Hi everyone,
I posted on here a few months ago about my youngest boy who was not talking. I was going to get EI out to evaluate him but I decided to go to the pediatrician first and have him do a referral to a specialist. In the meantime, I wanted some advice from the people who REALLY know Autism, the parents on here who live it day ina nd day out.
My DS is 6 and has mild Autism. Jacob is 17 mo. He said about 6 words (though never pronounced them clearly) when he was 11-12 mo. old. Then he stopped saying them over a period of a month and we have never heard them since. Now he might say "dada" prounounced "da" many times during the day, or when the phone rings he holds his hand to his ear and says "oh" for hello. Otherwise, no words, just lots of babbling.
He hit all milestones a bit on the later side but still within normal limits. He didnt hold himslef in a sitting position for more than 30 seconds till he was 8 mo old. He walked at 13 mo. but fell a LOT, and always hit his forhead because he didnt seem to have the muscle strenght to keep himself from falling using his stomach and arm muscles.
He understands "get your shoes" or "go get a diaper for changing". He notices when a car goes by, stops and points and looks at us to show us the car. He plays with us and his siblings. When I tell the dog he is bad Jacob babbles and shakes his finger at the dog like I do. He copies everything we do it seems.
The past two months he has done lots of crying and tantrums, a personality change for him. We think its because he is frustrated because he cant talk and we havent guessed correctly what he is wanting. He used to always look when we called his name, but he only looks at us maybe 70% of the time.
So, what do you think? Is he showing signs of Autism or are we just paraniod because our DS has Autism?
I can't say one way or the other, but I recommend that for your own peace of mind you go through with the EI evaluation. I may have given you this before, but here is the diagnostic screening checklist for 18 month olds:
http://www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=128&a=2226 - CHAT diagnostic screening for 18 month olds.
Good luck with everything.
We watched our youngest son like a hawk because of his older brother. He hit all of his milestones on time and all seemed like it was going to be o.k. He was affectionate, happy, babbled a lot, said dada and mama on time, and was interrested in people, however his language essentially stopped developing when he was about 18 months old. He had about a dozen words and then he just basicly stopped acquiring new ones. I then started thinking of a few other things that were odd. He never seemed to pay much attention when I held him up to a mirror. He also liked to hold small objects, like a lego, tighly in the palm of his hand. The biggie, though, was the lack of language acquistion, so we called EI.
I think the lack of language in your son at 17 months is something to be concerned about. It does sound like he understands a lot and is very aware of his surroundings which is great! I would definately have him evaluated just to be sure. Good luck!
17 months is very young still and there are PLENTY of perfectly typical children who were only babbling at 17 months. Most children have an explosion of language between 18 and 24 months, with some it's a little later. If his receptive language is ok and if he is using other means to communicate with you then to be honest I don't think you need worry about his language at least.
The tantrums are another typical acquisition, again, it is very common for babies to stop being babies and enter the terrible twos and sometimes they do enter them a little earlier (say 17 months).
I am not saying your son is not on the spectrum, but nothing in your post makes me think that he is any different from a typically developing toddler. Don't forget that he hasn't read the development guides and he will progress with things in his own way, probably.
I agree with everybody else..Hope the pediatrician can refer you to specialist to ease your mind and get his hearing checked:) Dont worry too much..he has some great skills my dd never had at his age and he sounds pretty typical but best to get professional eval. just to feel safe:) Good luck and keep us posted!Ok, I filled out the CHAT form below (thanks for the link NorwayMom) I hesitate calling EI because they evaluated my DS at 19 mo and said he was just fine, just a late talker. Well, he has mild Autism and the late talking was just one of the many symptoms everyone kept telling me were nothing, that I worried too much. We lost many years of early intervention because I didn't go with my gut feeling and insist he be tested. He is making great progress right now, so that is good.
Anyway, tell me what you think about the questionaire. I pretended to be a doctor for the second section lol!
Section A: Ask Parent: 1. Does your child enjoy being swung, bounced on your knee, etc? YES/NO 2. Does your child take an interest in other children? YES/NO Sometimes, will look at them, but acts shy. 3. Does your child like climbing on things, such as up stairs? YES/NO 4. Does your child enjoy playing peek-a-boo/hide-and-seek? YES/NO 5. Does your child ever PRETEND, for example, to make a cup of tea using a toy cup and teapot, or pretend other things? YES/NO 6. Does your child ever use his/her index finger to point, to ASK for something? YES/NO 7. Does your child ever use his/her index finger to point, to indicate INTEREST in something? YES/NO 8. Can your child play properly with small toys (eg cars or bricks) without just mouthing, fiddling or dropping them? YES/NO May roll a car, but prefers to throw everything 9. Does your child ever bring objects over to you (parent) to SHOW you something? YES/NO Section B: GP or HV Observation: i. During the appointment, has the child made eye contact with you? YES/NO Makes eye contact ii. Get child's attention, then point across the room at an interesting object and say 'Oh look! There's a (name of toy!)' Watch child's face. Does the child look across to see what you are pointing at? YES/NO* iii. Get the child's attention, then give child a miniature toy cup and teapot and say 'Can you make a cup of tea? ' Does the child pretend to pour out tea, drink it, etc.? YES/NO** Have never seen him pretend, only "answering" the phone. iv. Say to the child 'Where's the light?', or 'Show me the light'. Does the child point with his/her index finger at the light? YES/NO*** Will ocassionally show us the light, but will usually look if we say "show us the bug" v. Can the child build a tower of bricks? (If so how many?) YES/NO Usually will only throw them or knock them over If you can worm your way into getting free speech therapy for him, maybe even ABA depending upon where you live, then DO IT! Even if he just has a little hitch in his giddy-up, the therapy will do nothing but bolster his development. If he has joint attention with his older brother, I'd say that's a very good sign. I too watched Boy #2 like crazy, and to our relief, he's a small, male causcasion version of Oprah Winfrey. Yakkity, empathetic, smart, kind. Yours may be, too!
(Number of bricks:.............)
Thanks Shelley :) It does put my mind at ease to know he has some skills Sarah did not have a the same age. Autism is such a scary thing to think about your child having, it is nerve racking! I vote for the specialist-I have an 8 month old and am alllllll over her like white on rice!!!!In my opinion , there is some area to worry!
If I compare my child ( today 10 ) and yours - I belive my did the same ..........
Still autistic.
First - do some play.
Put a buzzing toy under pillow ( do not let the child to see) and make him look for it.
Cover your mouth and say some commends ( to see if child is reading your lips)
Do something odd (for i. give him a shoe and say- put this to your mouth etc ) something different , to see if he realy understand wards or he just learned the sytuation.If something is not right , do the hearing test .If this is ok( usually is!!!)
try BONE CONDUCTED HEARING AID!It took me 10 years to realise that my child can hear( air) but not herself!!! The cone vibration is very important .
Next thing, my child after Rouvax( measels) had fiver and diahriea for 2 years .Is your child eating well , digesting well?? Is he having OAT ok??
Best regards.
Monika
I am at the same point with my daughter. She is social, but not developing
non verbal communication, verbal communication, or play as quickly as I
think an "average" child might. I really am beginning to be concerned... but
trying not to worry too much at the moment.I would definitely call EI. While I say that though I know a lot of little boys that age who few words, and the drs say they are fine. They haven't lost words though. Its the nonverbal communication, pointing and copying what you do that is so important, but I wouldn't chance it, an evaluation won't hurt anything and they might decide he needs speech. That can only help. I don't know if I would worry so much about the autism as long as any needed services got put in place. Only pretending to answer a phone at 18 months is actually pretty normal I think. My 18 month old NT didn't pretend to have a cup of tea, she did have phone conversations though and she did feed her food to her animals i think she did, I think that was 18 months when she was doing that. She didn't have tea parties until 24 months, and we started that she didn't do it on her own. I pretended to have a cup of tea and she took it from there. Now she has them with her animals. To me it sounds borderline so you might have problems getting a diagnosis and with him being so young, but that wouldn't stop EI services. I would definately get more eval done. If EI didn't approve they are wrong based on your answers. If your child has a speech delay and is not playing appropriately you have cause for concern - sorry not trying to freak you out, I have a 23 month old in a similar situation. I started therapy without an eval and am paying out of pocket. He did quailfy for ei and gets 2 hours of speech per week. It is helping A LOT!!! Don't wait - better to have it now!
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