When my son was 3 years old he was non verbal did a lot of hand flapping meltdowns lined up his stuffed animals.No eye contact. He's 17 now verbal but limited he makes eye contact and tries to express his feelings more.

When our son was 3, I still had my questions. I figured he was autistic, yes, but I hadn't made up my mind yet if he was going to figure out words. He's still on the fence about that! His behaviour was less stereotypically autistic- no arm flapping, not nearly as many sounds (these days, we get a LOT of wordless sounds). I still think he's made a lot of progress- but he still has a long way to go =)

My son didn't speak at age three, he would copy noises he liked on tv but won't speak. He would fallow other kids more than play with them and he had a real habit of lining up toys throughout the house. Now he talks a lot. Now he tries to play with other kids it doesn't always go well but he tries.

At age 3 my daughter did not point, had meltdowns, poor eye contact. She knew a few words but did not use them consistently. She did not follow one-step directions and was often disregulated due to her SPD. Luckily, she was enrolled at developmental preschool on her 3rd bday with SLP, OT and ABA provided by the school. We added private Speech and OT once a wk and 10 hrs of ABA. Now at 4 she is potty trained, has great eye contact, points and repeats more words and adds more words to her vocab. She is making slow progress but progress!

My son at three was less communicative and would talk more out loud (not to anyone just repeating stuff he would hear from his cartoons. He would also be very quick to cry if he didn't get his way or was upset by something like an unexpected change. Now that he is 16 he still repeats things but no longer in pubic. Also he rarely if ever gets upset enough to cry like he used to. His conversational skills with peers are still not good but will interact more so when prompted. He still prefers to be alone than in a crowd ( unless its at Disney World ) and loves being on the computer or Ipad.