bercol1

It's very different here in Scotland my son was dx at the age 18mths. All the help and programmes don't start until they can go to nursery at the age of three. i spent a year jumping up and down shouting and screaming for help
Anthony started a programme at the age of three years. it was magnificent. there are lots of things you can do with your son that i wish I had known about when anthony was younger. I would recommend starting with all the pre-lingustic skills.
like turn taking- you can buy lots of great toys i'm sure he'll have some that involve tun taking like a ball run he puts a ball down then you take a turn.

pointing - the form boards are good for this the pre-jigsaw boards get him to point to where each peice goes.

joint attention - bubbles are good for this blow the bubbles then wait for your son to request more ie. by looking at you or grunting or anything that he can do at this moment that indicates he wants more and then build on it until you can get him to say go.
eye contact - play games he like tickle and then wait until he looks before you tickle him some more.

imitation - Imitate him every action every noise for 10-15 min at a time every day once you think your son has caught on to this try and throw in your own action like wave or clap and see if he will imitate you.

Have fun with mirrors autistic children often find people intrusive but playing with him through the mirror helps with this as they don't find this so intrusive.I put a mirror in his room and a full length one in the bathroom. put him infront of the mirror and you stand behind him you can also use this for the imitation games.

Imaginery play - Play with tea-sets have tea partys play with figures ie winnie the pooh sets ect they can even come to the party dolls houses garages etc.

singing his favourite song over and over then miss out the last word until he fills in the missing gap. it's good to sit him on your knee for this one and before say the last word and then drop him inbetween your knee or bounce him high then for him to make you do this again he has to fill in the last word or even grunt, smile or give you eye contact.

put his favourite things out of reach but within eye shot so he has to indicate to you that he wants them.
roll the car and say "ready, steady, go" and let the car roll then after you have done this you say "ready, steady" and pause for him to say go. again the go might not come right away build up from eye contact then a grunt until the "go" finally comes

peek-a boo another good game for eye contact.

He might still be a bit young for all these games but it's never too soon to start.

Minimal speech approach is also very useful. talk to him in one or two words at a time repeating your request in the same way each time like
"shoes on" "shoes on" "shoes on" when putting on his shoes. forget all the flowery language for a while it sounds as if you are barking orders at him but if he has language difficulties he will appriciate you making things clearer for him. i still use this with my son and he is 6 yrs. I aslo chat to him too to allow him to hear conversation but when trying to convey something to him i always use simple language "Anthony drink?" always pause too and allow for response because quite often it takes children a little while to process language
I have many other games and tricks if you want any more
I hope some of this is of some use to you, it helped my wee boy a lot.
Good luck
Bernadette