hello all, I have posted on here before so sorry to post again but am getting increasingly worried about my 15 and a half month old son. This all started at about 3 months when for about a 3 week period he seemed to be determined to avoid all eye contact, however this quickly rectified itself and he is now a very sociable little fellow. However I cannot shake my concerns, mainly as at 15 months he still only has about six words excluding mama and dada, the most important words to him are "more" and "there", the latter when pointing at things. he hardly ever says mama and dada - he usually only says dada when his dad returns after a few nights away with work.
He does point and say "there!" when he wants to show you something interesting like an animal, and he does clap, he understands everything you say to him and follows instructions. However he never brings a toy to share or show, or gives you anything without being asked to. He doesn't ask for things he wants by name, he just points to what he wants or in the case of food, points and says "more!". He plays sociable games, like peekaboo which he loves and initiates himself. He joins in with bits of songs that he can say, and says "boo" when playing peepoo and "wheeee!" when on the swing. He can make the right animal noises or vehicle noises when asked.
I think another concerning thing is his fondness for spinning objects, which can preoccupy him for a while, or throwing things across the floor and following them only to throw them again. However he does have other interests and does respond when you call his name.
Finally, he's not that fond of waving although he does do it sometimes, rarely. And he still doesn't walk as his main mode of transport- he prefers to crawl, and when he does walk he can fall down quite often.
I have spoken to the hv who says about how this is well within the normal parameters, but isn't that what they always say? Views or perspectives would be much appreciated, as well as suggestions as to what I should do. I'm scared he has asd.
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Behaviour/development
Asd? Worried
Phewsers · 27/09/2011 22:21
the chat test is indeed for real. it is a highly effective screening test which flags up babies and toddlers who may go on to develop ASD.
it is not a black/white test. it is looking for red flags, which should then be investigated thoroughly if necessary by a developmental paediatrician.
what it is useful for is to be able to say to a health professional who might otherwise fob you off (as happened with my dd1 - for months the hv and the gp would look at me as though I was mad and tell me "but she's beautiful" 
) - "my dc does not pass the CHAT test. this merits investigation". it is a baseline, form which to make further observations and investigations.
a young child, by the age of 18-20 months, should be beignning (at the least) to develop social empathy, flexible thinking, and trying to show shared attention. if they are not, investigation is warranted - which does not mean that every child who fails the CHAT test will develop ASD. it means that they might need some help in some areas, at that point - it means that thy might be skipping developmental steps (for whatever reason), or going through them in a disordered way (for whatever reason)
...and then there are some hv (I saw 3 separate ones!) who even when presented with a clearly stimming severely autistic child, who is non-verbal, will still say "but she's beautiful. and eating and sleeping so well"
this is why the CHAT test is important - it is an easy to administer, difficult to misunderstand test that even a hv with no clue about ASD at all can manage (NOT saying all hv have no clue...) which flags up the children who need further investigation. it takes away the "oh, but s/he is too social; too much eye contact; can play role play" element.
I have some sympathy for LizzieMo here. The online test is not exactly .... intellectually robust is it? Hard to know where to start really. There's a world of difference between enjoying peek-a-boo and actually understanding how to play hide-and-seek. And pointing with an index finger is pretty irrelevant unless you're doing it to show someone something.
I totally accept what Silverfrog says (as usual 
) but the problem is that parents don't see this as a "screening test". They see this as a test as to whether their child "has" or "does not have" autism.
I guess most people would say it's better to have a clumsy screening test than to do nothing.
LOL Arrogantcat. I think the idea is that girls often have a strategy of staying very quiet and imitating like hell so they don't get noticed. Failure to answer questions is then put down to shyness rather than not reading the signals. And I think society finds a silent girl more acceptable than a silent boy 
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