babies

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It was confusing with my son. If you were being extremely ridiculous, he might look at your face, but only if you were make really ongoing ridiculous faces or gestures. He wouldn't hold a gaze otherwise. Even now he won't look at me when I'm talking to him, always absorbed in something else. If he looks it is fleeting at best.

He has no problem looking into a camera lens sometimes, in fact, may want to be caught in the picture, and this gives the erroneous impression from the viewer that he looks at people regularly.

Here's another interesting video on the head lag test for developmental delays including autism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5SponUgbNo

Here is another one on the eye tracking test for developmental delays including autism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giZHLkIq4FM

cool cant wait to check the links out...of course you know I will be checking all this stuff with my baby and panicking!

I had no idea my son could be ASD when he was a baby, but it is difficult to say he was typical, either. In the end, once I had the diagnosis, I was able to look backwards through a different lens and see how it was always evident. But ... I still don't recommend for new parents to do that, go looking for warning signs, simply because most of them may or may not mean anything and those very early years should be the part of life when a child gets to just be as he is meant to be, happy inside his own nature. Until that simply stops working for everyone.

Of course, my son is also one of those whom all the infant style tests would not have caught. He was always a sensory seeker and, thus, didn't avoid holding a gaze and sought huge amounts of physical contact. Those need hindsight to realize were signs of ASD.

I do agree that many of the "change" cases probably weren't as lacking in warning signs as the parents wish to believe.

I remember an ASD parent saying he NT son acted autistic when he was a baby but then grew out of the signs but yet her ASD son she couldn't tell because his wasn't as obvious but he never grew out of his. This was in a debate thread about rather parents should check their kids out as soon as they think they see signs or wait until the kid is older to see if the signs are still there because of over diagnoses of ASDs. People argue rather they had it to begin with if they "grow out of it."

Interesting videos. I am pretty sure my AS son would have had the head lag at 6 months. Do you think the reason is that the child's interest continues to hold on what it was...until it is completely pulled away? As in, the sudden appearance of a human isn't interesting? That would be my guess from my experience with my son. People always just seemed to be in the way of what he wanted to do/look at.

In the video, they also mentioned delayed motor skills. My son also has a retained grasp reflex (he's 7, that should disappear in infancy).

If we'd had the information, I think people would have picked up something in me as a baby-- all those baby pics where I'm staring into the distance instead of at the picture-taker like my girls do, the fact that the way to soothe me was to either stick me in my crib with my elephant night light and my thumb or hold me tightly and rock like a maniac (my girls all like a loose cuddle and a gentle rock, or to be talked to), the fact that all you had to do to keep me entertained was plug in a fan and let me make noises into it (I realize ALL kids like this, but Mom wrote an entry in the baby book about me doing this for hours at a time at 12 months), the complete and total disinterest in strangers, the avoidance of eye contact...

Eh, I'm pretty mildly affected, but I made it without a bunch of people therapy-ing me from infancy. I guess I had social skills training in the form of being dragged out and either praised lavishly if I did something right or shamed painfully if I messed something up (Grandma) and in the form of having Aspie behavior explained to me as the symptoms of an anxiety disorder (no one knew Grandpa was an Aspie, but I'm pretty sure-- other kids on that side of the family have it)-- I guess she saw Grandpa in me and worked real hard to teach me to show affection and verbalize emotions and stuff. Also Grandma was old-school, so all kids got training in "church manners."

That's a thought for the kid you babysit-- don't say anything about ASD to Mommy; you already know she doesn't want to hear it, and if it's there, she's going to run out of denial eventually. "But-- EARLY INTERVENTION!!" OK-- start doing some. Play "therapy games" with Baby...

...and pitch 'em to Mommy as just that: games Baby enjoys playing with Sitter, that Mommy and Baby might enjoy too. As I understand it, that pretty much is what good therapy is at such early ages anyway. Disclaimer: You guys know my layperson's opinion of ABA.


If all you're seeing is arm-flapping, I don't think I'd worry about E. yet. We're talking neighborhood of six months, right?? If arm flapping is all you see-- I've never seen a kid who DIDN'T flap quite a bit in the preverbal stage-- you'll probably do more harm with hypervigilance than early intervention would do good if it is there.

I know, I know-- It's SO DAMN HARD not to be hypervigilant once you know it's in the gene pool. Believe me, I know. My husband has accused me of seeing all four of them as checklists of symptoms first and people a distant second. Good God, even the pediatric neuropsych thinks I'm "a little overzealous." I am the only mom I know who keeps copies of the ADOS, M-CHAT, and et cetera on the shelf with the parenting books (and answers them on separate sheets of paper, organized so I can watch scores over time). I OBSESS about the fact that my DD20mo mostly babbles with few words (we've got Mama, Da, owww, yep, no, uh-uh, hey, thanks, and sounds for siblings' names, and that's all I hear) even though she's the youngest of four and I know damn good and well that ALL the other ones anticipate her needs and speak for her (and receptive language and nonverbal communication are flawless).

Well, you know, early intervention...

With my friends baby, he does some stimmy things, like he shakes his head over and over...like when he is in the car seat, or sitting at the table eating, or when he is playing, he does this many times thru the day. he also digs at himself. when I bath him, or change his diaper, the minute skin is exposed he digs at himself repeatedly, to the point of leaving scratches on his body. he does it when his clothing are on too, he will reach for his belly and dig. Then the arm thing where when he yells his arms balloon up and he clenches his fists tight and rolls his wrists in. I feel like those are all stims, or sensory issues. There is really nothing I can do in those cases but try to redirect.

As for my baby, he is 10 months, he didn't display head lag as a younger baby. The only thing I see is when he is really excited he will flap his arms a few times. Everything else he does seems like typical behavior so far!

OH, I am on the opposite spectrum from my friend, who thinks everything is fine, I am always looking for something wrong! Time will tell for us both...