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

Hey can I ask what signs there was before 1
Please! Thank you xx

Hey, what signs were there at 9 months please can you share? Thank you x

While I noticed very early on that my baby was displaying some unusual behaviour, he wasn't referred until he was 2 and was diagnosed at 3. That was early. I don't believe a full diagnosis is possible at 9 months.

They diagnose from 8 months in America

I knew something was wrong in ds's earliest days. In his red book HV wrote mother has concerns there is something wrong and he wasn't 6 weeks old. My concerns then were he didn't mould himself into me but was rigid, he searched for lights not faces and he'd scratch the pram top constantly. He also screamed constantly couldn't be comforted and slept very little. Ds wasn't my first so I was concerned that he was very different to my others. I wouldn't have been concerned had he been my first. He was dx at 2 and a half.
Dd came along when ds was 8, she was completely different to ds and I tried not to look too hard and just enjoy her. I suspected at 4 months, at a photoshoot, 4 of us clowning about trying to get a smile and the only smile in an hour was at a Tigger teddy similar to the one on her mobile. At eight months at a clinic for the health review I saw how different she was, She sat silently and not moving whilst babies around her interacted, reached for toys, moved about. Dd was often mistaken for a doll because she was always silent and still in the pram. I used to leave her with my friend whilst I had a driving lesson every week. She had no separation anxiety but what worried me was that when I returned she showed no sign of recognition that I was her mother. At twelve months over the course of five days she lost every skill she had so she no longer smiled, laughed, clapped or waved and I knew then. She was dx the week of her second birthday

Are you me? Does she have mirror movement? This happened exactly to us when dd was the same age, but we got told exactly the same thing by the consultant and her health visitor.

Mine was showing clear signs by that age but was not formally diagnosed till 7 or 8 (also no intellectual impairment). I didn't push too hard before that as he was getting enough support anyway but it was clear by that stage that he needed more (he needed an EHCP for secondary school).

She may have had a paediatric report which said social communication difficulties? Or that the child showed signs of autism. But it won't have been a diagnosis at 9 months, the process takes longer than that! But maybe she took the report to be a diagnosis.

This is almost identical to my situation. Right down to the Tigger Teddy. When you've had children and then you have one that behaves so very differently, it's really difficult to explain. I was very fortunate to have a really on the ball HV who had SEN training and without me saying anything, she picked up that son was displaying symptoms and said she was going to refer him for assessment. That early intervention made a significant difference. At 13, he's high functioning largely but I am certain that is only because so many support mechanisms and management strategies were put in place so very early on. I wish it were like this for all autistic kids.

DN was diagnosed with ADHD at 8 months but it was called ASD. It was so obvious. He literally couldn’t stay still and would bang his head on the floor for sensory seeking. He’s now 8, has an incredibly high IQ, and zooms up and down stairs until he literally can’t move his legs.

@Ozanj sorry but that doesn’t make any sense. ADHD and ASD are two completely separate diagnoses in the DSM. So if a child was diagnosed with one condition then it’s not “just called something else”. I also don’t see how an 8 month old could be formally diagnosed with either but especially adhd as they wouldn’t have sufficient scope to meet criteria. It sounds more likely that a HCP made a suggestion that they may be displaying signs of X and they actually went on to later be diagnosed with Y. That’s not the same thing.

It is always assumed in a diagnosis before 1 that adhd signs are caused by asd. For DN it was def adhd. For his brother it isn’t as clear cut.

I used to watch a guy online who insisted that his baby had been tested for autism in the womb .

Stopped after that, idiot.

People say all kinds of crap. Just nod and smile.
.

I didn't have a HV because I declined after the HV told me I was neurotic over ds. I did have a good GP though who saw dd's regression. I had gone to GP for myself dd in her pram smiling waved bye bye. I was back two days later as she was making a funny noise, GP checked her top to bottom no fever no sign of infection queried it might be behavioural said to come back if concerned. Went back three days later noise stopped dd silent, no smile, no wave and she referred me then.
At diagnosis it was pretty bleak but we had lots of intervention in place and dd outstripped every prediction. She's 21 now, doing an EOTAS programme, she's fragile probably always will be, very intelligent but lots of challenges because of the autism. Without the input she had early on I think the situation might have been very different too.

I agree that it's often when they are in a group setting that differences become apparent. DS is my eldest, so I had no experience but I stayed friends with my ante-natal class and it was obvious by about a year old that DS was developing differently to the rest of them. He was referred to speech therapy by the GP or HV (can't remember) and his nursery were very on the ball getting an EP assessment and outreach support from the local family centre. So he started school and went straight onto a targetted set of interventions. At 7 his teacher suggested it was time for a formal diagnosis and the school nurse referred him. He had an EHCP in place before secondary school. He's doing really well now, at university, has had jobs, plays sport, has a social life. But he still needs a significant amount of support compared to NT peers. I am convinced early intervention made a huge difference. I suspect its much harder to access it now than it was in his day though

8months?!?! I thought they didn't diagnose adhd until 5 or something as all toddlers can be hyperactive/fearless etc
And yes asd is autism

A lot of people either hear what they want to hear or hear what they least want to hear when a professional says something. And then you get some people who either exaggerate either for sympathy or because they are worried or struggling and they don't want other people to tell them that it's nothing or that they know people who have it worse.

When you have a child with autism, especially when they are high functioning, there is often a long time when you know there is a problem but the Drs are saying it's too early to tell. So people ask the Dr if it's autism, the Dr says possibly and then the person tells people that their child either has autism or probably has autism.

Our health visitor warned me very early on that my eldest might be on the spectrum. I think he was around a year old.

Maybe your friend has misinterpreted a comment made by a health professional.

My son was, but not diagnosed officially until he was 7.

There can be early signs.

Having said that, with my second who is also autistic I completely missed early signs.

Hey can I ask what signs you spotted early on please (before 1 year)

Thank you x

@Chzm

Hi, my son was hyperlexic and talking at 9 months which shocked me.

He had sensory issues and was extremely easy to overwhelm.

He did the hand/ finger twirly thing.

He needed deep pressure to settle. So swaddling as a tiny or hugging worked.

Once he was walking (later) he was toe walking without putting heel on floor.

I think they were all soft signs but together suggested something might be different about him.

I also wonder if a health care professional gave a throwaway comment that she took to be 'a diagnosis' simply because it came from a professional?

When my DD was about three months old, a health visitor looked at her and said 'that child's hyperactive' (DD NEVER slept, had one ten minute nap a day from newborn - and cried A LOT). I, of course, poo-pooed the idea.

DD was diagnosed ADHD as an adult.

I’ts disability top trumps. “Oh you’re child was diagnosed at 2, it was so obvious my child was diagnosed at 9 months”

if you tell her how many times your child gets you up at night, her child will get up more.

Ah yes, disability top trumps. Lots of "my child is more disabled than yours" Not to mention the jealousy from parents because other people's children get things they want for their child. One boy's mum was allowed to wait outside the school office to pick up her child so she could get feedback from his one to one without him running off. Then other parents decided they wanted to wait in the warm instead of on the playground too. The school had to ban all parents from the school building in the end unless they had an appointment or a special arrangement like this mum had.

Sadly it's not confined to mainstream either
Even in special education there is a lot of who ever shouts, the loudest gets the most support.
I'm not complaining 14 years, on I'm happy with the amount of respite my son gets for now but it has taken years to get this.
But there is a big. Gap for ,for. Sake of argument the children who are higher functioning it doesn't mean their need is. Less but society doesn't seem set up to support those needs

Definitely. My nearly 10 year old has high functioning autism but he needs constant supervision at home and at school. Otherwise he eats the plaster off the walls and tries to stab himself with anything he can find. My in-laws were shocked when I said he was high functioning (and they normally minimise the dc needs) as they thought he had the kind of autism that comes with learning disabilities (they call it "proper autism", I can never remember what it's called, something beginning with K).