15 months old. Would you suspect autism?

[sconenotscon]

Hi all

Just lately I've noticed my 15 month old very rarely makes eye contact no matter how much we try to interact. There is autism in the family.

When we read him books he may glance at us once or twice and smile but that's about it. He doesn't answer to his name, he doesn't point clap or wave. He looks past us at his toys or the TV. If we sit in front of him he will actively turn his head to look around us.

I may be grasping at straws here but could this just be slow development instead of autism?

My DS had a severe speech and language and social communication delay so not always autism

@Essexmum321

My DS had a severe speech and language and social communication delay so not always autism

Thank you for responding, it's so hard to tell at this age especially as he isn't showing all the signs

How is your DS doing now?

He’s fine now but needed 1-1 at nursery and lots of speech therapy, he also lost babbling skills around 12 months, it really did look like autism at the time, even the paediatrician thought so, it was only when they did the tests/reports for the formal diagnosis that autism was ruled out.

@Essexmum321

He’s fine now but needed 1-1 at nursery and lots of speech therapy, he also lost babbling skills around 12 months, it really did look like autism at the time, even the paediatrician thought so, it was only when they did the tests/reports for the formal diagnosis that autism was ruled out.

I'm so glad to hear he is doing well!

Was there ever a concern around his eye contact? As that is what the health visitor is most concerned about

He was never really under the HV after he was one, we had a GP referral to the paediatrician after he repeatedly opened and closed her cupboard doors, the paediatrician said it wasn’t necessary to remain under the HV because I felt like he was going to fail every test/appt.

I can’t remember worrying about eye contact but I was very worried about the lack of pointing, waving and clapping, 15 months is very young though. If you look on the teachmetotalk website there is a lot of useful information on how to teach toddlers to talk whether autistic or speech delayed / disordered.