Sensory seeking behaviour

[angpat]

Hi, I have a 20 month old son, he scores low on MCHAT , however he has a speech delay (thought to be due to hearing loss ) but he does certain things that make me think he may be on the spectrum. He spins in circles looking at the corner , sometimes I catch him looking at things through peripheral vision but not often , he flaps his arms when upset occasionally , he walks backwards sometimes and crosses his fingers a lot. He also shakes his head.
he has had OT assessment and SALT assessment x2 including with Jackie Harland at the Children’s place who all see no signs of autism. Could there be another cause for his sensory seeking /stimming ? Or should I still be worried about possible ASD and push for referral ? Thank you

@angpat

hey
not much advice really but just want to say I have a 17mo DS who also does a couple of the things you’ve mentioned , cross fingers a lot and sometimes walk backwards also started to spin in circles he only spins a couple times at a time though he like spinning things in general really car wheels mostly ( this has decreased a lot over the last couple months ) I worry about him sometimes but then he does lots of other things that make me not worry so much .

iv also watched and been around a few other toddlers my nephews and other at play group ,and they all seem to do odd things iv seen others spin , some walk on tip toes some have no speech yet , others hate paint on hands etc

How are his social skills? After all ASD is a social and communication disorder isn’t it . A toddler can do lots of odd things but not have ASD

Thanks for your reply! Yes I agree lots of ASD traits can be normal toddler traits but it’s so worrying when you google and everything comes up as autism ! So if I did mchat before his grommet surgery it would have been medium risk but since he has turned 18 months and had grommets in he has been a different baby , pointing at everything , sharing interests , joint attention and reduced repetitive play etc and so now scoring 0 on m chat. I’m guessing a child scoring 0 at 19/20 months it’s unlikely to be ASD right ? There’s definetely some sensory seeking behavior though which I think crossing fingers and spinning with eyes to corner can be a sign of but Jackie the SALT I saw said that not all kids with these behaviours have ASD as some just have a sensory processing delay.
how does your son score on MCHAT?

@angpat

yes I totally agree it is so worrying when literally EVERYTHING on Google comes back to autism I worried about everything kept googling everything put my self in a bit of a state over it
but the same as your DS my DS points claps wave has joint attention, has interested in other children , iv lost count how many words he can say , he starts games that he wants to play etc .

I done the Mchat on him , he scored 0 as it stands he’s only 17 mo

He might have just SPD? The behaviours you mentioned fit the SPD, sensory seeking, definition.