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Behaviour/development

Abnormal behaviour?

5 replies

clairemmcc · 16/11/2006 10:54

I am looking after a 18 month year old boy who's behaviour is a bit abnormal (from my experience of other children of the same age) and I'm interested to know any opinions anyone has about it.

The first and main point is that he doesn't make eye contact with any other children or adults when they are singing/talking/saying his name etc. He is fascinated with lights however and looks at them all the time. He also watches his favourite dvds provided by his parents avidly.

I do not really think it is a problem with his eyesight as he is able to identify toys that he likes and make a beeline for them. It is just that he is unresponsive to speech, indeed, he does not have any words at all yet and shows no sign of starting.

His main form of play also is to throw and chase objects. This is really all he is interested in and due to the eye contact it is difficult to distract him.

Does anyone have an opinion on this or any similar experiences? His parents have asked me to comment on what I think of his lack of eye contact but I am not really sure of what to say apart from that I consider it to be unusual.

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coppertop · 16/11/2006 10:57

Does he let you know if he wants/needs something? Does he point, for example?

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clairemmcc · 16/11/2006 11:10

No he doesn't point at anything he wants, he just looks at the object and goes over to it. He doesn't seek help from adults or even look at me when he is crying as distressed because of tiredness etc. He also doesn't look at other children in groups, just the objects that he wants.

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coppertop · 16/11/2006 11:14

I'm guessing that the parents are worried too which is why they asked. As you probably know, not pointing etc can be red flags for autism. There is an informal test you can try here

Not passing it doesn't mean that it is definitely autism. It just means that the little boy should probably have this checked out.

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coppertop · 16/11/2006 11:19

Actually this is probably a better link here

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clairemmcc · 16/11/2006 11:23

Thanks that it really helpful. It's difficult when it's not your child to say the right thing, I don't want to insult them or their intelligence. I will print out the test and give to them so that they can make up their own minds. Hope he is ok, it is worrying.