Does sensory issues always mean on the spectrum/autism?

[amsmummy]

My baby girl is 13 months now and she is very social with people of her own choosing, which is only a handful of people including mum and dad other then that she has extreme stranger anxiety and not even grandma can hold her.
She has over 35-40 words and do more then 15 gestures and on top of that she communicates great with us and understands alot of commands. She loves books and points at stuff and wants to know name of it to repeat and has a ton of energy, I mean a ton and she is always called a happy baby by people. I’ve also been told she entertain herself very well and she does alot of pretend play for example feeding the doll milk, gives us “food” she has stirred in a pot and talks on phone, dance to music and she has an incredible memory.

However…. Me and her dad is seeing some behaviours that seems odd and I guess I’m coming here to get some type of input before taking it further to try get early intervention to get ourselves a better understanding and tools for her to thrive.

She has never been great with close eye contact, she will look at my mouth or look at something behind me which makes it so obvious when hanging out with friends children in the same age.

Throughout the day she will rub her back on us or the sofa constantly also have started laying on the floor with her cheek on the carpet.

She hates I mean absolutely hates getting nappy change, it’s a wrestle every time.

She is a picky eater but can feed herself yoghurt and porridge with spoon and fingerfoods.

She talks in her own gibberish language and words she knows alot like constantly and is very loud at home however as soon as we aren’t in her environment she will be quite and if there’s a lot of people around at once with lots of sounds she will have a complete meltdown where we always have to leave social functions cause she is scared of literally anyone saying hello to her and she seems sooo overwhelmed.

She is obsessed with tags and as soon as she spots one she will instantly chew on it or feel it and needs it to sleep.

When she gets excited she shakes for a few seconds.

She is not close to walking and doesn’t seem interested in it though she just started standing unassisted. (Which I know isn’t an concern yet)

She naps well but have had split nights since many months back.

Shakes her head side to side and laughs (New thing)

Puts fingers in mouth to try gag herself (New thing)

Not very interested in other kids rather then pointing at them and saying baby.

Sometimes she stiffen legs and arms when sitting in high chair when excited by something.

She sounds like a normal baby.

40 words at her age is really impressive.

She sounds like an advanced baby however ime sensory issues don't mean on the spectrum. One of mine has a sensory processing disorder that isn't autism.

The stranger anxiety Is a perfectly normal thing even with close family.

I recognise a lot of these behaviours in my own 13 month old although he doesn't have stranger anxiety or mind loud places. He only has around 8 words. He is similar to your daughter in that he stiffens up and shakes when he gets excited (does a lot of hand flapping etc too when excited) and has lately started doing the lying down and putting his cheek on the ground thing or else he'll come over to the couch and crouch down with his cheek on the couch. He talks to himself in gibberish all the time too, I hear him on the baby monitor babbling away nonstop when he wakes up in the morning until I go get him up. I'm not worried about any of it.

I think a lot of stuff on your list is fairly typical behaviour for this age, like the split nights, stranger anxiety, picky eating, and hating nappy change. The only thing that might worry me a little is the lack of eye contact but I don't know enough about it to know if this is actually a concern or not.

It all sounds like fairly usual behaviour for a one year old

Sounds normal. Lots of kids are introverted around people they don't know well. Also labels are very popular. You can even buy teddies covered in them for that reason.

To the main question...no, sensory issues alone don't mean autism.

It does sort of feel like you're trying to apply criteria for traits found in older kids at too young an age. Even though she sounds advanced in some areas, it'll probably be another 5-6 months before any autistic traits would consistently come to the fore, and probably another year after that before it becomes more obvious in social situations (caveat: I'm not as familiar with autistic traits in kids that young, this is just based on what other autistic folk have told me).

Out of curiosity, does she respond to her name well, and can she follow a pointed finger when you point to something?

Everything could be an indication......or it might not. Being a very advanced talker could be an indication, poor eye contact often is, sensory issues could be, being picky with food could be etc etc........but at this age it's generally difficult to be sure. I would just keep a note of everything, add to it as she gets older and just watch, wait and enjoy her. It wouldn't surprise me if she was later diagnosed with ASD due to a few things there - but mine wasn't diagnosed until 10 when it becomes more obvious.

Sounds normal to me. But it’s alway in small detail or length of time they complete the behaviours for. At this age every is a stage that doesn’t last long.

Try changing wet nappies when she is standing up.

Yes she points and and also follows my pointing, responds to her name since fairly young.

Thank you I'll try this :)

OK...that's often a more categorical sign (but not always, mind). I'd say the information you've currently got is way short of drawing conclusions. As has been said by others...making notes might be useful later, but do bear in mind that it's easy for your mind to play false-positive tricks on you when you're looking for signs of neurodiversity.

She sounds absolutely fine and delightful to me (mum of 3 year old daughter). All kids have their oddities.