Is my 17 month old autistic?

[Mommymoment]

Hi all, I have a 17 month old boy who I am quite concerned about. He has an OBSESSION with wheels and spinning things, he will flip over his toy car and even his sisters toy buggy and just spin those wheels, he gets annoyed if I stop him. I took him to a wedding and he was just staring at the ceiling fans and even when he goes out I can see him staring at car wheels.

He also keeps circling objects very fast, round and round. He likes opening and shutting cupboard doors but the wheel thing is his favorite obsession.

He doesn't always respond to his name, but has gotten much better as opposed to three months ago. He hates baths and seems terrified of them, but is fine with touching water etc.

He tends to place my hand on toys to activate them, brings books to me and generally brings other toys to me such as a ball, however today I told him 'clap your hands' and he grabbed y hands and uses my hands to clap (is this him using my hands as a tool?)

He can say star, duck, car, shoe, go and boo. He can copy me if I say 'say dada' etc. he does initiate cuddles. He has good eye contact and likes playing with his sister.

Any insight? Quite worried actually and it's been getting me really down 😔

He might and he might not. That’s really unhelpful I know. Best thing is to contact your health visitor to get the ball rolling to see if there is an issue that needs to be looked into. I’ve been where you are now and I know it’s difficult. Consider looking at teachmetotalk.com. The daily emails are great!

@saturnspinkhoop if you don't my mind me asking, was your child then diagnosed with autism? And what behaviors made you think he/she was autistic?

At 17 months, I'm not sure how anyone can tell reliably, let alone strangers on a web forum.

This is also the board for neurodivergent adults, so autistic parents, adults with ADHD, etc. You possibly meant to post in www.mumsnet.com/talk/special_needs ?

She was diagnosed with Autism. At 12 months, I realised she wasn’t responding to her name and wasn’t pointing. As time went on, there were other signs. No shared enjoyment. Little eye contact. No talking to communicate. It wasn’t so obvious to the casual observer when she was tiny, but as she’s got older, it’s very obvious she has SEN.

I got the ball rolling by talking to the health visitor. A few questionnaires and chats later and I had a referral. If you have funds, you may want to consider seeing a private developmental paediatrician (obviously can get an appt faster). They won’t be able to diagnose there and then, but they can give a bit of a steer on if they think your dc seems to be developmentally ok.

Try not to worry. It may be there’s no issue.

I'd say he's very young still, but an obsession with spinning wheels is a pretty classic trait. The thing is ASD will become much clearer as he gets older and it is probably going to be a bit of a waiting game. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he is diagnosed at some point in the future.
DS was diagnosed at 11, around the age of two he had an obsession with telephones and didn't like grass or the beach at first. At the time I just put it down to his age as he seemed fine in all other ways and didn't do anything like hand flapping, wheel spinning or lining up toys.

hows your little one OP? x