Is there a difference in these or not?

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I got the results back of my son, from the Behavioral and Developmental Department from the children's hospital yesterday. I felt like it was a deep slap in the face. The results revealed that my son's speech was at a 3 month old level, and that he failed many of the tests that these therapist gave him placing him with a diagnosis of Severely Autistic, and they ruled out hyperkinesis, and mental retardation for now. They said that if he continues to perform at the level he is at now, after intervention and therapies, in the years to come, he will then be diagnosed as mentally retarded. But they did not test his cognitive because of his young age, and they didn't want to label him as mentally retarded as of yet, because he is too young to tell, and he hasn't had long-term therapies of interventions, to see if this can pull him out of his autism. But they said that the autism was severly impairing his ability to function as normal. This is definitely not what I envisioned for motherhood. I had 2 failed pregnancies. The one I do have, a son, my only child, gets this diagnosis. I feel sad for him because this is his poor life. But I am dedicated to being my son's fighter and my goal is to make him into an independent adult. I will put off my own desires to fulfill my motherly obligations. But I do ask, if my child was mentally retarded, which he isn't, would he then be able to go from not being able to feed himself to being able to use a spoon and a fork, getting off the bottle onto a sippy cup, climbing up and down the stairs correctly, and coming to get me when he needs something, even though he can't talk? What would be the difference between severely autistic and mental retardation, with these regards?

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And btw my son is 2 years old.
someone will doubtless answer this who is more qualified than i am, but i do know that some people with autism have normal or even high or very high iqs and are extremely high functioning, whereas mental retardation implies being on the very low end. i'm guessing regardless of specific diagnosis nobody will be able to give you a prediction at the moment as to exactly what skills he'll have and which he will struggle with in the long-term. best of luck to you and your son in your journey.  (+ info)

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