Early symptoms means severe autism?

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Hi
my son is 10 month old

Arm flapping constantly.
No eye contact
No stranger anxiety
No parent separation anxiety
Sensitive to certain types of clothes
Does not follow anyones gaze.
Does not cry, but shrieks. makes strange babbling sounds.
Arches his back when picked up.
Does not crawl.
No facial expression or does not respond to smiles.
Also my nephew has autism so its in the family

Does he sound like he has autism or too early to diagnose?
If so because he is already exhibiting obvious symptoms so early does this mean his autism will be more severe?

Pleasen reply if you have any advice. Thanks a lot.

Is it too early to diagnose? Is he autistic?

Also his symptoms like armflapping are constant. I have read arm flapping and other stimms are apparent when kids are slightly older. If he is autistic does this mean he will probably be more severe ie low functioning?

plea

W

My son had symptoms (in hindsight) very early on. He is considered high functioning autistic, but has a mix of traits, some more like Asperger's and some very severe social deficits. In general, (not including missed diagnosis for other reasons) the longer it takes to qualify for a diagnosis, the milder the autism, just by the very nature of how the qualifying procedure works. That doesn't mean that milder cases don't have early signs too just that either the symptoms don't really stand out until later due to increased demands and there is a smaller gap in skills at the earlier ages. Asperger's cases tend to be diagnosed later than HFA, also, I think, usually around 8 or 9 or even older.

I do not think that means that just because you notice symptoms early that that necessarily means a higher chance of LFA. My son was failing autism-related milestones very early (The one for eye contact, pointing spontaneously etc and he was a flapper and spinner, too) but he is HFA and very very smart (part of why our diagnosis came at 4, instead of 2 or younger) Also you could have a lot of mild symptoms or a few severe ones and all sorts of mixes in between. The new DSM (V) has severity ratings and I do not know how that will be implemented, but most of it seems to be based on functional issues.

Anyway, I probably rambled on too much. The TL:DR answer is You can't really know for sure until you start testing. Your suspicions seem valid to me. Have you asked your child's doctor, yet?

While many would be unlikely to diagnose ASD at under one year, the things you are talking about are what the experts on the edge of research with young children are also seeing.

If you are in the US, you can get a referral from your doctor for an evaluation by the Early Childhood Intervention program in your area. You can call the local school district for a contact number to find out exactly the requirements.

I would emphasize the lateness in his crawling. At the very least, you should get physical therapy. Many people indicate to me that once they get one service and an 'expert' sees and validates the need, it is easier to get other services.

Even if you can't get a diagnosis, go with your heart and get help now.