I don't remember

[Twotoesmo]

My daughter is at the beginning of an autism assessment, recommended by a Clinical Psychologist that she has been seeing, to help her with mental health problems brought on by lockdown.

The next stage in the assessment is for me and DH to have a developmental interview, where we need to give info on how she developed. But the problem is, I have such a bad memory, and apart from a few things, I can't remember much about her milestones as a baby. Would anyone be able to give me a heads up regarding what they are likely to ask about, so it gives me time to chat to family members about it?

I do remember that she was a very quiet baby (so much so that we took her to the doctors, who told us just to be thankful that she was so 'good'), she was fairly late to walk (16 months), she didn't care where we took her or who she was left with, and she had an amazing imagination - often in her own world with her dolls, or even just cutlery (which she would give characters to). She was also as a young child, always spinning, or rolling about on her bed, or doing cartwheels. But I can't remember anything about eye contact, whether she was sociable or not as a baby, or anything like that?

I also would like to know - whether if you have a daughter who has ASD - my description of what I do remember from her baby years sounds familiar? Obviously I know that everyone is different, but ASD didn't ever cross my mind until she started with mental health issues recently.

Thanks so much for your help.

I think children with ASD are often very different so most things I could say about what DD was like would not tell you about whether your DD has ASD too. There were some very clear pointers with DD in that she had no joint attention (didn't understand pointing), was late with gestures, never played with dolls etc, didn't pretend very well, didn't develop friendships age appropriately etc.

We were asked about milestones, including language use, peek-a-boo, gestures, pointing, interest in collaborative play or role play, imagination, early social relationships (or lack of them). Also sleep, diet, favourite toys (if any) or games.