My son was born at 28 weeks and has mild pvl.cp global delay. he cannot talk at nearly 4yrs old. could doctors be overlooking autism in favor of global delay?

Labels confuse many: Your son's problems are sadly an outcome likely of both pvl, the bleed that caused it and the issues that led to his premi birth. The broad umbrella of autism was expanded years ago to include pervasive developmental delay/not otherwise specified.The nos means there was no stroke, trauma or other DX to explain the delays. Your rx would not change by adding this label.

Unlikely: Typical autistic child is expected to have poor language and social skills with age-appropriate gross and fine motor development. Global developmental delay is more consistent with pvl (periventricular leukomalacia) involving significant compromise of germinal matrix.

Not autism: This is a very common issue with these children. They often have poor mouth control with drooling and chocking that will cause problems with production of language. They often understand much better than they can speak.

Certainly Possible: There can be some degree of overlap between the two conditions. Many of the featured behaviors of both can be shared. I would look at other symptoms he has and try to address any GI problems, any adhd type symptoms, sleep issues, allergies. Look into the group: maps. Medical academy of pediatric special needs. Doesn't hurt to get more than one opinion.

They can co-occur: Is he in an early childhood program through your school district? Does he try to communicate, verbally or non-verbally? How does he show you what he wants? Can he share attention when you point at something? How has he responded to speech/language therapy? Can he " sign" any words? An evaluation by a pediatric neuropsychologist or developmental pediatrician is in order to help answer your question.

Specific diagnosis : Autism refers to a constellation of clinical& developmental signs. These are thought to occur because of genetic vulnerability to intrauterine neurotoxins. Your child had many powerful neurotraumas to cause his problems. Once brain is injured there only so many ways the injury can be expressed. Ad kids start out with normal development then regress. Your child was delayed from birth.

Not likely: Recently, there has been a great deal of attention to autism. Despite this there are many other issues affecting child's life. In your case there is a significant difference between CP and autism. If you are concerned, a second opinion from a pediatric neurologist should clarify things for you.