New to the group.

[LHow81]

My son is coming up to 10 months and I'm wondering if he is autistic. I keep seeing things saying that he should be babbling by now and he's not, he doesn't react to his name every time and also doesn't always respond to any noise. He also waves his hands around a fair amount mostly when happy or annoyed. He does react to smiles and will smile back. He laughs and reaches for people and things he doesn't crawl yet but can stand supported and will take some steps supported too. I'll be contacting the health visitor tomorrow but wondering if anyone has any advice or other signs I could look for.

Thanks in advance!!

[emmasue]

I hope your health visitor appointment went well. It is often difficult to diagnose autism so early on, but I know it can be done. Don't be disappointed if they suggest you wait a bit longer. I think by the time he reaches his two year check, it will be a bit easier to tell. That's not to say that it will be easier to be heard by the professionals. Both my children were diagnosed with autism, one at age 11 and the other at age 9. My 9 year old had a lot of symptoms at a younger age, including problems with speech, but no one wanted to listen to me. I had to keep pushing for speech and language which did help. To be fair, it is still only recently that professionals are starting to look at the difference between boys with autism and girls with autism. Maybe they didn't think she had autism because she was a girl? Although, how we explain my son's late diagnosis is another matter altogether!!! Anyway, keep in there. Keep making notes of behaviours and traits. Keep trying to help your son to develop. Either he will outgrow it or he is autistic. Either way, he is still your son and I am sure he will be fine. x

[dragoncat16]

Could it possibly be a hearing problem rather than autism? You didn't mention how your child responds to touch, but he seems to respond to people normally in other ways, from what you describe. There are possibly tests for hearing problems even at that age, and there are lots of different treatments, if that's what it is. Best wishes to you and your son.

[LHow81]

Thank you both for your replies. We got a survey from the health visitor about what he does and doesn't do and he is doing most of the thing on there. As for his speech it seems it was our fault for letting him keep his dummy in too much! He used to pick it up and put in himself and we didn't think much of it! Now I've stopped it from having it too much his language skills have improved immensely. 😊