Further, you absolutely can diagnose a child with autism before the age of 8 with a high degree of accuracy. Waiting to get a diagnosis for your child until they are “older” will just make improving some of the more rigid behaviors associated with autism more difficult. I cannot stress this enough. Children with autism do not outgrow it. You can with time, reduce dysfunctional behaviors with therapy, but they will always be there to some degree.
I think this was in response to my earlier comment so I wanted to make a clarification. With my earlier comment, I meant to address the OP's case specifically but re-reading it now, I can see that I didn't make myself clear at all.
I have not met the OP's DS so of course, it is a pure speculation on my part but he seems to have a cluster of symptoms that overlap across several developmental disorders. On top of it, he is only 4. I'd like to believe that with enough interventions, support, and time, he would be doing much better by the time he is 8.
That is all what I meant by it and I definitely did not mean to imply that I want parents to withhold treatments from their children.
