Signs of Autism in 22 month old?

Anonymous
Parents of children with autism -- what "signs", if any, did you see in dc @ 22 months? We have a meeting with our pedia in a week re: a few behaviors and are wondering what you'd typically see at this stage. TIA.
Anonymous
It is important to first understand that no two kids with autism are the same. Autism Speaks is a great advocacy group with tons of information (http://www.autismspeaks.org/whatisit/learnsigns.php) For us, we started to see signs when our DS was 20 months old. Before then he seemed to be developing normally. He has poor eye contact, does not point or wave, does not often respond to his name, speech delayed, does not follow one step directions, does not have a name for his brother nor does he call us mama or dada and generally is not interested in other children.

Where do you live? There are great early intervention programs in most counties that provide an developmental evaluation and therapy, if needed.

Best wishes!
Anonymous
I don't have a child w/ autism but our ped started asking certain questions beginning at the 15 month checkup that are similar to the PP. Then, he asked more questions at the 18 month checkup. Did you ped ask questions too? I thought it was a standard thing during those visits but now I know it is fairly recent due to rise in autism cases. Did the ped say to wait and see?
Anonymous
I suspected something was going on at around 20 months, my DC stopped repeating after me, and he was not interested in interacting with other children, did not responded to her name, stopped waiving good bye. the speech regression was enough for the pediatrician to send him for an evaluation, there they saw other signs and a couple of months later he was diagnosed by a developmental pediatrician. DH and I were very concern but seek help immediately, he has an educator from the county once a week, he is enroll in speech and OT and is currently under ABA. we are seeing improvement. early intervention is the key, and do not get hang on the label, the OT person told me this very early on, these kids need help to achieve milestones, let's help them and work hard with them despite what the diagnosis is.
best of luck.
Anonymous
Hi, this is the OP. Thank you for all your responses. This wasn't a concern at the 18 mos visit as the issues are recent. DC has a few behaviors that fall on the "checklist" (i.e. lining up toys, walking on tiptoe) so it could be something, it could be nothing. DC is doing well with eye contact, speech, responsiveness etc, although speech did develop later than other kids. Those seem to be the big things so I'm hopeful it's nothing. Thanks again.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Hi, this is the OP. Thank you for all your responses. This wasn't a concern at the 18 mos visit as the issues are recent. DC has a few behaviors that fall on the "checklist" (i.e. lining up toys, walking on tiptoe) so it could be something, it could be nothing. DC is doing well with eye contact, speech, responsiveness etc, although speech did develop later than other kids. Those seem to be the big things so I'm hopeful it's nothing. Thanks again.


I would see where dc is at 24 months, and if behaviors have increased (or other behaviors added) I might get dc on list to see one of the area's developmental pediatricians (Dr. Conlon, Dr. Compart) It's too early to judge whether or not speech is going to be an issue, IMO.
Anonymous
I think lining up toys and toe-walking are fairly common at 22 months... and it's a good sign that speech and eye-contact are on-target. My hunch is that your ped will say all is well but it's good you have awareness of the signs and symptoms.
Anonymous
A big red flag is whether or not your child is isolating their index finger to point at things they want. Try putting a favorite toy just our of reach and see if he points with a finger or reaches with a whole hand.
Anonymous
I'd be cautious to use such an isolated "symptom" as a big red flag. I have one autistic child and one that isn't autistic. The autistic one never pointed with his index finger, but neither did the other. The difference was more in the use of eye contact to alert me that she wanted something that was out of reach. My son would never look me in the eyes to get me to give him something, he would stare at the desired object and talk toward it rather than toward me.
Anonymous
Lining up toys can also been seen in children with a speech delay not just Autism.

You should see a developmental pediatrician or a pediatric neurologist (we used Dr Terry Watkins in Reston) . Maybe do a post here for recommendations.

My son is Autistic and my regular pediatrician recommended daycare when I expressed my concerns!

In my opinion, a lack of imitation such as: using a play phone like he has seen you do versus just mouthing the object, not waving bye, trouble or lack interest in using a fork and spoon, not pointing are good indicators. My son clearly did not respond to his name at 18 months which was a huge flag for us.
Anonymous
My normal developing 3 yr old lines up cars as do the other boys at school. Don't take that as a sign that something is wrong. If they seem unable to actually play w/ toys, then there might be a problem. I used to babysit for a boy who only lined up his toys. When I would get on the floor to play w/ him, he had no idea how to play w/ any of them toys. He couldn't interact w/ me or look me in the eyes. Most of the time, he seemed unaware when someone was around him at all. He was diagnosed w/ autism.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Lining up toys can also been seen in children with a speech delay not just Autism.

You should see a developmental pediatrician or a pediatric neurologist (we used Dr Terry Watkins in Reston) . Maybe do a post here for recommendations.

My son is Autistic and my regular pediatrician recommended daycare when I expressed my concerns!

In my opinion, a lack of imitation such as: using a play phone like he has seen you do versus just mouthing the object, not waving bye, trouble or lack interest in using a fork and spoon, not pointing are good indicators. My son clearly did not respond to his name at 18 months which was a huge flag for us.


OP here. DC does use a play phone like we do (and steals ours!), but is delayed in waving bye - sometimes it's after the person has started to walk away/is gone that you get "bye" and the wave -- is that normal? DC can use the spoon for oatmeal and cereal but is not so great with other things or a fork, the utensils usually end up on the floor.
Anonymous
OP, there are so many other things that your child may need some help with aside from autism. Not waving bye sounds pretty normal to me. Being awkward with a fork could mean some OT may help. We did early speech therapy for our 18 month old because he was very frustrated he couldn't speak. The therapy itself wasn't much, but sometimes a very small intervention early can prevent problems later on. I wish I'd done OT with my older child, who has trouble holding a fork properly and has to be reminded constantly.

It can't hurt to get an evaluation by an OT. Do NOT rely on your pediatrician. My pediatrician said "he'll grow out of it" over and over, when my older child had some issues that would have been easy to treat when he was younger, but got much harder as he got older.

Sensory integration, certain learning disabilities, even some undiagnosed "differences" can be addressed early. My younger child had some minor physical issues that were dealt with by a PT when he was six months old. Voila, in a few weeks, they were fixed. If we'd waited until he was older, they would have required extensive PT.
Anonymous
I think you should contact the county right away and have him evaluated for OT and Speech services through Early intervention. They are usually able to evaluate a child in 1-3 weeks. Then you can start services immediately whether or not he is determined to be on the spectrum.

I wrote the post about the fork, waving. It sounds like your son is imitating. My son has classic Autism.

Regardless, it sounds like he could benefit from Speech and OT. I would not wait things out. Some kids make amazing strides with early intervention that would have taken years to sort out if nothing was done.

I 3 Pediatricians in my family and everyone thought I was overreacting. Definitely trust you intuition on this one.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Lining up toys can also been seen in children with a speech delay not just Autism.

You should see a developmental pediatrician or a pediatric neurologist (we used Dr Terry Watkins in Reston) . Maybe do a post here for recommendations.

My son is Autistic and my regular pediatrician recommended daycare when I expressed my concerns!

In my opinion, a lack of imitation such as: using a play phone like he has seen you do versus just mouthing the object, not waving bye, trouble or lack interest in using a fork and spoon, not pointing are good indicators. My son clearly did not respond to his name at 18 months which was a huge flag for us.


OP here. DC does use a play phone like we do (and steals ours!), but is delayed in waving bye - sometimes it's after the person has started to walk away/is gone that you get "bye" and the wave -- is that normal? DC can use the spoon for oatmeal and cereal but is not so great with other things or a fork, the utensils usually end up on the floor.


That's very normal for 22 months, OP. Both the waving and the fork on the floor!!
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