same verbal noises over and over, focusing obsessively on one action. I figured something was "wrong," but I didn't request that he be evaluated until we moved back to the US. You DO have the right in the UK to request that your child be evaluated, even if your GP doesn't think it's required. If you need help you can find an autism centre or unit and contact them, they might be able to give them specifics as to what to do.

I added you to my team- I wish you luck and I hope you get things sorted out! It won't solve all the world's problems, but having a diagnosis and a path forward will help a lot =)

Our son was diagnosed at age 2; he had 2 in-home sessions a day five days a week (10 a week total) until he turned 3; since then he's had four ABA sessions a day, plus one speech session at an outside centre. They want him to do more than that, but there's just not enough time in his day! Part of me actually wonders if this is too much.... but we're keeping up with it at the moment =) Where are you guys living? We're in California- a pretty good place to have a kid on the spectrum.