To cut a long story short, DD 3.4 years old has some traits of autism, lack of eye contact with people she doesn't know, seems a bit in her own world sometimes, and recently realised she still doesn't play with other kids but more alongside, although not sure if she's still too young for that?
When she was 2 nursery mention she wasn't responding to her name, so panicking into a state, I booked her in for an assessment and they said she's fine. She had great speech, knew all the inetellectual stuff like numbers, colours, memorising countries on maps, shapes etc etc. She was happy with kids.
A year later now she's 3 and my overly anxious mind finds any excuse to believe she has ASD but don't want to believe it at the same time.
We had some friends over today with a 4.5 and a 6 year old and they played so nicely together while my DD just kind of was in her own bubble, not really joining in or talking to them unless I encouraged her to.
She's so loving and caring with her baby sister who's 1, shares etc but with other kids she's very different. Doesn't look at adults in the eyes to say hello and goodbye or when answering their questions like "did you go swimming today".
Does this sound normal? Is she just being a toddler? Or does she have autism?
And why do I feel like it's the end of the world if she does? I feel so bad and so guilty for how I feel but can't help it