SPD ...without Autism?

by Concerned Mommy

I've had concerns about my son for quite sometime now. He will be 2 in about 2 weeks. At first, I thought it was autism. His pediatrician didn't believe so because he performed the CLAP test on him and my son "passed". From what he has seen behavior wise in his office he said, my son does not seem autistic.

My little fella is in the First Steps Progam (early intervention for ages 0-3) and is doing well. He's making progress. :)

My son is bright, energetic, and social. He smiles, laughs, engages in play with myself and other kids (plays ball,chase, peek-a-boo, etc). He comes to me if he needs help with something, saying "See" or "This" and reaches it to me.

He points when he wants something and will look if I am pointing at something. Loves animals and shows them affection. He is very loving and gives hugs (and sometimes kissies when he asked). He comes to me for comfort and loves to held and carried. He waves high and bye and will sometimes even say it while doing it.

Now, he does have some "quirks". He loves anything with wheels- cars, planes, trains etc. He loves to flip them over to spin the wheels. It's not obsessive. He will do it for a sec or two, then moves on to another toy. He will also play with the car etc correctly, pushing it around the room saying "vroom vroom". He doesn't get upset if you tske the cars away or if yoy join him to play.

He does have a speech delay but is making progress. He was tested by an ENT specialist and found to have significantly bad hearing due to fluid in the ears. So my son was given tubes about 2 months ago and is making progress with speech now. He's finally learning as he should have so many months ago.

He also does this hand/finger thing...but only certain times and not all the time. He will look at his fingers while moving them around when I am changing him, he is laying down with a bottle and sometimes eating in his high chair. It's kind of like "Let's see how they work" or something. He doesn't do this when he's excited or any other time. So I don't know if this is "hand flapping" or not.

He does this eye thing, like so many have stated on here. He looks out the corner of his eyes. At first I thought he just liked to do it. He only does it for a second or two then goes on to look at things normally. It's a rare occurrence too but I have noticed it.

He loves light switches, TV buttons and cabinets. It's not an all day thing by no means, but he loves to turn things on and off and to open and close. He will do it for awhile then move on to his toys when he is bored with it.

Oh, one other detail I should mention. He was a preemie (almost 2 months early) and spent a significant amount of time in the NICU (56 days) due to apnea of prematurity.

I might agree with the ped on it's not autism per say, but it's something regardless. His therapists from First Steps do not think he's autistic either (so far).

It is truly possible to have SPD without autism? What does the outcome look like for SPD with early therapy etc?

Thanks!