Thanks Jellyfish.

Our Therapist told us on the third visit normally she can meet a child once and have a pretty good idea of what will and won't work. Which is what threw me off, I guess.

We've since had another session with the therapist and she did a 'formal assessment' for a 2-2.5 year old (he's 3) and he didn't pass. Therapist told me that she's confused by him because he has the speech delay (learned words aren't clear and most of his 'talk' his babble), learning delays (didn't understand simple instructions like put the block IN the container etc) and some typical autism symptoms (jumping, fixating on small parts (knobs on the play oven that was there), obsessing and not responding) He has fantastic eye contact and shows empathy well though she noted which makes her think that he isn't autistic.

It's not even about the label, though. Because you're right, having a 'reason' isn't going to change anything... I think it's more the fact that no one has told me how to HELP him. We tried getting him to make sounds and he did really well, that was our homework for one session with a two week break. And homework for this week is to write down what words he can say and how he says them. What can I do to help him? I feel overwhelmed and out of my depth. It's really hard to try and diffuse his tantrums and calm him when he's upset because he can't communicate with me. I'm tired of seeing how different he is to other children, and how desperately he'd love to be able to say the things they say. I want him to be able to tell me why he's upset, or ask me to play.

And I feel like no one knows how hard it is, everyone keeps telling me that he'll grow out of it soon and be talking before I know it but they've all been saying that for over a year.