Questions about Autism in a 2 year old

[Mary528]

I'm sorry. I know these questions are posted a lot, but I figured it would be easier me asking then trying to find another child with her exact symptoms.

My daughter just turned 2 on March 25th. I'm really worried about autism. She still doesn't talk. (She says a few things, but they aren't very clear) She flaps her arms, mainly when she's dancing, but occasionally does it when she's upset. She walks on her tip toes sometimes, not often. She does not like adults (unless she knows them well), but absolutely loves little kids. She does play with them. She looks me in the eyes, smiles a lot, mimics a lot of the things we do. It does seem like she doesn't hears us often though. But when she does listen, she does follow instructions. She watches TV a lot and it's hard to get her attention away from it. She gets frustrated easily and she does bang her head. She also covers her ears from loud things.

I'm wondering if maybe she has a speech delay with OCD. One night we had 3 water bottles on the night stand. She made them all face the same way. No matter which way we moved them, she would move them back. But the autism signs keep nagging at me. She is in speech therapy. But she hasn't started it yet.

Does it sound like autism, something else, or just weird quirks? I'm really concerned but everyone I talk to (family and friends) say that don't think she has autism.  So I don't know if I'm just looking too much into things.




Also, when she was around 16 months, my husband started a new job. He worked 100+ hours a week and he had to take our only car. So me and my daughter were stuck at home constantly by ourselves. I made the mistake of not talking to her. I also couldn't play with her much since I was on bed rest for preterm labor with my second child. Do you think this is the cause of her delays?


Thank you very much.

[timmysmom2005]

Hello. So sorry to hear you are having a hard time with your little girl. Some of the things you mentioned sound like a few of the symptoms of autism however there are other developmental delays that are not as severe but share some common symptoms. It is possible that she could have a speech delay and a sensory processing delay and not autism. My son is a 24/7 toe walker and it's because of a sensory issue. He hates the feel of flat feet. We just had him re-evauated  by a physical therapist and his tendons on the back of his ankles are getting way too tight and now he needs to go see an orthopedic doctor. But that is after years of doing it daily. I also know all about being stuck in the house with my child and no car. Been doing it 3 years now. I know there are days when being cheerful and ready to get down on the floor is the absolute last thing you want to do. I really do. We as moms need to have breaks. We get no lunch hour and coffee break. A suggestion I have is that when you need a little break and when your daughter is going to have a little tv time, make it a learning experience. When my son had poor language skills he watched blue's clues and word world a lot and I swear it helped. blue's clues even uses signs sometimes. And word world is so good about sounding out the words and explaining them and spelling them. And something really good you can do with your daughter at home is to google board maker pictures. These are very simple little pictures that teach kids how to label things. You can download and print them for free. You just need to spend time showing her the pictures and repeating the word a lot. After she gets to where she can recognize the items in the pictures she can use what is called picture exchange. Even if she can't say the word yet, she can show you the picture of what she wants and you can respond to her. It was the first step towards communication with my son and he had so much less frustration when he realized we were understanding him. (possible cause of the head banging) It is just important to be consistent with it and don't give her pictures of things you don't have. Negative reinforcement of bringing you a picture and not getting the item will be very disappointing for her. We got pics of foods, faces with different emotions on them, toys, books, anything we could think of and slowly my son learned to memorize the things. Now he chats all day long. You really need to get your daughter evaluated though. The younger problems are diagnose the better the chance to help the child learn despite it. Best of luck!

[Mary528]

First off, thank you very much for replying.

She does understand what we say. But she also ignore us often. She is enrolled in speech therapy, but they have yet to let me know when my appointment is. I plan on calling on Monday to see what is going on.

And unfortunately, she never saw people or kids during that time. No one came over and I couldn't go anywhere being on bedrest. We have started trying to go more places, but it's still limited to a few times a month.

She is starting to jabber more. And she does say a few words, but they are still mumbled and hard to understand.

I have tried teaching her sign language. While she can do the signs, she doesn't actually use them when she wants something. Do you know how I could get her to start putting those 2 things together?

[888mom]

Talk to her pediatrician.  Pediatricians are supposed to screen for autism at 18 months and then again at 24 months.  if you have concerns, you could ask about finding a specialist who can diagnose autism or language delay or OCD.  I have been told that a lot of symptoms can overlap between various diagnosis, and many things like autism, OCD, and ADD can have a sensory processing disorder component.  That can affect language, auditory processing.  If your daughter is not understanding what you say most of the time, that could be part of the auditory processing component.  With my daughter, her auditory processing came in late, probably around 26 months of age.  Before that she understood nothing you spoke, though she could understand the sign language which I had started at 18 months for her (before I had her in therapy... I had jumped on the bandwagon with baby signlanguage thinking it would get her speaking earlier.).  If you haven't started baby sign language with your daughter... many speech therapists recommend using it with their therapy.  It does alleviate a lot of the frustrations of a child not able to speak.

Not really sure about your daughter's case.  Getting the therapy is most essential.  How many hours per week will she be getting speech?  One hour per week?  I'm not a doctor, so can't give you too much advice.  Can't comment on you not talking to her... but if you have to be on bed rest for preterm labor and you had a lot going on... then that's what you had to do.  Was she talking to other people?  Was she able to play with other kids or see other adults?  Or were you not able to do anything or have visitors with your condition?   I hope that life is going better for you healthwise now.