Autism-World

Ask:my little girl is 3 1/2 years old and is not talking. She can say single words only and not sentences. She puts things in a line instead of stacking. She is very shy and will not play with other children besides her sister. I took her to a developing doctor and they said it may not be autism but she said it was too early to tell. What is signs to look out for of autism?

Answer 1:From everything I heard, a 3 1/2 yr old is not to young to be diagnosed. If your child has a mild form, maybe it would be harder to diagnose her early.

I think eye contact is the biggest factor. Some people confuse shyness with lack of eyecontact. When a child is shy, she glances at the face, darts her eyes away & frequently checks back as if to say “Are you still looking at me?” She is VERY aware of the other person’s presence & responds, just shyly.

An autistic child seems indifferent to a person. If makes fleeting eyecontact, she does n’t quickly dart away, but rather, sees nothing of interest.

There was a study looking at an autistic child’s first birthday video (taken years earlier). The Dr said it was a great situation because it was a child in a social, yet novel situation.

The normal child’s responce to being presented with what looks like a cake that is one fire, is to look around at other people’s faces. It’s as if she is asking “Should I be scared of this?” After she looks around & sees everyone is smiling & happy, the child often laughs too.

In one video, an autistic child was indifferent to the people around. He was busy examining the plate when the cake comes in. then turns focus to the cake, ignoring the reactions of everyone around him.

When the presents come out, a normal child holds up items to show them off. An autistic child usually does not.

Answer 2:There are many conditions which may appear similar to autism so please be careful about accepting any answers here as being a definite rule of thumb as sign of autism. Each child is different and will display different combination of behaviours. Diagnosis is better done by a specialist who know what they are doing. Also, children develop at different rate so just because your daughter is not showing certain ability it does not necessarily means she is autistic.

I am not saying that your child is ok. But DO get a proper diagnosis before starting to panic. You could fall ito a trap of expecting her to be autistic. There MAY be something not right with you child but it could be something else.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Ask and answer.