Poor eye contact when should I worry

[meea]

It is so difficult to know if you are just watching to closely and being over sensative.
I have been having trouble getting Ds2 to make eye contact for a while and have been slightly worried but twice this week other people have noticed.The senco at the special needs nursery the other day kept trying to engage him and get him to look at her and you know when you can tell that somebody thinks that something is not right.He then did it again this morning with his portage worker and the look on her face has me worried.Should i be worried.

[blossomhill]

Meea - if you don't mind me asking do you have any diagnosis for your son?

[meea]

No dx for him which is creating all sorts of problems getting him support I have been told today that because we don't have a firm dx for him we may struggle to get him a place at the resource that we have been to look at.Global developmental delay has been mentioned twice this week but that is the first time.His consultant has mentioned cp but mri clear and adhd .Dh and i have been discussing today if we should try going private but wouldnt know who to see.

[jakbrown]

Oh meea, sorry to hear your worries. What's level is he at with his communication? Global developmental Delay is such an umbrella term, it could mean anything.

[blossomhill]

Sometimes it can hard to put your finger on it can't it? With my dd who is 5 they are all saying language disorder and possible add/adhd. I remember that my dd's eye contact was poor at around the age of 18mths -3. It has improved but can be variable at times, especially with people she doesn't know.

[meea]

His receptive and expressive is at 18 months so about a year delayed .He has also just started stuttering which is breaking my heart as he just gives up trying to speak to me.He also has problems with his sounds.

[blossomhill]

Again the whole GDD and communication problems all overlap don't they. How old is he Meea?

[jakbrown]

Oh bless him! Well, when we were worried about our DD she was 18 months old and we went privately, simply to speed things up. The assessment absolutely terrified us and the paed told us she thought DD had a metabolic disorder. She said she 'definitely wasn't autistic'. HA! DD is autistic to her core. So it just goes to show that it's just so difficult to assess little ones. They do take a bit of a watch and wait policy. Have you had any blood tests? (horribly stressful...) or anything like that? Thinking of you

[meea]

Blossomhill he is 2 1/2
He had bloodtests when he was about 6 months old not quite sure what they were all for apart from thyriod function as I have an underactive thyriod and they also tested him for another autoimune condition I have which makes my blood thick and clot to easily .That test came back as borderline but it has never been mentioned again.

[jakbrown]

meea, what a nightmare. It's such a difficult time for you. I think the eye contact thing can be a bit of a red herring (both ways. A little boy in DD's 'early assessment opportunity group' had very poor eye contact but came through it.

[JaysMum]

J is nearly 9 now and has very little eye contact. Over the last year we have used alsorts of things to get him to look at us when we talk to him - he says it hurts him to look at peoples eyes.
Now to stop him feeling distressed we have told him to look at peoples ears or mouth instead.
Takes the pressure off loads and enables J to focus on the mouth to see what is being said or the ears to hear what is being said.
He said it's much better than looking in peoples eyes and he looks as if he is looking at people so doesn't appear to be being rude.
Still tough though!!!