I have a 3yo DCG that comes here 3 days a week. She is very quiet and shows very little emotion. DCM has brought up concerns about a speech delay, yet keeps putting off AEA to evaluate her. The AEA comes to my daycare to provide services to another child and asked if the 3yo DCG has ever been evaluated, as she was exhibiting some signs of autism when AEA was here. I have always suspected this child being on the spectrum, but know I can't tell the parents that. I just keep suggesting they call AEA to see if we can do something here to help her speech, and let the AEA bring up the other concerns. My issue is that with her lack of speech, she hits a lot. And it's not always warranted. She's even hit an infant in a bouncer before. Right now, this hitting problem is getting worse, and the parents are not contacting AEA as suggested, so I don't see this getting better. I would be willing to work with this child if she were getting help, but I've been suggesting this to the parents for about 5 months now, and nothing has been done. I've tried shadowing, redirection, time outs...nothing is working...I don't think she sees hitting as a bad thing. Would you term this child? What would you say to the family?

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