Is It More Than "Normal Speech Delay"?

If you don't know, Zoey has a speech delay and has a hard time with pronunciation. A little after her first birthday, Zoey stopped talking completely. Not even mama or dada. We thought it might have been from her ear infections and she would grow out of it. She still wouldn't talk, her only communication was grunting and pointing. You could tell she would get frustrated not knowing what she wanted. Trying to even make her a certain sound was impossible. It was like she couldn't understand me or hear me, we had her hearing tested a few times.. We put her in speech therapy and after a few months, she slowly started talking again. Even signing with her hands.

It took Zoey so long to get used to her therapist and when she finally did, she had to switch therapists (due to scheduling). We were back to square one. She was still talking at the same pace, but no progression. She didn't like her therapist at all and to be honest, I didn't either. She taught differently. A way Zoey didn't quite understand.

We pulled her out, because we were moving. It was stressful for everyone and the therapist was a good 45 minutes from the new house. When we pulled her out, she actually started to progress again. I worked and worked with her to talk more. She eventually started to repeat words. YAY!.... It wasn't over.

Her pronunciation got worse and worse. Was she just being lazy about it? Sounding out each letter, then syllable, then the word... over and over again didn't work. She sounded it all out just fine, but putting it all together didn't seem to be easy for her. She calls Josh, By. She hasn't called him daddy since before she stopped talking. I don't encourage it and also call him By. I call him daddy, but its still By.

She can't follow more than one instruction at a time and 70% of the time we have to repeat it. Example is "get a wipe", she either looks confused and goes searching for a wipe. She is potty training, so we tell her to get a wipe multiple times a day. I have had the wipes in the same drawer since she was 3 months old. Even in the new house, its in the same drawer, in the living room. it is very accessible. So, why does she have a difficult time completing a simple task like getting a wipe?

A few days ago, I was looking at other blogs to try and get more involved in the blogging community. There was a mother with a little girl that had autism. She is such a beautiful writer. It is called Go Team Kate. After reading and reading, it started to sink into my brain.. What if it is more than just a normal speech delay? What if she mentally can't process things?

Don't get me wrong, Zoey is a very smart little girl. She can figure something out in a heartbeat. She thrives on knowing how exactly everything works. How it is motorized. It is just that somethings can't be processed or it doesn't stick in her brain. She has learned many words and she has forgotten them. She was once able to count to 10, just a couple months ago. Now she can only say four and five. over and over again, like she is counting normally.

There are many other signs.

• Has a hard time being a lone in a room. We have to be in eye sight, or she starts to get scared.
• Restricted play skills. She plays the same scenarios over and over again, with defferent items (even her hands).
• Stimming. Meaning, a certain action or a certain item to calm down or comfort. She rubs and pulls on the corner of a pillow (it can't have a case on it) and she has to have her sippy cup.
• Loud noises alarm her. She cries when the vacuum cleaner is on. She won't stop until it is turned off. Any loud machines, trucks driving by, even a noise that is louder than normal coming from outside easily gets her attention.
• Cold and hot climates does not seem to effect her.
• Spins in circles over and over again (not sure if she does this for fun or another reason.
• She has a limited list of foods she will eat. It doesn't matter how hungry she gets, if she doesn't want it, it doesn't get eaten. It got to the point where I was so scared about her eating, I tried putting food in her mouth myself. She gagged like it was choking her. She has made herself throw up a few times to get something out of her mouth (potato skin on fries). She can go all day only eating one or two things.
• Problems with sleep. On a normal night without melatonin, would result in her staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning.  
• She can watch a show or an episode abnormally excessively. Either for hours, days, weeks, or even months. I can follow word by word on every episode of Noddy in Toyland. That show is the root of all evil.

I'm in no way an expert on Autism. 

She gets upset very easily, but she doesn't throw tantrums very much (that could be normal with toddlers, I don't know) Example: she will get upset if there is no where to sit on the couch. I don't just mean people but with her toys.. like her arms are broken and she can't move them. There was one time she started crying, because I wouldn't let her get on the roof. Her eye contact is fairly normal, nothing that is too concerning. I have a hard time getting her to look at me when I'm trying to explain something or pronouncing something.. I don't know, she has her 3 year check up in a month. If you have any feedback on it, let me know.