Could it be SPD?
I have had concerns about my now 2 year old for over a year. He was a little slow to start talking. He was using gibberish up until about 17 months old. When he finally did start using actually words it was like they all came at once.
Once he started eating solid foods he became a very picky eater. He will only eat 3 or 4 certain things - a particular kind of mac & cheese, bread - in almost any form including pancakes and cinnamon rolls, fries, apples and bananas. Every once in a while he will eat corn. One minute he likes something the next he doesn't. He will not try new food. His food has to be cold - if it's even a little warm he spits it out and says "hot" or "uk" (yuk). He will not eat meat at all.
He is very sensitive to loud noises.. hair dryer, vacuum, mixer, things like that. If I try to use him when he's awake he freaks out. Cries until I turn it off.
He has always had issues with sleeping. It takes forever to get him to sleep and it's hard for him to stay asleep. he has never had a normal sleep schedule. He'll go to bed at 10pm one night then 6am the next.
He to this day hates swings. He use to not like any playground equipment but now he loves slides. He also is very rough. He always
wants to rough house with me. He craves being tickled and getting bear hugs. He falls down on purpose all the time. I'm not sure if he's doing that for attention or what. He's even done it in public in a store. Then he'll roll around saying "falled. Help" and kicking his arms and legs in the air.
He is almost constantly chasing the dog, trying to ride him, pulling his hair and pressing on him really hard.
He gets upset super easy and has a hard time calming down.
Sometimes he seems to see things that just aren't there - he'll look up in the air and start saying various letters or numbers. or just look up in the air and laugh and say "that's funny"
He does seem to be pretty advanced in some areas though. He is super smart... can already count to 20, knows all his colors, shapes, animals and noises, etc. I have read that sometimes children with spd are above average intelligence for their age.
All these things I have talked to about with his doctor and friends and family. They all tell me this is just normal for his age and he will grow out of all of it.
He seems to have different symptoms from different groups on the checklist. I am just not sure what to do. I've heard spd needs to be discovered early but at age 2 how do I know if it's "normal" behavior or not?