ASD and Asperger's moms When did you start to notice something was different about your child? Did your pediatrician…

My ds does hand flapping, which he does when something fascinates him isn't autistic. Ds is 3.5 now n he's done the flapping since he was able to sit up on his own. He still does it now n he's just like any other child his age.

Monicugh- that is seriously the worst advice ever and you clearly have no idea what you are talking about. Please don't ever tell someone to wait until their child is 3 or 4 to get diagnosed. The earlier that your child gets diagnosed the better. You can't get free services for you child unless they are diagnosed. My daughter was diagnosed at 22 months and it was completely accurate. The earlier you start therapy the better your child will do.

Op always go with your gut instinct. Sometimes it's bad to ask peoples advice because I find that people always want to say something positive or they will justify a behaviour. That's not helpful at all. If you think that there is something different with your child keep pushing.

My Dd Doc thought we we're nuts when I told him I think Dd has Autism. Thinking back I think I've always thought Dd was unlike any baby I've ever know starting from when she was 1m. She was a little late on some milestones, but not to far off, so we thought & heard every baby does things when they are ready. Autism never crossed my mind, until my DH said Dd didn't know her name at like 13m. I thought he was nuts, then pairs more attention & she didn't. We say her Doc & had her hearing checked. Autism signs only came up by accident when I was trying to learn how to teach her Dd her name. My search came up saying it's a sign of autism & I thought no that's not Dd. Then, I was like I'll just look at the symptoms & I noticed things like arm flapping, spinning, no or less eye contact, regressing on speech & Dd was doing all of that. Talked to her Doc & he still didn't think autism, but I did. She also regressed in interaction with others who see her often. I called EI & had an assessment & she was a head in some things & pretty behind on speech & showed signs of sensory processing disorder. We started speech & Sensory therapy. Our therapist couldn't say we think she has autism, but they said thinks in a round about way where I knew they thought she did. EI suggesting Dd get an official assessment with a specialist got our Doc to finally give us a name of someone to see. Dd got diagnosed @ 22m. This seems to be early, but early detection means she gets therapy sooner. I highly suggest you call your local early childhood development center and ask for a assessment for your LO. They see kinds from birth till 3yrs. It can hurt. They will either say your LO is on tract or some therapy will help. You do not need a Doc for this. Best wishes & ?.

Not pointing at objects

Not being able to look where you are pointing

Little or no eye contact

Not playing with toys properly..ex: spinning the wheel of a car

Not turning when calling his name

Seems to be off in his "own world"

Would wave his hands slowly across his face

Would get super close to objects woth his face

Tip toe walking

Super delayed speech. Didn't say mama until he was 2.5

Those are just a few things I noticed early on in my son..we got him diagnosed at about 2ish, but I "knew" since about 15 months old. I got him EI, speech,PT,OT at 18 months. You have to keep pushing and pushing. His Ped. Dimissed it at first as well. He "looks too good" to have Autism. Whatever the F that means. Go with your gut. We have a regional center and that's who I contacted to get the ball rolling.

My pedi totally blew off my concerns.

I contacted Early Intervention and referred myself.

EI came out to my house and evaluated my daughter and sure enough she has some delays.

DD sees a Developmental therapist once a week and a Physical Therapist twice a month in our home and they are great!!!

Bump

@Emily dd 'growls' when she's really happy and playful. I assumed it was just her playing with her voice, which I'm sure it could still just be an innocent thing.

The early signs for John were lack of gestures, non-verbal, repetitive movements, food regressions, obsessed with spinning toys and looking at them out of the corner of his eye instead of straight on. He also plays with his voice with this yodel sound and this would happen when over stimulated.

He has never really been a head shaker, but he was a head smasher and would headbutt the floor or walls during a meltdown sometimes so hard he's make his own nose bleed. This subsided when his communication skills improved.

I believe there's a strong link either genetically or its hereditary, so if you guys have relatives then that could certainly up the risk. I know there are a lot of moms on here who have been through the process, hopefully some will help you out with early signs. Definitely research the behaviors to look out for, and document her progression with things. If she ever needs a diagnosis, that could help.

@csavvy she doesn't always respond to her name. She knows her name but it's as if she's choosing to ignore us.

Not sure if she's supposed to be playing with other babies yet but she doesn't seem to want to. For instance, her cousin is a few months older and when they're together she'll just sit and stare at him.

I know she's a baby and they have strong emotions but i also feel like she has an overreaction about everything.

SO has a relative with Asperger's, not sure if that makes a difference in risk.

I think my son was around 18 months. He seemed "different" than his older brother was when he was his age. I knew every child developed at his/her own pace but something just seemed "off" to me. My son was born over three months early and his pediatrician kept telling me to wait and let him "catch up". He never caught up and I had known that he was going to for months. Mothers intuition = most accurate diagnosis. Finally when he was two and a half, I REQUESTED AND DEMANDED a referral to an autism specialist. I made it clear that I wasn't going to wait anymore and was demanding a referral. We were on a wait list for two year and officially diagnosed in may of this year.

The head shaking could be normal, dd does that all the time and she's 9 mo. She doesn't know what shaking her head means yet, just vigorously does it randomly. Obviously too early to tell anything for her, but I've not thought it was out of the ordinary, just something she does. Are there any other signs for your dd?

@Amy sorry it cut off what I was typing!

Pointing took us 3 months of constant daily prompting to get him to point to pictures in a book and while he was non-verbal opened up a whole new world of nonverbal communication!

@Amy John began seeing a speech therapist (from a referral from the HV) at 19 months.

The most helpful thing they discussed with us was the importance of the "road to speech" which means following the pattern of developing gestures and non-verbal communication before expecting speech. It took us 3 months of very

@Amy if you are in the UK you can try to self refer to a speech therapist! Where we are, speech therapy leads the assessment of ASD and then all info is passed to a paediatrician who reads the reports and then meets the child and they make a decision on diagnosis.

My son just turned 3 and is in the process of being assessed.

At around 18 months I had enough concerns to begin early intervention, but if I look back from around 12 months when he wasnt developing waving/pointing/nodding head etc I had concern in the back of my mind.

My niece was diagnosed at 2.5 with autism. She throws really violent tantrums, doesn't talk or make eye contact (she is almost 4 now). And doesn't like to be touched unless it's her mom or dad.

There are developmental milestones for a reason, even though kids develop at their own pace being super far behind is what catches the attention of the Dr's to check into things.

This could be completely unrelated to her having autism (I've never asked) but she also still has her paci and wants to drink from baby bottles.

I was the first person in the family to wonder if her tantrums and behavior was pointing to autism, and I mentioned it a few times before she was diagnosed as my dd is 7 months younger and was meeting and passing up milestones my niece hadn't even met yet. The difference in their social behavior is astounding and went far beyond my niece just being shy.

The biggest flags for me were my nieces tantrums, her not making eye contact and also not being able to ask for simple things with one word like juice or snack when she was over 1 year old.

If your mommy intuition is telling you something is off, get another opinion from a different dr. If they have concerns they will send you to a specialist most likely (they sent a behavior specialist to spend a day in my BIL's home to see how my niece behaved on a regular day).

I noticed around 18 months with my son. He had regressed with language. I also noticed his eye contact with people had decreased. My son is 6.5 years old and has never hand flapped and he was diagnosed with autism at 3.7 years old.