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Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

Behaviour/development

18 month old no speech...

12 replies

kellbelle92 · 07/09/2019 17:04

Hello everyone ,
I am posting on here as I’m worried sick about my 18 month old son, he’s lovely and either way I think he’s a amazing , but I am almost sure there is something not right going on.
He hit all his milestones up to 1 year old perfectly , but when it came to speaking nothing has happened.
He makes nothing that even sounds like a word other than when he was about 11 months old he used to go ‘Mmum mmum ‘ then it stopped 😔
So thinking for 6 months it will happen it hasn’t and I’m so worried about him.
Also I’ve been reading up alit about autism and I think he has a lot of traits.

he loves tv ,singing programs
bounces up and down to the tv
started walking in his tip toes sometimes
started spinning around making himself dizzy
only just started responding to name 80% of time
hasn’t got amazing eye contact but does make it
enjoys spinning wheels around on his cars
hates the feel on play doh and his sisters slime !
takes interest in things such as bolts
does not understand instructions

He is a happy enough little soul though , smiles , laughs , loves water and is very very affectionate towards his daddy!
If anyone could shed any light it would be very much appreciated!

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Weezy511 · 07/09/2019 20:55

Im in a similar boat, infact I just posted about my 17mo dd. What's his joint attention like? Does he look back at you to show you things? Does he point and see if you're looking at what he is?

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SmartPlay · 07/09/2019 21:04

I don't really understand why the things you listed should be concerning or a sign for autism.

TV has a mesmerizing effect - of course he loves it, and most children like singing.
So he dances to the music he hears?
Normal and healthy part of gross motor development.
Also completely normal. I'd be puzzled if a child never likes to sping around.
So he does respond most of the time - why is that a concern?
What exactly do you mean by "not amazing eye contact"?
Completely normal - google Montessori schemas.
Completely normal to not (immediately) like a texture he's not familiar with.
Okay? Why is that concerning?

10. What kind of instructions?

How much do you talk, sing and read to and with him?

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kellbelle92 · 07/09/2019 21:08

Oh really , does your little one not said anything yet either ?
He doesn’t really show me things really 😔 doesn’t point , though he’ll look over when I point to show him something , he does seem aware though and when he wants something he will come to us and lift his arms up and moan , heard of other kids his age and even younger talking away just makes me feel like I’ve failed !

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kellbelle92 · 07/09/2019 21:12

The reason for my concerns are because I have read ALOT of signs of toddlers with autism and the list a lot of the things I have listed , that is the only reason I am worried as because of him not having any speech yet the main concern the internet keeps coming up with is autism so I looked into it further and found that in fact he shows a lot of traits that are listed on there .. of course I hope I’m just overthinking.

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kellbelle92 · 07/09/2019 21:13

Oh and yes talk to him a lot constantly asking him things and sing to him a lot too he enjoys singing.

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Weezy511 · 07/09/2019 21:28

You haven't failed, I wouldn't worry at all about words at his age.

Gesturing and joint attention are the bigger concern at our kids' ages in terms of autism. Sounds very similar to my dd, she doesn't point out interesting things, but does reach for things she wants with a whole hand. She doesn't wave though, has clapped a couple of times, and has no words.

What makes you think he doesn't understand anything you say?

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Weezy511 · 07/09/2019 21:31

Also if you haven't already done the MCHAT online screening test I'd definitely recommend it.

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kellbelle92 · 08/09/2019 06:14

Weezy511 .. yes done the mchat got a score of 9 which is high Risk !
He’ll go and get things he wants no problem but will never point to something to show me he wants it.
I will sit there and play with him with his cars on his racetrack thing , he’ll watch but won’t try and copy really , he just wants to spin the wheels on the cars !
But then obviously an attention span for any 18 month old surely isn’t great lol!
And what makes me think he doesn’t understand is because I’ll ask him to go get something and it’s like it’hes not even heard what I’ve said..
Have you been to your dr about your dd ?

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Weezy511 · 08/09/2019 13:02

Yeah I read somewhere it's a minute per year of their age that they should be able to concentrate for.

It's a really worrying time isn't it. Yeah I mentioned it to the hv at 12mo but she wasn't worried which temporarily made me feel better. Then I had ds1 10 weeks ago and she came round to do his 6-8 week check and ended up staying an hour talking to me about dd and agreed to do a paediatric referral. I don't know where you live but in Northumberland we can self.refer to speech and language so I did that last month and currently waiting for an appointment.

I'd say if your gut says he might need help get the referrals as soon as you can because they're normally long wait. We've been told upto 18 weeks for telephone initial assessment for speech and language!

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kellbelle92 · 08/09/2019 13:49

I had the health visitor refer him to speech and language, got a letter for the phone call same one I think your talking about so had the phone call appointment and she said she wanted to see how he progressed in the next 3 months , and to work in his understanding which I’m really
Not sure if he understands or not at the minute ! does your dd do any hand flapping or anything like that? My son does quite a lot which is the main reason I’m so concerned

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AladdinMum · 10/09/2019 10:21

Like some posters posted before the list of your concerns can be quite typical, most toddlers would do repetitive actions that people tend to link to autism as they are fun to do (like spinning, jumping, crashing into walls, turning lights on/off, etc) - it all depends on the intensity; i.e. while it can be fun, children will get bored of them and move on after a few minutes while children with autism will not get bored of them and can potentially do it for an hour or more. However, an MCHAT score of 9 at 18M is concerning, and you are doing the correct things by going to your GP. Being refereed to SALT is the first step, if he does not progress there by the time he is 2YRs old then he should really be evaluated by a development pediatrician.

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kellbelle92 · 10/09/2019 12:31

Hi thanks for your reply 😊 what you said about doing things intensively, made me think so I observed him for an hour and he will spin round for about a minute, feel dizzy and fall over and go and play with something , with his hand flapping he does it when he’s excited that’s about it but he gets rather excited a lot lol !
I guess I’ve read things that have alarmed me which has led from him not speaking ..
I think his Mchat score is so high because of his lack of understanding and communication, however he understands when I go to the cupboard and get him a bag of wotsits !