joint attention question.

[chocnomore]

I usually post about Dd1 (autism) but start to notice things with Dd2 (3) as well (mainly control, inflexibility and sensory issues).

this weekI noticed (no idea why I did not realise this sooner) that she actually never looks back at me to double check if I am looking at something if she is pointing at something. is this very unusual? I remember that Salt & paed asked about this during the assessments for Dd1.

Ummmm….. she could have a delay????

But I know this is one of the important things they look out for when assessing autism or someone who has a speech delay.

When she points to something. Have you ever waited…. lets say 4 mins to see if she looks back at you.

I never did. Dd1 has asd and was so very obvious. delays in all areas. Dd2 by contrast did everything early. amazing speech and language. so i never payed attrntion to joint attention as I thought she is fine.

btw, you don't have to have speech delay to get an asd dx. one of the criteria for AS is that speech/language is not delayed asaik.

There are some kids with autism have no delays..but obviously have the delays with social etc.

I didn't mean that if you have a speech delay, you have autism. I just meant that if a child has a delay in speech ( for an example) they would look into to see if they communicate in other ways…or see if their social communication skills ..i.e. joint attention… is developing. Delayed in social skills, is not really a worry..it is but not so much..but if it's disorder then it really is.

Sorry meant if social skills were impaired it is a worry.

Joint attention, is quite important as it is one of the stepping stones to communication. I know when the assess kids with autism they look out for things like this.

zzzzz that is interesting. dd1(severe asd) always looks back and checks too. But I wondered if the absence of it is of significance.