Hi everyone!
First time poster here. I am a first time mum to a beautiful 18 month old girl who is my everything. She is the happiest girl, full of fun and a real ray of sunshine. I do have a few concerns regarding her development which have led me down google rabbitholes and autism. I got myself so down and was so worried about her that I found myself not enjoying my time with her as I was over analysing every single thing she did. I have since stopped googling and I am enjoying every minute with her. I called my health visitor who was so lovely and came to see us immediately and had no concerns with her development, she said some kids just pick up things a little later and that she would see me when she is two. Although this gave me a sense of relief the ‘wait and see’ approach is giving me some anxiety. I would like to add that in no way would an autism diagnosis change anything, she is my perfect little girl and always will be. My priority is being pro active about getting her the additional support (should she need it) rather than waiting until a few years down the line. I want what’s best for her.
My main concerns are a speech delay and lack of pointing at 18 months, and there are a few other traits that combined could potentially be symptoms of autism. I will list all below. I guess I would just like some advice, should I be perservering with the health visitor even though she has no concerns, should I be looking at some private SALT in the meantime? In an ideal world she is just late to the party and will catch up, but I want to be prepared if that isn’t the case.
Apologies for the long post and I look forward to hearing any advice, recommendations, your own experiences!
Things she can do-
- Claps her hands (when she is happy, when we sing if you’re happy and you know it, she mimicks clapping when she sees it on TV- she was a late clapper 12/13 months before she clapped her hands)
- Waves hello and bye bye without prompting (she has waved from 9/10 months but not on demand and not very often, she now waves alot at people on TV and waves bye bye occasionally when someone leaves the house
- She can high five
- She follows a point
- Responds to name almost every time unless extremely distracted, if she has her back turned and we call her she will turn right around to look in our direction
- She reaches towards things and reaches her arms out to be picked up
- She misses you when you leave the room and will come looking for you
- She brings toys and objects to us and brings book to us when she wants us to read with her
- When we say cheers she will clink her cup with ours
- She mimicks alot now, something she didnt do much of before- she will copy silly faces, silly sounds, she will copy me if I am cleaning like wiping something with a cloth or mixing something in a bowl
- When she takes a drink she will say ‘Ahhhhh’ afterwards 😂 she also says this when she pretend drinks out of her tea cups
- If she hears a phone ring she will hold a hand to her ear, she will also hold toy phones to her ears
- She copies the actions to some songs on Miss Rachel like stomping feet or spinning around
- She has recently started copying some sounds in songs (she copies the ah ah ah ah sound before Mr Aaron sneezes in the ant song)
- She can say a few words, the main one being ‘Duck’. When we go to the park or she sees a duck in a book or on TV she will label it
- She can make a couple of animal noises, if she sees a dog or cat she will do the appropriate sound
- She has good eye contact, she looks you right in the eye and babbles in a conversational tone like she is telling a story
- She babbles alot, alot of dedede and dadada’s but a few other sounds are coming through now like ssss, yayaya’s and c’s
- She loves to play peek a boo and hide and seek
- If I say put your arms up, wipe your face, give me your hands or come here she will follow simple instructions. If I say where is the light she looks towards the ceiling and gestures with an open hand
- She is social with other people and will babble ar them while giving eye contact (although it takes a few minutes for her to come round to someone when first meeting)
- She sleeps well through the night and has one long nap during the day
- She has started to feed herself independently with cutlery (still needs a little help)
- She eats well, and enjoys a variety of food
Things that concern me a little-
- No pointing at 18 months old- in the last 4-6 weeks she has started to gesture her hand towards things, more an open handed point. If she sees a bird in the sky she will say ‘duck’ (all things with beaks and wings are ducks apparently 😂) and gesture her hand towards the sky. She has started gesturing her hand openly towards things like lights or shop signs when we are out and about but I’m not sure this counts as a point although I hope it’s a step in the right direction. She also wont point to things in books with her finger but will knock or use her thumb to show me something
- Tip toe walking (I know this can be common in toddlers when learning to balance or learning to jump. She walks and runs fully flat footed but does tip toe around the house especially on our tiled kitchen floor) she has been walking from 11 months but only started tip toe walking at 16 months
- Lack of speech at 18 months (I know you shouldnt compare children as they all develop differently and in their own timescale, but I feel her words are a little behind, other kids her age are talking up a storm and she has about 5 words) she won’t yet try to copy a word I say, only some sounds
- Slight lack of understanding- she can understand simple commands but if I were to ask her to get her shoes or point to a dog in a book she wouldn’t do it, even though she knows what both these things are