If you have a child diagnosed ASD:
- When did you first see signs and what were they?
-If your child showed ASD signs before 18 months, did they have a skills regression?
-Were you able to access early intervention? What did that look like and what helped the most?
-What do you wish you knew when your child was 12 months that you know now?
My daughter is 12 months tomorrow, and has been referred to paeds by the GP. Separately, we went to a S&L clinic and she was referred for intervention that will start in the next 10 weeks.
Although many will say it is too early to tell, she has the following behaviours and delays:
-Never responds to her name
-Hand flapping and twirling
-No eye contact. Will actively avoid this.
-No social smiles. Almost never smiles, except at dogs, has probably laughed 10 times in her life.
-Almost no sounds. Very quiet.
-Will zone out for minutes at a time.
-Works on an activity for up to 5 minutes without looking up to check in with me. Eg. Posting pegs into a small hole in a carton or object permanence box.
-Stands on tiptoe
-Does not mimic gestures, never points
-Goes in downward dog pose to look at things upside down
-Obsessed with spinning the wheels of toys
She is fairly affectionate with me: when playing, she will often come to me to put her head in my lap for a little bit. This is her "checking in" with me, but she doesn't make eye contact or look at my face when she does this. When I breastfeed her she's never looked at my face while we're doing this. She does know how to clap, and used to clap at the right points when singing "Wind the bobbin up", and "If you're happy and you know it", although she's recently stopped doing that.
Realistically, I know that with this many ASD markers, it will probably end with a diagnosis down the line. I had hoped that when we visited the S&L clinic, I'd be told that she was displaying typical behaviours, but she just sat silently in that office on the floor, looking at the toys but not paying with them, for about 5 straight minutes.
There's a lot of neurodiversity in my family, but mostly ADHD. I'm hoping to hear from other parents to get my head around what is next for us so I can support her as best I can.
I also might add that I was a primary school KS1 teacher for 7 years, and had been providing her lots of language rich activities in the first place. Basically, these delays can't really be put down to a lack of exposure to social opportunities and language.