If you seen signs at 6 months, what level is your child? Need advice

[Momlife2025]

I know my 6-7 month old has autism, I’m so worried about his future. If you seen signs this young, how is your LO now? What level were they diagnosed? Any advice on what I can do to help now?

Can I ask what signs are you noticing? Sometimes things that are abnormal/warning signs for autism for older children are completely normal for young babies

just to note - I’m not a crazy FTM, this is my second baby
the main things il note below
eye contact - doesn’t use it in typical way, would rather not have eye contact - especially with strangers (occasionally will totally ignore strangers like they don’t even exsist)
doesn’t always turn towards sounds or voice, doesn’t always startle at loud noises
his whole body tenses and shakes when frustrated/excited
tenses legs/arms and swirls hands and feet
will not eat anything, refuses to open mouth but will mouth everything else (toys etc anything will go straight in his mouth)
can only get him to nap if in motion - car/pram

The mouthing and napping and the stimming like behaviours are very normal at that age too. If you are concerned speak to your hv they wont do referalls to community paeds at that age but they will refer for hearing tests and thats one of the first things the do when autism is expected.

My son I started noticing signs when he was 9 months old. He has high care needs and goes to a speical needs school. Although noticing signs early does not mean theyll have higher care needs than someone who doesnt syatt showing signs until 1 year+ so I wouldnt worry to much about that atm. If he isnt eating also speak to your HV about that they can maybe refer to a dietician/do extra weight checks to make sure they dont start to lose weight

Thank you so much for your reply - if it was only one or two things I wouldn’t be as worried but because of all the signs together I’m 99% sure it’s going to be a autism diagnosis. May I ask what the first signs you noticed was?

He was obsessed with watching things spin, if it had wheels he tipped it upside down and say and spinned the wheels for literally hours. he also started lining things up and he had an inconsistent response to his name, he did also stim but it wasnt concerning to me at the time as that is normal baby behaviour. It wasnt until he hit a small regression at 15/16 months old where his eye contact chnaged it was either non existent or very intense, and he started to struggle with people especially those who he didn't know very well that I knew for certain he had autism.

Hi, I realised my LO was possibly autistic at around 12-16months. Speech delay, walking on tip toes, flaps hands, didn’t respond to name, shakes a lot when excited. Sounds a lot like your LO. Also shoved/ shoves everything in his mouth. Flaps hands. Likes going dizzy. Lines up
toys.

hes almost 3 and he was requested to be diagnosed from about 18m and rejected twice purely for age. Hes almost 3 now and being referred for a third time. (Age 3 is the earliest they will consider a diagnosis).

it’s a shame because I have been told by numerous health professionals he would benefit from an assessment but because he was so young they don’t really look at them as sometimes it can just be “toddler behaviour”.

thank you both so much for responding - may I ask if either of your LO’s are verbal? I’m going out of my mind with anxiety/worry and just don’t know what to do or how I can help my LO

My son had constant regressions in his speech until just before his 5th birthday he could only say max 5 words. Then out of nowhere his vocabulary exploded. Hes 6 now and speaks in full sentences, although his speech is what they say is 'largely unintelligible'. people who are closest to him know what hes saying but a stranger would struggle, he does still have a lot of trouble understanding language but he is slowly but surely getting there

I knew with my 5th from about aged 2 months. Diagnosis aged 6 years. He's 11 years old now

How is he getting on? How did you know around 2 months, what are the first signs you can remember? Thank you

At 2 months he didn't ever smile, just had a permanent worried/surprised expression. He didn't respond to interaction at all, if people tried to make noises at him, chat to him etc he would ignore them. The paediatrician put in an urgent referral to the eye clinic when he was aged 4 months because she thought he must have a severe sight problem. His eyesight was completely fine and so was his hearing.

Now he is in mainstream secondary school with an ehcp. He is emotionally like a 3 year old but his intelligence is average for his age. He gets taken to the learning support department at school for break and lunchtime because he can't be left unsupervised.

My ds is 5 1/2 and meets criteria for severe learning disability. He has had no speech for over 1 year and a diagnosis of autism. He also has pica. At 6 months he was a typically developing baby, he was my 3rd child, and i worked with children. He gave eye contact, crawled, and turned towards noises and people. He was a later babbler though (7 months, and didn't babble often).

In hindsight, there were signs. He was an extremely poor sleeper, and would only sleep while being breastfed, or whilst in motion. He was also generally a fretful disposition unless you were holding him at all times. It took 18 months before I could put him to bed and have 2 hours to myself in an evening, and 4 years before he slept through in his own bed (He loves his sleep now). We really started noticing it aged 2, when the eye contact dropped off and speech never progressed to more than single words and phrases.

What you can do now - visit GP and health visitor about concerns, don't let them fob you off. There are also other things it could be - hearing. sight, etc. Definitely worth getting those checked. Interact with him lots and keep interactions that he likes going. Look into sensory toys to stimulate his sense (most baby toys are anyway).

Also please please try not to look too far ahead. I know it's hard, been there xx

thank you all so much for taking the time to reply - is there anything that anyone could recommend to start doing which you think could help?
for example, do you think learning sign language/sing and sign classes would help incase LO is non verbal?

Learning makaton is amazing even for children who dont have any additional needs. Toddlers without extra needs also struggle to communicate and makaton has been amazing to help eliminate frustration. obviously it can be invaluable to a child who struggles to communicate.

Although bare in mind some times it just will not stick with a child with additional needs and i would say Just hone in and work out their cues work on objects of reference as this is the first step of communication for any child.

Mine had signs that young hes 8 now and severe nonverbal. He did start learning to talk around the normal age though and could talk for a while (but mostly to himself not to communicate) but regressed at 3

@moofish what signs did you see so early if you don’t mind me asking? Appriecate it’s a long time ago now!

Hi op, I’m sorry that you’re feeling worried. Your DS is still so young and will develop and change over the coming months and years, I wouldn’t worry too much about a diagnosis at the moment and just support his development as best you can. I really recommend the book More Than Words by Hanen. You can find it for cheaper secondhand. It’s aimed at children with ASD and social communication differences, but the strategies would benefit a neurotypical child as well.

He cried constantly until he learned to crawl. was a terrible sleeper af that age qas waking at least 10 times a night. He didnt ever feel relaxed in your arms he was very stiff and tense all the time. Hated all food and in the high chair would just rock back and forth banging his head on the back. Repetitive behaviour like would just crawl round and round in circles. Poor eye contact. No social smile. Shook his head back and forth a lot. Made a weird grimacing expression a lot like a tic. Happy to sit on a swing in park for hours (still his favourite thing now). Im probably forgetting some stuff

My beautiful son is now 4, has just seen diagnosed with autism with speech delay. He’s verbal but struggles with social cues and two way conversations.
I noticed something wasn’t right when he didn’t smile until 12 weeks. He then gave very little eye contact and wasn’t hitting speech and communication milestones. He cried alot and was fussy. A doctor once told me “some babies just don’t enjoy being babies” Physically he was hitting milestones, he was just behind on social and communication.
This carried on throughout nursery, who raised concerns and as I said we finally got his diagnosis aged 4.

@Energy1992 thank you for your reply - how is your DS getting on? Hope you don’t mind me asking.. Does he understand commands? Can you have a conversation?

@mayflowers9 thank you I will order the book - do you have a child with ASD?

@Momlife2025 yes, our son is still on the waiting list for an assessment but his teachers and speech therapist are quite sure he has ASD. He’s in a preschool class for autistic kids.

Hiya

My son is getting on well thank you. He‘s in mainstream primary school and making progress with his understanding and communication. He understands simple commands, We can have simple conversations, nothing too long or complicated using simple language helps. The main thing is he is very happy. I also have a baby girl who’s 10 months and she is so very different to my son at that age. She is giving constant eye contact, copying sounds back to me and turning her head to her name.
How is your son doing?

@Momlife2025 hi there, I know your post was fairly recent but how are you and your little one doing now?