ASD 13mo doing a lotof NT things? | Autism PDD
What was the basis for the original diagnosis? I'm assuming that there are significant developmental delays. Focus on getting him help for these measurable delays. If family members question it, you can say that maybe it isn't autism, maybe it is, but the specialists found delays and you're getting your child help for them. If they have a "wait and see" attitude, remind them that time in itself does nothing -- it's what you fill that time with, and you intend to fill that time with quality stimulation.
Another forum member calls autistic behavior "normal behavior on steroids." Sure, most toddlers are noisy, too busy to snuggle, etc. but there is obviously something about your child's behavior that makes two experts think autism -- a developmental pediatrician and YOU. You know your son best, better than any other family member (and that probably includes your husband).
I'll get off my soap box now and give some actual information in separate posts (this one is long enough as it is).
Good luck with everything.
The fact that your child is pointing at all is a very good sign, but doesn't mean he doesn't have autism. We have lots of pictures of my son pointing when he was that age, but he's absolutely on the spectrum.
Here's a little background about pointing:
The pointing gesture is one that evolves -- it gets used for various purposes, first for getting needs/wants met and then for drawing attention to objects of interest (like an airplane). It starts out used alone, then is combined with words.
It should also be combined with eye contact fairly early -- looking to see that mommy and daddy are paying attention. At two years old, kids will start to limit pointing to something they think the adult has not noticed yet.
Here are the relevant milestones from First Signs:
Does your baby:
At 12 Months:
- Use a few gestures, one after another, to get needs met, like giving, showing, reaching, waving, and pointing?
At 15 Months:
- Use pointing or other “showing” gestures to draw attention to something of interest?
At 18 Months:
- Use lots of gestures with words to get needs met, like pointing or taking you by the hand and saying, “want juice”?
http://www.firstsigns.org/healthydev/milestones.htm
Finally, I wanted to emphasize that diagnosing at such an early age isn't easy -- not even for an expert like Dr. Landa at Kennedy Krieger. She was recently profiled in a Newsweek article on autism dated July 3rd, 2007.
She was in charge of a study of 107 baby siblings of autistics. They tried to see if it's possible to diagnose autism as early as 14 months.
Thirty of the 107 kids ended up with an autism label, but only half of those were diagnosable at age 14 months. Diagnosing so early was not easy, and required that Dr. Landa re-trained her eyes to see how autism looks at age 14 months. Dr. Landa has devoted her entire professional career to diagnosing autism, so what hope does the less-experienced professional have, let alone the average parent or pediatrician?
"I had to learn to retrain my eyes when I started to see the 14-month-olds. I thought autism at 14 months was going to look like autism at 36 months, the age at which people normally diagnose it. It's the same flavor--the social system is disrupted, the communication system is disrupted. But it's different in that it's not as pervasively disrupted. What I mean is that at 14 months, you can get kids with autism to give you a beautiful response to peekaboo. But you can't get the child to engage with you around more novel, new activities. At 14 months, you see more flickers of interaction. They were doing some looking at people and smiling."
Here's the link, for anyone who's interested:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19588967/site/newsweek/page/0/
I think 13 months is too young for a diagnosis to be certain but I would go ahead and start early intervention. With the diagnosis you should be able to get help, probably at no cost. I don't see how they can be certain at that age. My son was diagnosed at 20 months which everyone says is too young. I knew things were different with him as early as nine months. Every child is different. But to give you an idea he didn't point until very late (2-3 years). He did have good eye contact, social smile, etc... So just like no one thing is a sure sign of ASD there is no one thing you can say excludes them from being ASD. My mother-in-law still refuses to believe my son is autistic (at 4 years) even though he only says 50 words and has other obvious signs. I hope the doctors are wrong but I wouldn't take a chance if I were you. We had my son in early intervention based on his family physicians recommendation at 18 months. He wasn't diagnosed for over two months after that because we were on the waiting list for an appointment. If you are waiting for a second opinion you can go ahead and get services started...it can't hurt! Hang in there. I would assume the rates of misdiagnosis at that age must be somewhat high?Everything you said sounded completely normal to me! My non-ASD kids do all those things you said.
1.--Eye contact. My ASD son had great eye contact when younger and still does. I do notice it less now--at 7.5y.
2.-Stims. What child does not have weird body movements??? And vocal?? Mine were all BABIES/TODDLERS and they all did these! Kids are wiggly---some more than others. Vocal----I had one that was very vocal---they are discovering that they have a voice and it comes from themselves!!
3.-Routine/Comfort. ALL babies need routine. In fact---ALL children need routine. I had one child who was a "stiff" kid. She would tighten up and not be a "snuggler" at all!
Personally---All my kids went thru a stage of not wanting to be very close to me. They were too busy, too many things to explore. Mom was boring!! 4.-Pointing. I really don't remember when they did this---but I do know my kids were slow in everything! I think it was no sooner than 12 mo. Well, my DS is 3 years old and we went to a neurologist who was not ready to label him although he is showing signs of being on the spectrum. The doctor said that he diagnosed kids he was so sure had it then a year or so later was like - what was I thinking ???!!!! I would go for a second opinion - and you can do early intervention. I basically think as long as thy are getting that early help - give them a chance and maybe not be too quick to put labels on little ones - especially when you are just a year old !!! If you child is pointing by 12 months - i think that is right on track, i may be wrong. Please feel free to tell your family (who may be in denail about your DS Autism) that doctors go to school for a very loooong time, and we leave the diagnosing to the professionals. My side of the family have accepted my DS Autism, and have been so supportive. Our friends and my DH side of the family are another story. They seem to think he is just "quirky" It is very frustrating to have people second guess your mothers insinct. As long as you feel he is indeed PDD, then get the therapies for his. They cant hurt him at all and they can help a whole lot
My son was evaluated at about 16 months old by a developmental ped at the MIND. He didn't receive a diagnosis though despite the many signs. Here they were: - lost ability to do finger plays - didn't say mama/dada consistently (like once a month) - didn't answer to his name - afraid of people - difficult to engage I"m sure there were more but that is what I remember. Fast forward to now at 22 months old he is doing MUCH better with early intervention despitet he lack of diagnosis. He still doesn't answer to his name, sometimes difficult to engage, still hasn't done finger play yet. HOwever, he will come up to me and say "awwww Mama" and give me a huge hug. He plays chase with his siblings, he does pretend play, is average cognitive level (where at 13 months old he tested at 6 month cognitive level), etc. I think 13 months is way too young especially if he is able to point even if he didn't until 12 months, since that is still in range. As far as the physical contact, sounds like a sensory issue to me. What types of early intervention is he getting? That seems very young to me for an ASD of PDD-NOS diagnosis. My child was not dx'd until 4, which is late. Your child sounds very much like my middle son, who is LD, and has some major sensory issues and some autistic-like behaviors, but is not officially on the spectrum. I'd embrace all the EI you can get, and plan on another evaluation in 6 months.
- difficulty with imitation
Everyone has already given you good advice so I won't belabor it. 
I can say that as others have said, certain attitudes can seem to change, and rather suddenly. For instance, my son never once noticed me entering the room to pick him up after work, even when I crawled toward him, said "I'm gonna get you!", etc., and never once raised his arms to be picked up, until he was 11 months old. He would look at objects and cry and cry until I picked him up. Or until anybody picked him up. It could have been the dude from Aqualung with a used cigarette butt and a gross dirty overcoat picking him up and it would have been all the same to C. Until, as I said, 11 months of age. Then, wham. C was looking for me, reaching toward me, crying for me--me specifically--etc. God help me but I was relieved. Until then, although C could never be put down in general, I didn't think he loved me. I didn't even think he knew who I was.
Regarding the pointing, C still doesn't really point just to show me something. He'll look up earnestly into my eyes and babble and pull my hand to go see what he wants me to see, but gosh durn it, he just won't point. It's so weird. But that's okay. Loads of parents of NT kids spend years teaching them NOT to point. 
See? We've got that one licked already.
It's a complete and utter myth that autistic children aren't affectionate, can't bear the presence of any other person and don't know who you are. (Oops...sorry for all the edits. I should say, that's not to say there aren't any autistic people who fit that description. Of course there are. But to say all autistic people are like Rain Man or Raun Kaufmann as a toddler is like saying all women like pink, all children love chocolate ice cream, all cognitively delayed people are incapable of learning to count or read, all geniuses love science, all dwarves are exactly 3 foot 9, etc.) Whoever came up with that one...well, whoever came up with that one is almost certainly by now dead, because it's a pretty old theory, right along the lines with believing that not spanking your child regularly would cause him to grow up with no morals or social conscience and end up shooting people from on top of a McDonald's.
People are basing their views on "what" an autistic person is by reading SonShine from the 70s or watching RainMan and deciding, "Oh, I see! So if a child doesn't shriek when touched or when he hears a sound and if he's great with math, he's autistic. Our grandson/nephew/etc. doesn't do that so we're in the clear!" Sigh.
You're a good mommy and a smart mommy, and it sounds like you love your sweet guy very much, and it sounds like he loves you, too. He's off to a good start.
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