Toddler Won’t Walk

Hi, I’m hoping someone here might share their experience if you’ve had a similar one. I have a 21-month old toddler. I have suspected since she was 9 months old that she’s autistic (for many, many reasons) and we have an evaluation scheduled for next week. I have two older kids and the experience with them was much different.

She was very slow to crawl and doesn’t climb or even try to walk. She seems to have a sensory aversion to walking. When we try to get her to take steps, she cries and whines. I have tried taking her to play areas hoping that if she sees other children walking and running, she may want to as well. But she has no interest. We also did physical therapy for a few weeks but she hated it so much and I missed a lot of work so we quit.

We have other things going on: poor sleep patterns, sensory issues with eating, meltdowns for no obvious reason. But I wanted to specifically ask your experiences with walking. For now. lol Thank you!