My little girl (20 months) has always taken stranger anxiety to the extreme. At 6 weeks old she started to cry when anybody except me held her (sadly including her Dad, who was utterly heartbroken about it) and this quickly progressed to screaming when a stranger even looked at her. Her fear was always been much, much worse with males.
We have recently seen some real improvements BUT there are still instances and I'm wondering whether I should start to worry. I recently took her to the male GP (just for a bug) and there was also a male student in. She went hysterical and clung to me screaming for the whole appointment. The GP looked concerned and gently asked whether I had any concerns with her development. I'm certain he asked due to her extreme reaction (it was like an autistic meltdown) and it did get me thinking...
When she is in her own comfort zone she is a very switched on, sociable little girl who but take her elsewhere and she's a totally different child. Should I worry? Are there other behaviours linked to this that I should look out for?
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Behaviour/development
20 mo fear of men, other toddlers and people in general...
Purplelooby · 07/12/2015 15:32
they're so worrying at times aren't they? I know mine were.
How is her language getting along? Has she many words yet?
There are some other behaviours to look out for in terms of autism....language development is one but this isn't always the case...some children on the Autistic Spectrum have excellent language....others have delayed language.
The way children play is a good indicator of development....toddlers developing typically....by the time they're coming up to 2 years will actively seek out their care givers attention with some pretend play such as feeding a doll or bear a pretend cup of tea etc. Children with autism often have a gap in this area and don't engage so much in role playing.
There's actually a good "quiz" you can do called the Mchat. I've linked below
www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/diagnosis/screen-your-child
I hope you feel better about it all soon.
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