Autism

[casey19]

Hi wondering if I could get some advice as I'm abit unsure about my toddlers behaviour, and wondering if you think some of these behaviours could be linked to autism? He's 17 months old, he doesn't say many words and when he does he tends to repeat them repeatedly. He flaps his arms but only seems to be when he's sad or happy/excited, he very rarely responds when I call his name, his eye contact his fine he plays with other children he absolutely loves to be out side and hates it when we bring him in! Childminder says when she takes him places with other childminders he will run up to the other childminder instead of her, she also said he absolutely hates the door being closed; as in living room door, I'm not entirely sure what all this means but some advise would be great, I don't know if this is normal behaviour has he's my only child, thank you in advance! Also if like to ad in that he met all his milestones on time and was walking the day of his 1st birthday!

Nothing really sounds concerning as it's all age appropriate... does he communicate with you to meet his needs and share his interests through the use of gestures? like pointing to what he wants that are out of reach or to show you interesting distant things?

@AladdinMum thank you for your response it's deeply appreciated! Yes absolutely he's such a cleaver cookie he's always wanting to help me when I'm doing the cleaning he will try and help, he puts his clothes in the washing basket and his nappy in the bin. He loves when we play together too. Deep down I think I know he's absolutely fine and that I'm just worrying, but when I have his childminder coming to me saying she is worried it makes me analyse all the things he has done that I put down to being normal behaviour (which I do think it is in his case) but I will definitely keep my eye on it and just see were things go from here😊

I think you will have a two year check coming up soon? You could mention it to your health visitor then, or talk to your GP about it. The process for getting a diagnosis with the NHS is long btw (years in some areas).

@Bringallthebiscuits yes health visitor said he will have one at 18 months, I know that's what scares me I would hate for him to have it and to get no help and to struggle

I’m concerned about my son, he’s 22 months (nearly 2 months prem) and I’m worried he’s autistic. He doesn’t say anything really, babbles and will say mama, baba that’s about it really. He doesn’t point at things however I did discuss this with a Health visitor and because he communicates other ways such as bringing things to me, arms up to be picked up, shaking his head for no etc she wasn’t concerned. I’m worried though because he also flaps his hands quite a lot (mainly when agitated) and also occasionally head bangs if he’s tired or upset. On the plus side, his eye contact is great, he responds well to his name, has hit all his milestones and is a clever, happy boy so not sure if I’m just paranoid or not.

@Sas0 has anyone suggested doing the MChat test to see what his risk of having ASD is?

Yes I have done that myself and it just comes back as medium risk but from answering the questions, the only ones I answer no to are the understanding language ones so I don’t know😫

I’m not sure about autism as I’m definitely not an expert but given both posters are concerned about language, maybe you could start with seeing a speech pathologist? They would be able to start working on the language skills and give you lots of tips and strategies to help at home. They would also work with kids with autism so could let you know whether they think it would be worthwhile getting an evaluation done or not.