12.5 month old daughter not responding to her name

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Hi johnie, I can see this is an old post but I was wondering what happened with your daughter. I have a son who is 13 months and it was as if I was reading about him. If there was a problem did early intervention help?

My daughter was evaluated by three different experts and they all agreed that she was behind in some areas. She could have caught up on her own, but we would never know. It is nice that the state of CA paid for the cost of therapy but if they didn't pay I would have gone with my insurance and it pays 80% of the total cost.

I got a lot of opposition from friends and family members about getting therapy for my daughter. I may have overreacted. However, if my daughter was truely delayed and I didn't seek early intervention, none of these people have to deal with the consequences. It is not a house or a kitchen where you can decide to upgrade at any time at your convenient, the brain of a child is much more pliable at 1 and early intervention is critical.

Hi Mom,
Yes, I believe that my request for intervention helped my daughter. She had behavior therapy and speech therapy for the last 11 months and her vocabulary is near normal range. She knows basic body parts, car, apple, house. She knows the entire alphabet and can count to 10. She responded to her name at 16 month. Although she knows who daddy and mommy are, she still never call us. Perhaps because we are always there for her. She is pointing, waving hi and bye and says 'see you'. She asks for milk, cereal, TV, shoes (going out), ball, help, open, out, in, more. She understands much more than she can say. Socially she is very good.

What's helpful about the therapy is that you can observe what the therapists do and learn from that. Since my daughter had only 2 hours of therapy per week, I was able to applied what I learned at home.

Don't hesitate to ask for help. Hopefully your state covers 100% of the cost like CA. Good luck.
John

My daughter was evaluated by three different experts and they all agreed that she was behind in some areas. She could have caught up on her own, but we would never know. It is nice that the state of CA paid for the cost of therapy but if they didn't pay I would have gone with my insurance and it pays 80% of the total cost.

I got a lot of opposition from friends and family members about getting therapy for my daughter. I may have overreacted. However, if my daughter was truely delayed and I didn't seek early intervention, none of these people have to deal with the consequences. It is not a house or a kitchen where you can decide to upgrade at any time at your convenient, the brain of a child is much more pliable at 1 and early intervention is critical.

Hi all,

I am here to ask for your advice. My 12.5 month old daughter is not responding to her name. If we call her name 10 times, may be she responds once. I think the time she responded may just be because of the sound and not because she understands that we are calling her. I am sure she doesn't have problem with hearing although I will request her doctor to check her hearing.

Here are some of the worrisome signs that I observed:
1. Not responding to her name when being called
This could be a sign, but it could be because she is busy. Call her name when she isn't playing

2.Two words "ChaCha", "Ma", and only use them a few times a day. She makes meaningless sounds like "Arrggg".
Babbling is the first signs of speech. Its perfectly normal. Many kids who don't have autism have speech delays.

3. She is really active, non stop until she sleeps. When she hears music or sees cartoons on TV, she would in a sitting position jumps and flaps her arms sometimes for a few minutes (repetitive motion?) Flapping could be autistic behavior, but its also very common in non-autistic kids especially if they are young.

4. She loves watching cartoons and jumps up and down when we turn on the TV. But she doesn't protest when we turn it off. She just accepts it.
Nothing to note there. I would stay off TV however until she is 3 or at least limit it.
5. Sometimes she can play by herself for more than one hour. Sometimes she yelled after being left alone for too long.
Its hard to tell. Does she ever seek attention? Does she imitate you? Is she drawn to people? Does she play normally with toys?

Here are some good signs that I observed:
1. She loves to play peek-a-boo, like when I hide behind a blanket, she would jump into the blanket and laugh and looked into my eyes. If I run and hide in the closet, she would quickly crawled into the closet and laughing while doing it.
2. She makes eye contact with us and strangers. Although she might turn away from strangers and acts shy. But she would make eye contact with most people she know like an average kid.

Right now she can walk 10 steps unassisted and not holding onto anything. But she usually falls at the end or sits down. She still move by crawling most of the time.

I am taking her to the Pediatrician for the 1 year check up this Friday. But I am worrying too much after reading the symptoms. Please give me some advice.


The bottom line is 12.5 months is very early. If you suspect autism learn as much as possible. Don't let people dismiss your concerns. My son played peek- a boo, made eye contact (still does occasionally), and babbled (still does). At 13 months I suspected autism, because he didn't play with toys normally. He didn't react much to people, seemed to be in his own world. Everyone dismissed my worries, including our pediatrician. At 18 months the symptoms because more apparent. He started getting attached to toys, stopped making eye contact, and there was no progress in his development. At 18 months he was diagnosed with AS. If you think that she is in her own world, get an evaluation from a good neurologist or child psychologist.

Many thanks,
John