14 month old son....

My son has been seeing a neurologist since he was 5 months old, and as of right now we have a tentative diagnosis of Central Auditory Neglect Disroder. He does not respond to his name or other sounds about 80-90% of the time and is very behind in language development although his hearing tests come back fine. He does not say any single sylaball sounds like (ma, da, ba, pa) and his level of babbling is that he makes a lot of "noise". It is not really any sounds that letters make, but more like "ahhh" really loud...anyways, he was born 9 weeks early withe the cord around his neck 6 times and has been in developmental therapy and occupational therapy since he was 2 months old. Anyways, on to my current question. His neurologist and two other doctors have considered autism but decided to give him a little more time to see if he comes around or if his MRI at the age of 2 will show any more damage (he does have slight damage to his visual cortex but it is not causing his language/hearing issue). However, his pediatrition says that he is too social to have autism and will not even consider testing him. So, recently Ashtyn has started throwing fits. He has become obsessive with pushing things across the floor...such as computer chairs, paper, toys, cars...everything gets pushed across the floor. If you try to pick him up, his legs go stiff, his arms go limp and he starts screaming bloody murder. Yet, the minute you set him back down he takes right off pushing his toy across the floor. He also never pushes stuff the right way...he flips his cars over on the roof and pushes it that way. He is obsessed with spinning things too....since birth he has always stared at ceailing fans and that has continued throughout his life. but now he will flip cars over and spin their wheels and flip anything over that has wheels and spin them. He doesn't really show affection when i try to hold him, he just goes stiff and starts screaming. Is this behavior normal?

[Logan206]

My son is the same age and I think some of the things you've described may just be typical for that age.  In the last few weeks, my son has also started throwing what I think are tantrums.  He seems to fixate on certain things (random stuff, like the phone, or a piece of mail, or a piece of tupperware) and if you take it away, he flips out.  He throws himself on the floor and cries.  If I pick him up during one of these 'fits', he screams even louder and stiffens and extends his whole body.  If I give the item back to him, he immediately calms down (and usually smiles or laughs).  When you say that he doesn't show affection, is it all the time or just during one of these episodes?

I've followed a lot of your posts on Ashtyn's--isn't he standing and/or starting to walk with support?  When my son was in that stage, he used everything as a 'walker' - chairs, cushions, some very large blocks - basically, anything at the right height to give him support to walk.  I guess if Ashtyn is sitting and pushing stuff along he floor, that is different, but maybe it's just a behavior that letting him practice walking movements.

I don't know what to tell you about the spinning.  That does seem a little unusual if he's doing it with everything.  I wouldn't count ceiling fans though - many kids are mesmerized by those.  Best of luck.  You are doing such a great job with him, I'm sure you'll get some answers on these concerns soon enough.

[Cheyenne_08]

Thanks for the message. As he gets older, I know that things will be more clear. I just kinda like to follow what he is or is not doing and see where he lines up with other kids. I have never really been around other kids, so I don't have anything to compare Ashtyn to...so basically everything I am learning about development, I am learning as we go lol. Thanks again for the message. Ashtyn is standing and he will walk around things with support. But ashtyn doesn't use things as a walker, he crawls across the floor with the object under his hand and he pushes it.