autism???

[jenny49]

My daughter is 18months old She is very affectionate,lots of hug and kisses. She is good with pretend play. Feeds her doll, rocks her, pats her back. She pretends to play with toy kitchen. She pretends to wash her hair or our hair. Follows directions good. She will through trash out if I ask her. Get her shoes or toy or whatever i ask her to get. She points things out in books. She loves to look at photos of family. She waves at everyone,  feeds herself with a fork and spoon , good sleep habits.  Communicates what she wants by pointing, nodding her head yes and no and signs for milk  But she has many odd behaviors, She does not talk. she uses dada and daddy alot but we only hear "this is" yes, ya and mama sporatically. She does babble alot but also repetitively. She started walking at 11 months and the same week used 6-7 words then stopped. Over the last 8 months we had heard many words over and over then she stops and we never hear them again. she has good eye contact. She also shuffles her feet in a silly way. it appears that she extends her fingers or hands so her fingers are spread out. She actually started arm flapping today which I am very upset about. And 2 days ago she started plugging her ears. It does seems she is just listing to the different sound but it is still odd. she sometimes runs on her toes. She is constantly taking objects out of their box like crayons and putting them back. We played out side today and she had 5 balls that she kept throwing in her little pool and them taking them back out. over and over she makes weird noises over and over.  When she gets excited she laughs but makes this strange asmatic sound over and over. shakes her head side to side when she is just walking around. She claps alot but i feel like i encouraged that because i clap at everything she does.  She does not seem to want to try and speak. she acts annoyed by me when i encourage her to speak or "learn" thinks like ABCs or numbers. Any advice is apperciated.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

In some ways you are expecting more than would be reasonable for a child so young, particularly in the area of speech development and use of language. She is very young, too young to expect any organized type of learning, such as the alphabet. Overall she seems to be doing well relative to her emotional development and social engagement. Now, there may be some concerns in her gross motor development and language development, and these do invite evaluation. The best approach would be to arrange a developmental evaluation, which would take a look at the broad scope of her development (gross and fine motor, cognitive, emotional, social). A second approach would be to refer her to Early Intervention (this would be a simpler arrangement).

[portuguese mom]

By the way, at 18 months she is too young to learn ABCs and such. When teaching her to use language, you need to make it fun and not annoy her.  Try to encourage her to speak when she is interested in something or wants something. Let's say that she really wants her juice cup.  You need to tell her "you want the juice cup". She probably will say "cuppp".  You reply back: "yes, cup... good job princess".

[portuguese mom]

Have you mentioned to her pediatrition your concerns? Did he/she have her hearing tested? Either way, my older daughter was like yours. As a mom, if you suspect something, you need to act on it. You probably should have a full evaluation done by a child development doctor and/or your state's Children Early Intervation program (including hearing and speech pathology tests).  It seems that her speech is a little delayed and the earlier you start helping her with professional speech therapy the better her chances of progressing and catching up. My daughter was like yours and started speech therapy at 20 months.  It turns out that she has ADHD. She is now in 1st grade and doing well. Given how affectionate she is and follows commands, I do not think that yours has Autism or ADHD. Do listen to your instincts and concerns and obtain professional help. There is so much help out there for speech delay.