So family friend says her ds was diagnosed asd at 9 months old

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Is this possible? I always thought that would be way too young. Just for some information, he is what would be called high functioning, no learning difficulties. I am interested because this woman tends to think she knows it all and this just seems a little extreme to me, but happy to be told if I'm wrong

Did she say how long the process took?

I've worked with children in different settings for over 30 years and I've never heard of a child actually being diagnosed with autism that young, especially as the child is high functioning. I'm not saying it's not possible but I'd be very surprised.

How well do you know her, how often do you see the child etc and are you aware of much of the babies behaviours?

My inclination is to say that she hasn't received a diagnoses. Perhaps she anticipates one? Still unusual.

Our neighbours baby didn't make eye contact from about 6 months old and I believe it took a few years to get officially bdiagnosed (thought it was obvious much before that).

Who knows why she's said it? Did she say it to you or to your family member that she's friends with? Perhaps they misunderstood?

No, it's not possible. Although some people exaggerate, especially these days when you have to wait so long. I was telling every professional I could find that ds had autism from when he was 2 months. At 4 months he had an urgent referral to opthamology to rule out severe sight problems because he was making no eye contact at all or smiling. I said again to the paediatrician that I thought he was autistic. She said I could be right but it's much too early to tell. She did what she could as a neonatal specialist so he had the genetic tests, speech therapy and hearing tests before he was referred for an autism assessment aged 3.5. He was also going to a special needs nursery from aged 1 when I begged them to take him. He was finally officially diagnosed with autism aged 6. Now aged 9 he is working at greater depth for maths but can't be trusted with scissors because he will cut his hair and eyelashes given half a chance.

I strongly suspect that your friend was told autism was a possibility at 9 months but not formally diagnosed until much later. To be honest I don't blame her. We've been told that it's obvious my 15 year old has autism for the last 4 years but we are still waiting for a diagnosis and we think it will be another 2 years before we find out officially.

Chinese whispers if you didn't hear it from the horses mouth?

From what I've observed it tends to take quite a bit longer.

I was told by a community paediatrician that the earliest they can diagnose is 18 months, usually 2 years. (If anything the waiting lists mean they wouldn't be seen that early surely!)

But I guess maybe there were signs at 9 months? Could that be what she means?

More likely that she shared concerns at that age, someone agreed, referrals were made and the process started. Or someone agreed, but it was considered too early however it was always a consideration. Then the child got a diagnosis. Either way it all started at 9 months old, and the child was autistic at 9m olds. That's a very long winded way to explain it all so probably she went for the easier/more succinct option.

Seems not likely but then again she might be seeing lots of signs you don't and could be expecting dd to be asd but knows it'll take a billion years to get seen. Took us years and was an uphill battle.

She mostly likely isnt exaggerating or made anything up though. When I looked for my own daughter, the company we used would have assessed her at 9 months. I’m like the person you mention and know a lot about autism so we already had enough evidence to meet the diagnostic criteria at that age.

Rather than waiting for months/years they can see private patients within a matter of weeks.

Does the mother have down die lying and or attention seeking?

I would have concerns if so.

Otherwise it sounds like she's been given incorrect information by someone.

Should probably add that my experience is nhs. I have no idea about private. I would imagine they would have much shorter waiting lists so could be diagnosing children much younger than nhs. I wouldn't have thought anyone would diagnose a 9 month old though.

The youngest I’ve seen is 12 months but it was the wrong thing for the doctor to do as he didn’t order any genetic testing and it wasn’t until a new doctor took over her case that it was discovered to he Angelman’s syndrome. It caused the mother a lot of upset when the new doctor wanted to look into things more deeply because she thought she was all set with h to r autism diagnosis.

With all due respect you have diagnosed the child as "high functioning, no learning difficulties." And if you don't really know them well, you can't say that with certainty.

@Idratherbepaddleboarding I know a couple of children with angelman syndrome and the symptoms can be very similar to autism. In fact there are loads of people who have other genetic conditions who display similar symptoms to autism but often have other health issues as well. This is why genetic testing at the beginning is so important. That must have been so confusing and difficult for the mum to be told her child has autism and then later diagnosed with something else instead.

I had to see the paediatrician 3 times before DS was diagnosed- signs were there from 9 months old but diagnosed formally at 27 months.

Unlikely that they would have had a diagnosis at that age but you can observe traits of autism in babies under a year old eg limited eye contact, not responding to their name, rarely smiling, not playing peekaboo, extreme fussy eating, not crawling or walking on tiptoes, not babbling or very early speech, etc It is possible that a clinician might have suggested it is possible, even likely, if there is a family history of autism and the child many of those traits.

Tony Attwood suggests that it is often possible to tell whether the younger siblings of diagnosed patients are likely to be autistic or not at that age.

@sausageboxer agreed. I'm wondering if the high functioning description comes from the mum or from the OP. My PIL think my youngest has autism with learning disabilities because of his extreme behaviour like self harming and putting things in his mouth. I've told them several times that he has high functioning autism (officially diagnosed) because his intelligence is normal, in fact he is extremely good at maths. They don't believe me though.

Known her nearly ten years, very well and know her son well too

Even my severely autistic non verbal 13_year wasn't diagnosed unrill.he was three and that wss after seven months of assessments ,how could they even fit in the assessments at nine months old?
Agree professional, may have had concerns at nine months and may have suspected autism but I would have thought an actual.diagnosis at that age wss improbable.

I would have thought even a,private company would have been hesitant to give a diagnosis at such a young age .

I think she's fibbing.
She may have noticed certain traits at that age that eventually led to diagnosis. But no reputable pediatrician would diagnose at that age.
They won't even diagnose at 5 with a full tick list .

Assuming it's an NHS diagnosis the waiting list would be longer than 9 months!

Rather than waiting for months/years they can see private patients within a matter of weeks.

But that still doesn't mean a child would be diagnosed at 9 months.

My son was diagnosed just before 2. He’s severe though and non verbal.

9 months is too young. I pushed like hell to get him diagnosed so young so he could have the most help possible but Iv never heard of it that young.

They do diagnose before 5.

My son was diagnosed by the NHS at just before 2 (so essentially 2).

At this point he already seen a speech and language therapist more then once and 2 child paediatricians.