Anonymous wrote:I was diagnosed autistic when I was 24.
Your child might or might not be autistic. You might find out soon or you might find out later.
The most important thing is to relax, love your baby, and take him as he is. Support his needs, whatever they might be and everything will turn out okay. It's normal to be worried, that's was love does to you unfortunately. But since you can't change his neurology anyway I do believe the most important thing is to work on your fear of an autism diagnosis. Or any "special needs" diagnosis for that matter. Read some blogs or twitter feeds from actually autistic people and you will soon understand that an autism diagnosis really isn't anything to worry about. Especially with the way you describe your son he sounds like he will be just fine.

Thanks for your input! I find it really interesting and cool to read about how some autistic kids experience their type of play as richly rewarding despite it bothering the adults.

22:50, the problem with providing specific advice and techniques to a highly anxious person is that if and when her little baby somehow "fails to respond" to the technique in some way, or she can't discern or decide if he is really responding, or if 309 repetitions are enough or 310, she is going to have a complete breakdown. And her anxiety is going to shoot to the moon, even higher than it is now. Anxiety does not respond to data. It does not respond to external testors and reality controls. The reality is inside her, not the baby.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, research shows that 6 months is a great age for intervention, with fantastic results. The problem is many specialists out there aren't trained to work with infants.
"Treatment at the earliest age when signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear – sometimes in infants as young as 6 months old – significantly reduces symptoms so that, by age 3, most who received the therapy had neither ASD nor developmental delay, a UC Davis MIND Institute research study has found."
https://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/publish/news/newsroom/9182

I was trained in a setting similar to this study. It's about incorporating naturalistic therapy techniques that subtly change your parenting approach to encourage communication from your child.

I don't see anything particularly worrisome in your description of your son. On the other hand, this is not the first rodeo, so trust your instincts, but think logically. Are there any risk factors? ASD in the family, or autistic traits? Delays in meting milestones?

Hi PP, this is OP. Can you please tell me more about these techniques you are trained in and give examples? If nothing else, it will help me assuage my anxiety by feeling like I'm doing something proactive, even if my concerns are unfounded. As for risk factors, my brother's son has ADHD and Asperger's tendencies. Thank you for your kind and insightful response.

sorry for the delay, it's been a crazy couple of days.

There are two methods I'm aware of that have been studied in infants (6-12 months) and young toddlers (12-18 months)
ESDM http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/mindinstitute/research/esdm/
http://www.amazon.com/Early-Start-Your-Child-Autism/dp/160918470X

and

IMPACT http://psychology.msu.edu/autismlab/projectimpact.html
http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Social-Communication-Children-Autism/dp/1606234420

The techniques are similar, IMO. The ESDM manual is detailed, very thorough; the IMPACT one is much thinner, but I see they also have a video now, which might help. I know both research teams were working on manuals specifically for infants and young toddler, but I don't know if they're out yet.

I was trained and coached as a parent, not as a professional. It was a fantastic experience and so glad I did it, for me and for DS. You asked for an example. If you're concerned about eye contact, be mindful of that in all interactions with your baby. When he wants a toy, you hold it right in front of your face so that he gets used to looking toward you when he wants something. You gradually fade the prompt over several weeks until he looks at you without you holding the toy up. You read to him face to face, not with him on your lap facing away from you. My son had no joint attention while reading, so I'd bring the book up next to my face, playing peek a boo behind the book, anything to make my facial expressions just as interesting to him as the book. Similarly with communication, you treat first any communication as meaningful, and very gradually help him understand that he needs to make certain sounds and gestures to get what he wants. All this is done very gently, without upsetting the baby. It become second nature to me and I don't even think about it anymore, it's just how I interact with my kid.

If you're really concerned, contact either/ both programs and see if they have any advice for you or helpful materials. Good luck and pls post an update/

I was diagnosed autistic when I was 24.
Your child might or might not be autistic. You might find out soon or you might find out later.
The most important thing is to relax, love your baby, and take him as he is. Support his needs, whatever they might be and everything will turn out okay. It's normal to be worried, that's was love does to you unfortunately. But since you can't change his neurology anyway I do believe the most important thing is to work on your fear of an autism diagnosis. Or any "special needs" diagnosis for that matter. Read some blogs or twitter feeds from actually autistic people and you will soon understand that an autism diagnosis really isn't anything to worry about. Especially with the way you describe your son he sounds like he will be just fine.

Holy crap woman just enjoy your kid. My autistic one is pretty darned enjoyable anyway - what is to worry about?
It seems that perhaps that you are the one to be worried about with all of this stress and dissecting your kids behavior rather than enjoying him for what he is.

I would echo this poster. My older daughter ( 18) who has ASD is an amazing person! I am so glad we have her in our lives. When she was a baby she didn't exhibit many of the traits and we didn't get know she had it until age 13. The point I am trying to make is ASD is just one part of who she is. Yes, every parent worries but, sometimes ASD is not the worst thing you can experience as a parent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, research shows that 6 months is a great age for intervention, with fantastic results. The problem is many specialists out there aren't trained to work with infants.
"Treatment at the earliest age when signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear – sometimes in infants as young as 6 months old – significantly reduces symptoms so that, by age 3, most who received the therapy had neither ASD nor developmental delay, a UC Davis MIND Institute research study has found."
https://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/publish/news/newsroom/9182

I was trained in a setting similar to this study. It's about incorporating naturalistic therapy techniques that subtly change your parenting approach to encourage communication from your child.

I don't see anything particularly worrisome in your description of your son. On the other hand, this is not the first rodeo, so trust your instincts, but think logically. Are there any risk factors? ASD in the family, or autistic traits? Delays in meting milestones?

Huh. What I'm gathering from this is that the reason these kids "grew out" of their "ASD" by 3 or so is because they didn't have it in the first place. If you give treatment to babies at 6 months of age, when most doctors think it's too early to diagnose, no wonder the treatment works! Hey, I know! Let's give them cancer treatment at 6 months, then see how many of them don't have cancer at 3 yo?

Exactly. It's easy to cure children of what they never had in the first place. There's more going on to autism then can be solved by a few therapy sessions at six months old.