worried mother signs of autism?

[jbells]

hi, i am becoming worried about my dd development she is almost 16 months and is making no effort to speak or mimic my gestures or facial expressions, she gives kisses and high fives and waves occasionally, she will bring me objects she wants me to play with like a book to read and will sit and read a book on her own, she doesnt point to things but instead will grab my hand and pull me to wot she wants, she seems to becoming increasingly quiet lately but will make strange like donald duck noises alot, she hand flaps alot but i am aware many kids do this, she makes eye contact with me and people she knows but seems to pretty much ignore strangers, she really enjoys other kids attention and will laugh her head off if they do something funny. she likes me to play and sing nursery rhymes with her and enjoys being thrown about, but will sometimes completely ignore u this tends to be while the tele is on tho, fill follow some commands like pass mummy baba (her doll) or where rabbit and get her teddy but other times will completely ignore me and go in the other direction, if im making her dinner and say go and sit down in your chair she will walk out and go to her chair, she isnt showing much interest in feeding herself yet, main worry is her disinterest in other adults and her attention span is next to none with toys she will move from one thing to the next, we also dont really have any tantrums either there few and far between and short lived, my family keep telling me shes just very independent and not bothered that its just her personality, just wondered if anyone could give me any advice as to wot they think as mothers with experience of this

Thankyou x

oh sorry just to add she was crawling and walking all quite early and is great at getting around, just doesnt seem to be able to communicate very well

Can she imitate what you do - either spontaneously or with some prompting ? If you put your hand on your head and said 'do this' to her, would she follow your action and copy it ?

to be honest proably not with a lot of prompting she will copy waving or if i bang to objects and then say u do it she will

I think there are contradictory signs in what you say - but that is normal, no autistic child has all the signs and few NT children have no signs at all ( if that makes sense !). I would focus on getting her to imitate you more consistently and just keep a careful eye on things. She will not learn language if she is not imitating you.

i know shes just never seemed interested in copying me its just very hard to get her attention, also in the pram especially she just seems to zone out and will barely respond to you unless there is food or juice in the equation and has bin this way in the pram for as long as i can remember just seems to completely ignore you, dd goes to nursery 2 days a wk im not sure whether they would pick up on any problems tho, they just always say she has bin great when i pick her up. she always runs to me with a great big smile when i get her and then will pat me and wave bye to the kids but this is the only place she will really always wave, dont know y

The last part - running to meet you, and waving does not sound very autistic esp at 16 months but as I said, there is no one sign to pick up on , it's the big picture. The leading by the hand could be considered to be a worrying sign but in isolation maybe not. You could google CHAT test autism and see what you make of the questions it asks.

she did fail it due to the not pointing and not imitating people, but i am aware i think that its not really accurate till they reach 18 months, i do realise that she has some strange behaviours tho and her development isnt where it should be, guess i shud arrange an appointment with the dr or health visitor

Just be prepared to be told that she is too young to make any judgements and be sent away for a good long time. What you've described could be seen as within the boundaries of normal behaviour because it is all so open to personal interpretation.

They could well pick on one little incident where she does something you've done and say it's an example of imitation. It's a bit of a lottery depending on which area you're in.

If you do get sent away and still aren't happy ask for a review appointment and keep a diary of her behaviour to share with them next time you meet.

ok thanks for the advice the main things that concen me are the not pointing to things she wants and not copyng things i do people keep telling me its normal kids develop at different stages and i know this but if there is a problem and my concerns are right i would prefer to get help earlier rather than later

Quite right. Early intervention is really important. Don't let other people tell you you're wrong if you're sure about something. Mums usually have good instincts about their own children. Let's hope you are seen by professionals who recognise this.

Good luck.

i mean i really hope im just being a paranoid first time mum, but you just never know, she loves play groups and parks because she likes to go and play with and interact with every child she sees, today we were walking along and there was a group of children playing in there garden and she tried to walk into there garden to see them, when i told her she couldnt she plonked herself on the floor outside guess these are all good signs of social interaction, but even if its just a speech problem any expert advise will be nice, got an appointment on monday for a chat about concerns with HV

TBH she sounds a lot like Ds1 who has a diagnosis of ASD. Although he wants to and tries to socialise, he doesn't do it appropriately.

Do you ever get the impression that she is deaf? Indeed, have you had her hearing tested?

no havnt had her hearing tested i dont really think she has a hearing probelem cos when my dp comes home from work and says hello, she will hear him straight away, and run out the living room to greet him, she also does follow some commands and will get startled by sudden loud noises, however if she is engrossed watching special agent oso, she wont listen to u at all but then agen i dont really hear people if im engrossed in something, so that could just be ignoring me lol, as far as i know she does play appropriatly with children for her age she will chase her friend on the field and give him a kiss as we are leaving, im going to speak to her nursery minder tomoro and ask her if she has noticed anything unusual compared to others in her class

colditz wot signs did your ds1 show b4 he got evaluated?