dabears

Hi. My name is Pam. I have a 7yr. old boy who is just absolutely wonderful in every way. He was born one month premature, and he was delayed in sitting up, walking, talking. When he was born he wouldn't eat and he was in the NICU for a week Ever since he was about a year old I noticed something wasn't right about him, not trying to be mean or demoralize him, but I felt something just wasn't "clicking" with him. I thought it was because of him being born prematurely. As he grew older his cognitive skills, speech, mental focus, hearing, and eye contact were "not on track." I took him to his primary care Doctor and he said nothing was wrong and that he was fine. I didn't think so. I would ask my son a question and his response would be three different answers jumbled into one that didn't even correlate to the question. Sometimes he would say something to me and keep repeating the same word's trying to get his statement out, for example: "hey mom, can we go, can we go, you you know to that place, where we, we went last time?" He needed surgery on his eyes because he couldn't focus well, they were both lazy eyes and sometimes they would cross, he couldn't follow my finger going up or down, or left to right; instead they would cross, and his right eye (once this happened and freaked me out)went to the right side and his left eye to the left side. He would fall up and down stairs, and has numerous times, and I think because of his eyes mostly that is why that happened. He has glasses now. When I took him to be tested when he first entered school, the special needs person's who evaluated him (whom looked like they were in their 20's) said nothing was wrong. Today he can't stand loud noises, when he watches tv if he see's something he doesn't like he puts his hands over his ears (the same he does with loud noises), I ask him to hand me something and sometimes unless I point directly to it he doesn't know what I'm talking about, he act's like he is deaf but I know he can hear (sometimes I have to say his name loudly), he trips and falls often, he is 7 but his voice is that of maybe a 4 year old, his speech is repetitive, he has trouble expressing himself, he has tried to injure himself before (such as bang his head, or scratch himself when he got angry), he is very emotional as well. All these thing's I've stated were much worse when he was younger and have gotten better a little. He used to have nightmares, where he would get up and move around while talking angrily in his sleep. He hardley wants to sleep alone. Am I totally off here? One of my friend's said he may be autistic, but I am unsure. Is what I stated symptoms of Autism or something else? He can read very, very well for his age. Basically he function's well too, like a normal child, but many have asked me if there was "something wrong with him." I don't know where to go for help, and any advice would be very appreciative. Thank you.