Is my child autistic?

[SianB]

I am new here and I am not asking for a diagnosis, just some views.
My son is almost 1 and I have been concerned for a while that he might be autistic -

he has trouble maintaining eye contact
he doesn't say very much, no words just very occasionally a bit of babbling (mamama, da and bababa)
he doesn't crawl or cruise yet
he arches his back all the time
he doesn't do anything with toys, just mouths them
he doesn't seem to understand any words
he doesn't like me to pass anything to him - I have to put it in front of him for him to pick up himself. If I touch his hand with something he pulls his hand away - a bit odd

Some days I think he is fine, others definitely not. I've read about pointing and he has started doing that this week. He pointed at a dog in the park yesterday. He also pointed at his cup yesterday, I passed it to him and he had a drink. He has no idea who Mummy and Daddy are . Should I try and chill about this? I'm stressing because I am going back to work soon and he will be in a lovely nursery, but if there is a problem, I don't want to 'run away' from it or pass it on to someone else.

Signs of ASD when my DS was 6 months:

NO attachment to either parent, no separation anxiety or even acknowledgement of either of us!
No eye contact
Unable to follow things with eyes
Screamed incessantly as a small baby and nothing made any difference, thus we discovered controlled crying as we had no option!
Looked at things strangely, at the side of his face and often went cross eyed
Little spontaneous interest in toys and none if they didn't "do something"

Probably more if I think harder

Sian the description mostly describes my kids at almost 1yo and they aren't autistic. Mine were walking and DD esp. understood some words/English. But otherwise, cou.d be my kids at same age.

They didn't say Mummy/Daddy meaningfully until almost 2yo.

I don't know much about ASD but I agree that your ds's speech sounds ok at this stage. Ds1 is very NT - his first word was 'teddy' at 13 months.
How is his understanding? Do you feel he knows the names of things - will he look at something familiar if you name it?
Others with more knowledge than me can advise on the other things that concern you.

well pointing's excellent- and a sign that language development is right on track. Children of a year old shouldn't be doing much else really language wise. Not that many children are speaking at a year but a few do. My completely NT ds2 didn't really start to speak until 2 although I knew he was fine at 1 (pointing etc).

Hows his toy playing. DS1 was never interested in toys - preferred to look at things like lights. The only thing that would ring a very quiet little alarm bell in me from your list is your last point, as ds1 was veyr like that- but it depends what you mean byt it really. Did he reach out for things on time?

Sian, my ds's speech developement was slow. He has impoved a great deal but is still on the slow side of normal (IYSWIM) at the age of 4, but he is settling into reception at school very well. At this stage for your son I would try not to worry too much. I have known lots of children who were not talking at 1 year who went on to be just fine.

He doesn't understand a whole lot. I point things out to him all the time. If I say "Where's the..." he has no idea.. If I say "Bounce" when his brother is on his trampoline he will bob up and down and laugh and sometimes claps his hands when asked.

Jimjam I have always thought it odd that his hands seem somehow a little sensitive. He prefers to pick a piece of cheese up off his high chair table rather than take it off me, out of my hand. If I try to push the piece of cheese into his hand he recoils a little and pulls his hand backwards and away very quickly. On the flipside, I can take his hands and walk him around the room and he is fine. He's always been interested in toys and started reaching for them in the early months. It seems he would rather pick things up himself than have them handed to him. Similar to your child? A bit strange - noone else would probably even notice, but his Mum!

How's he with those touchy feely books? DS1 would always recoil his hand if I put it on one of the textured bits.

Also how's his copying? For example has he learned to drink from a beaker yet- if so how did you teach him (or did he just do it- I didn't realise until having ds2 that children normally just learn those things from imitation).

You can have hypersensitivity etc without being autistic- if he's imitating (even just things like drinking from a beaker), and beginning to point then I wouldn't worry too much yet.

I really can't get him interested in books. He would rather have a good chew on them still, so no idea on the touchy feely books... He also has no interest whatsoever in telly. We don't have it on much but when it is he has yet to watch a tv programme. i don't think he has ever spent more than one minute in any one go watching it. Is this normal?

He drinks from a cup fine and has done for a while. I am not sure if I taught him or if he just did it. As he was only 8 months at the time (has never drunk from a bottle) I would feed him with the cup and one day he just took it off me and did it himself. He has no idea what to do with a spoon though other than pass from hand to hand a few times and then throw it on the floor

ah- he copied the cup drinking. By "teaching him" I meant having to physically place your hands over his and then do the movements. It's the only way I can teach ds1 anything.

Both of mine have like Teletubbies from a young age, but not much else initially.

I had 2 get interactive books 2 get DS interested. Textures, flaps, squeaker toys. He was 15 monts and didnt see the point, otherwise. Became an addict w/in weeks after that.

Oh, and DS didnt watch telly/videos until 2.5yo.

Also different children are interested in different things, the books that you have may not be that interesting for him. I had to buy a different type of book for ds. Dd loved anything with a story whereas ds was interested in DK books about machines, diggers, 'planes, all the steriotypical stuff. Until I got him the 'right' books he wasn't that interested. Now he loves to be read to, and also is learning his letters.

My ds1 has hypersensitive hands, although he is now able to tolerate far more. He crawled at about 8 months or so but with hindsight I can see that he never had his palms flat on the floor while he did so. He kept his hands balled up into fists. He also had what we thought was just a cute trick of being able to use his feet as though they were hands. He could even draw with a pen between his first two toes. We now know that this was just his way of avoiding using his hands. At 1 yr old he would pick things up with a pincer grip and never let anything into the palm of his hand. A test that they did at his assessment (at 3.5yrs old) was to ask him to put a small pile of plastic counters into a box. Rather than scoop them up into his hand he picked each one up separately with a pincer grip.
Another indicator of his sensitivity was that when he fell over he wouldn't put his hands out to stop himself. Instead he would use his forearms. Does any of this sound familiar?

ds1 showed similar signs to coppertops son. If we put him on grass he would lift his legs and kind of hover on his bum- we thought it was funny Now we know he couldn't bear the grass touching his legs. He still doesn't like walking on grass (especially if its unfamiliar grass) even with shoes on.

I have noticed that as well as having sensitive hands he sits on the floor with his right foot raised 1-2 inches above the floor. He doesn't do it all the time and the foot that is raised is always slightly turned in with the toes curled when it is raised. Maybe his foot/feet are sensitive too?
I suppose the question to consider is whether this is an autistic trait or do some babies have this sensitivity and are not autistic.
On the one hand some of his behaviour is a little strange, on the other he seems to copy and definitely points.
Not sure about balled fists - he's not crawling yet.

We had to fill in a sensory questionnaire for ds1 during his assessment. We're still waiting for the full results but he does apparently seem to feel a lot through his feet. As a toddler he was happy to walk through the snow in bare feet, so I suppose he may have just liked the way it numbed his feet. He still does a lot of his walking while on tiptoes and prefers shoes to being barefoot.

AFAIK it's possible to have sensory integration problems without having an ASD. The good news is that there is a lot that can be done to help SI problems. With ds1, for example, we have been encouraging ds1 to touch/play with different textures. When he started at playgroup the only thing he could tolerate was dry sand and he absolutely hated getting even a speck of dirt on his hands. The playgroup did things like filling up the sandbox with cornflakes, porridge oats, soil etc and encouraged ds1 to play with these. At home we would encourage him to play with materials and dried pasta. It's taken a long time but ds1 can now put his hands on/in things like paint, wet clay, shaving foam etc and will even roll clay on the palm of his hand. I think Jimjams has done similar things with her ds1, also with good results.

... but is this purely an autistic trait? Presumably the tiptoes so as not to put pressure on over sensitive feet?
What would happen if you tried to tickle his feet early on?

...sorry didn't read your post properly. Was thrown by AFAIK ...couldn't figure it out to start with...

My Dh walks on tiptoes and so do both my kids.

SB - AFAIK - means As far as I know. It took me ages to work out what they all meant and I still get stuck sometimes! BH

The reason that things like walking on tiptoes etc can be signs of autism are because they are signs of hypersensitivity and pretty much 100% of autistics have sensory issues (not necessarily hyper- some are hypo- and often a mix- but being hypersensitive to light touch is common). However plenty of people are hypersensitive without being autisitc. Walking on tiptoes is also a sign of dyspraxia- again because dyspraxics pretty much always have sensory problems.

A good book on sensory issues -without the added autism/dyspraxia etc is the out of synch child

Do those with verbal dyspraxia tend to have sensory issues too?

I always knew there was a reason why I have to address dh by name to get his attention!

As you have said before, we are all on the ASD curve somewhere. Dh was very interested and surprised when I told him about the tiptoe walking thing. He has other Aspie traits, the absorbtion in 'interests', facination with machinery, and so do all his brothers. And as for ds, he is a clone of his dad.

ds2 doesn't seem to particularly. he did some odd things in front of ds1's OT (was crap at rolling or something can't rememeber) and she said that sensory integration probelms are common in section babies- and they think its because they miss out on deep pressure. She advised wrapping him in a blanket- which we do in a duvet anyway- as its part of ds1's sensory programme and when ds2 sees it he wants to join in. He seems fine to me though- nothing noted. of course verbal dyspraxia hasn't been dxed in him but he's being assessed on Friday and he certainly does some verbal dyspraxic type things.

He doesn't seem mildly autistic at the moment! He is being really manic. He has all the indicators of autism but not to an extreme level, ie enjoys contact with other people but has very little empathy, likes routines but can be a bit flexible. Sensory probs aren't too great and so on. but its hard to say as all autistic kids are so differnet and even individuals vary a lot. ds seems to drop things and then come back to them. He has started going on about going in a certain direction in the car again when he stopped that for awhile. It just seems that as they develop they find something new to have difficulites about.

We swithered about ordinary mainstream and mainstream with special needs unit and decided to try ordinary as it is within walking distance with all the village kids. He can move if he isn't coping. An auxilliary will be there to help and it will be a small class, so here's hoping.