Twirling wrists.

[Boymama123]

Im hoping someone can reassure me. My son had just turned 8 months and is constantly twirling his hands/wrists, more so when he is excited or frustrated, he also opens and close his hands at the same time. He is not yet babbling mamama or dadada but does make noise with vowel sounds/shouts/laughs. He has just learned to sit by himself, although is still a little wobbly. No crawling or any gestures yet. His eye contact can be good but he can also look past you/ignore you. He’s not really responding to his name yet either. I know it’s too early to hugely worry about Autism, but I am, and I can’t shift the worry. I’m hoping that he will start to babble soon, and that the hand twirling is nothing to worry about, but I’m just wondering if anyone else noticed this with their child and what happened as they grew older?

All of this sounds perfectly normal @Boymama123

Responding to his name isn't a milestone for 8 months? Did he pass his hearing test at birth?

Have you had a look at the Ages & Stages for 8 months?

@PritiPatelsMaker thank you for replying! I see other people writing on these forums that their baby is responding to their name before 8 months and it gives me huge anxiety. He did yes, I have no worries about his hearing. Thank you, I will have a look!

My boy did those twirly wrists until about 14 months. He’s 5 now, a bit quirky and I had him assessed but he’s absolutely fine 😁

@Respberrypachouli thank you for your reply! That’s reassuring :) did your little one babble mamama and dadadad at 8 months?

@Boymama123 i don’t quite remember to be honest. He also sat by himself at 8 moths and didn’t crawl properly until 12 months then he walked at 15 months.
try not to worry about autism, it’s just a label for people who have different ‘software’ in their brain. Your boy doesn’t sound severely delayed so chances are he’s absolutely fine! Obviously, keep an eye but try not to get too anxious ❤️

Any Update? My son 8 month ist similar

I don’t think my DD was saying mama dada at 8 months (or for a bit after, her first word was cat around 12 months) and by 18 months she was hugely advanced for her age with language and still is. She also flaps her arms when excited, but has conclusively had autism ruled out (had no other signs but we do keep getting comments from teachers because of the hand flapping, which is frustrating to no end, let me tell you!!).

@Hallo27 Hello! My son has just turned 12 months and the wrist twirling has completed stopped, I think it was around 10/10.5 months that he stopped doing it. He sometimes flaps his arms but not often, which after some advice seems normal. He started saying dadada a week before he turned 9 months, it just came from nowhere and now it’s constant haha, mamama at 11 months, clapping at 9 months and crawled at 10 months. He now plays peekaboo by covering his face , raises his arms to ‘how big is he today’, pulls to stand with ease, cruises round furniture and has stood unaided a few times now. Still no waving, no really clear pointing and is hit and miss with responding to his name, but after seeing how he learned so much in such a short space of time I’m a little more relaxed as they seem to learn new things from what seems like nowhere. I convinced myself he would never babble/crawl/pull to stand and now he’s a pro, I’ve started to learn that they all just get there in their own time but it’s so hard not to worry because we love them so much! Hope that offers some reassurance.

Has your child been diagnosed with autism or not please? This sounds like my 8 month old.

@LBR90 Hi! My son is on the waiting list for an autism assessment, he hasnt been diagnosed yet but we are sure he has autism, as are the professionals involved with him. He did stop hand twirling and he didn’t start again, but he developed different traits of autism as he got older

@Boymama123 what new traits did he develop after him making such gains from your last update?

@Boymama123 is he talking?

@NJJT so he he picked up gestures really quickly after this and is still brilliant with them, but he is still pre-verbal. Around 15 months babbling started regressing and we had periods of time with minimal sounds, he only has just really started to make more sounds at nearly 3, but 0 words. He jumps when excited, occasionally flaps, and paces a lot up and down the room whilst humming. He has minimal interest in other children, although he is starting to show glimpses now. He struggles with following instructions and needs lots of support including visual cues, he’s very much on his own agenda and struggles to engage in things that are of no interest to him. His attention span is can be very short unless it’s something of his own choosing or something highly motivating to him. He needs lots of support to engage in groups/sharing. He has really strong special interests and can do amazing things, like he knows the alphabet and can line letters in the right order and can line numbers in the right order. He plays very repetitively so enjoys things of sequence. He still doesn’t answer to his name often at all, and needs people to go to him to get his attention. He has limited danger awareness and will try and run off when we are out, will try get in the village pond and has no stranger awareness, with a strong preference for men. His diet is very limited and he isn’t tolerating many foods at the moment, doesn’t attempt to try and will gag. He has a very ‘spikey profile’ and is the happiest little boy, doesn’t have many meltdowns or tantrums and copes with noise and busy environments really well and tends to sleep great. I’ve learned so much about autism and traits can look so different from person to person, but this is where he is at :)

He sounds like a great wee boy. Thank you 😊

I have a little man who sounds very similar to yours at 8 months.
i know you say now he is not interested in others or interacting with other children.
What would he have been like as a baby?
My 8 month old is my 4th and he loves watching his siblings and engaging with what is going on around him, he misses nothing!

My biggest wish is that he will play and communicate with his siblings. I know you can not compare them as they all present so differently..as every child does.

@NJJT he would watch other babies around 8 months but still didn’t have much interest in them. He was a very serious baby until about 10 months when he seemed to really come out of his shell and became so happy and smiley, very much like he is now :) it’s so easy to worry and be anxious isn’t it, and I worry to about his relationships/friendships as he gets older but I try and bring myself back to ‘what now’ instead ‘what if’. Right now he’s happy and healthy and that’s what’s important :)

My son is 6 months and he’s been twirling his wrists since 4 months. He also already sits and saying dada.