AIBU? 11 month old not responding to name - autism?

[MummaHud]

My little boy is 11 months old and he doesn’t ’consistently’ respond to his name. If he’s distracted or busy, getting his attention is near on impossible, he also doesn’t have any words yet. He doesn’t wave or point, he won’t put his arms up to be picked up. He loves wheels of toys?

Hes very aware when we walk into a room, he loves his big sister ( 5years old ) and will be social / laugh with her… but he has no interest in other babies when we’ve tried to introduce him to friends babies.

he has copied clapping and will sometimes clap when we go ‘Hudson clap!’ he is very good at social smiles, and will laugh if you laugh, he will come when you call him sometimes too.

he’s recently had a hearing test and he’s been diagnosed with glue ear and we have a 3 month follow up, I’ve raised my concerns with the health visitor and she said they don’t really question anything at 11 months old but she’s going to see him again in a few months as he was in the ‘grey’ zone of his 12 month review for communication.

am I being unreasonable in general and to myself to be thinking he’s autistic already? - my partner has no concerns.

My first thought was it could be a problem with his ear and then saw he had glue ear.

He's only 11 months, it's very hard to tell at this age as a lot of autistic traits are common with babies.

I have 2 autistic children and they were completely different as babies. One was bubbly bright and smiley, the other cried until she could crawl.

You answered your own question - glue ear.

Yes hearing would be my first guess.

He’s 11 months!!!
You can’t seriously be jumping to autism because he doesn’t always respond to his name.

You're catastrophising. You've already been told what the issue is, there's no need to jump to other conclusions, particularly ones that can't actually be diagnosed at that age.

It's normal for glue ear.

i'd sort the hearing problems out before jumping to autism.

There's nothing there that couldn't be explained by hearing problems.

Even without ear problems it’s developmentally normal for an 11 month old baby to not respond to their name every time.

Yup. My cousin's daughter was very similar. In her case, however, the glue ear wasn't diagnosed until she was at primary - and only then because my cousin kept pressing the medics. (Why it took so long I have no idea.)

if it was just not responding to his name then yes I’d say the glue ear is to blame. However not pointing, clapping and showing no interest in other babies are definitely red flags. I didn’t realise how much babies shared attention with you and wanted to engage with you until I had my younger two. My eldest is autistic. Very obvious by about 14 months . He was the easiest, calmest, least demanding baby ever. I just thought I was really lucky to have such a “good”, undemanding baby. Assessments started at 14/15 months and he was diagnosed at 2 1/2.

Social Developmental delays are common with glue ear because you aren't receiving the same audio cues.

Not to say it can't also be autism. But none would consider it as a possible diagnosis until you had treated the glue ear and given the child a chance to catch up. Its far far less likely to autism in a chlld with glue ear than it is in a child without glue ear showing the same symptoms

YANBU to worry, it's an inevitable part of parenting.

Maybe he's autistic, maybe he isn't. There isn't really much you can do either at the moment. He's too young to tell.

The best thing you can do is put your worries to one side and enjoy playing/singing/chatting with him for the next few months until your next HV appointment.

I think you’re right to keep an eye on it. Not responding to her name and not pointing were the signs at 12 months that started to worry me. Now, your child does have glue ear. It’s very very possible, even likely, that that is what is causing the delays. It’s also the case that children develop at different rates and some don’t start pointing, for example, until a bit later. So don’t worry, chances are it’s glue ear, but keep an eye on things.

Agree with above posters. Also my severly autistic daughter (who is now 10, barely verbal and needs significant help with all aspects of life) had none of these signs at 11 months, just so you can see autism isn't easy to pick up on at this age. She waved, clapped, smiled, looked when you said her name and ate anything at all. She had other subtle signs I never would have realised when I look back but she was developmentally typical until about 18 months. It's OK to be aware of course but glue ear can definitely be the reason. A hearing check is the first thing they do when autism is suspected.

When my son started on the pathway for autism diagnosis aged 2 one thing they checked early on was his hearing which was fine. Your son has glue ear which is going to impact his hearing and in turn how he communicates. I believe my other child had her hearing checked at some point while on the pathway too.

Is there a particular reason you’ve jumped to thinking it’s autism? Not meant in a snarky way.

Have a good read about glue ear here:
https://ewing-foundation.org.uk/listening-to-learn/

and here:
https://www.ndcs.org.uk/documents-and-resources/glue-ear-a-guide-for-parents/

If he still has glue at the 3m check, ask for a bone conduction hearing aid on a softball.

Hearing loss - even at quite a mild level - can have a huge impact on the development of communication in young children.

Sounds very like my DD who had glue ear. They can’t respond to their name if they can’t hear it.

Make sure your talk to him in his sight line. Learn some basic sign language. And push for doctors and audiology referrals etc. It can really affect their learning behaviours and language of course.

From your title I was going to suggest glie ear. He has temporary hearing loss so of course he won’t always be responding to his name.

Neither of my kids did those things at 11 months. I remember being a bit worried too when I read about pointing, chatting 9 month olds. They both did them by about 13 months and are now both very much NT, no concerns at all.

its probably the hearing issues due to glue ear as others have pointed out.

Advocate for your child now in making sure this is treated quickly and efficiently in order to make sure his developmental delay doesn’t have a longer term impact.

jn the meantime do what others have suggested and adapt your communication- learn basic BSL and use a lot of physical/visual cues/eye contact when interacting with him, eg physically teaching and showing him how to point to what he wants.

when using signs etc still talk - enunciate, speak slowly and clearly, perhaps slightly louder than you would do, some sound/vibration maybe getting through - there’s a wealth of advise online about how to communicate with deaf babies.

Your baby has a diagnosed hearing issue so your job now is to adapt to his needs as they are now - not waste your time and energy ignoring that and trying to label him as something else

By all means keep the autism at the back of your mind, ask for it to be recorded in notes as a parental concern as an additional possibility should things not improve and then forgot about it

when the hearing issues are resolved and if you don’t notice improvements then revisit the health professionals for reevaluation as always better to get the ball rolling early.