advice please=)

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hi i am new to this forum=) I am a preschool teacher and a mom of two. Being a preschool teacher i am very aware of what to look for when you suspect a child may be on the autism spectrum. My son is 11 months old and i am almost positive he is dispalying many autistic behaviors. He has always been different and as he gets older his differences become more obvious. He has a motor delay and has just learned to sit about 2wks ago. Now that he can support himself during play he will flip his toys with wheels over to spin the wheels with one finger. if a toy has a string no matter what he will go for the end of the string and poke it over and over with one finger. he loves balls and will hold it up to his nose and just stare at it. when feeding himself he will use his pincer grasp to pick up the food then pess it to him palm and scoot it up to the top of his closed fist and put it in his mouth. instead of shaking small toys he will twist his wrist to spin them. sometimes he will just lay and flap his hand or hit his head over and over. He is so sweet and smiley but just not connected. My daughter is typical and he is so young i just dont know if im reading too much into his quirky behavior. I know early intervention is important, but is this too early? If any one else has gone through this with a young baby or has any advice i would really apreciate it. thank you!

Honestly, I don't see any red flags in your post, but that does not mean your concern isn't valid. It's just ... too early.

I'm not an expert on early intervention, largely because we didn't have an AS diagnosis until my son was 7, so we rather skipped all that, but I don't think that you need to worry about it yet. I think the early intervention is very important when certain key milestones are not met, because the risk is that without intervention the child may never meet them on their own (the key one being communication and a continued willingness/ability to engage with people at some level), but without that issue intervention isn't necessary, and I honestly look back at how my son was with strangers and think it would have been hugely stressful for him, creating it's own problems.

What all infants and toddlers need most, and this holds true for AS children, is a parent who understands them. Who gets inside their needs and way of experiencing the world more than anyone else can or will. A lot of early intervention developed from the experiences of moms who got on the floor playing with their children and learned that if they did A their child responded. Watch for signs of regression, because this may indicate something is triggering in your child and you'll want to mitigate the effect as quickly as possible.

All that said, I don't see much point in worrying or over-thinking it all. Enjoy your son; this time is short and precious. By being present with him, you'll give him the best gift you could give him, AS or NT.

Since you've already noticed a motor delay, getting your son assessed for early intervention would be wise. It takes time for all the evaluations, and early intervention, for some children, is very important. When there are gross and fine motor delays, trained professional intervention is not the same as just understanding your child and interacting in positive ways - you need the guidance of someone who can help train the muscles that aren't naturally developing the way they "should" be, so that your child will be able to learn to sit, stand, walk, and run the way he wants to. Similarly, it can be hard for those of us who are lay people to recognize deficits in fine motor skills in children so young, but if they are present, it is really helpful to have someone who is trained start working on them so that the child doesn't fall any further behind his age-mates than necessary. Also, the therapists who work with young children tend to be very good at engaging them, and the children experience the sessions as a form of play, so it tends not to be overwhelming or negative.

I actually see a few red flags. The way he is playing with toys seems Autistic to me. Is he making eye contact with you? does he smile and laugh at you or more at objects? Does he point or wave byebye?
I would write everything down and talk to his doctor because 11 months old is not too young to diagnose Classic/Kanner Autism. My daughter used to hold things between her thumb and forefinger for hours...like a small piece of paper or even a piece of hair when she was very young. At the time we thought she was just a funny little thing now looking back there are so many things that we didnt notice that now I know were very autistic. Also your sons motor skill lag can be a sign. My son, who has Asperger's, was slow to sit up and we also had to put a helmet on him when he started walking around 14 months because he would fall constantly. He still has a lot of tumbles and he is 8. Classic Autism can be diagnosed very young now...Asperger's takes a lot longer (typically after age 4 or 5)

Definitely take Jat's et al's word over mine on that. Like I said, not my area ....

Best of luck to you.

I agree, since you noticed the motor delay, getting your son assessed for early intervention is a good idea. My son had early intervention by the time he was two years old because he was speech delayed. I totally recomend it. There really are some wonderful teachers out there.

I'd agree about getting him assessed if you're concerned...but I would add this: if they say there's nothing to worry about, don't worry about it and follow DW's advice. If you continue to see things that worry you, I wouldn't hesitate to get him re-assessed later: two, three, and seven seem to be the ages I hear about most often.

This doesn't mean not to trust your doctors - what I mean is that there are some things that don't need immediate intervention and might not show up early, and some things that can be helped by early intervention that a doctor might see right away: speech development is another one to look for early on.

We had no idea we were dealing with autism when my son was small, but when he turned three, we knew something was up. We struggled for years to find him the right help and are just now getting it at 10...but now that we have the right interventions, he's doing really well.

I am also a trained child care worker, as you know children develop at their own pace.
However, I am also seeing some red flags. Everything you have described reminds me of a little boy we had at our day care center years and years ago, all the workers suspected autism but the parents did nothing. I'm not sure if anything was ever done to help this boy because he was sent to foster care.

Instead of worrying about it go and get him assessed. The assessment hurts no one, if he is on the spectrum you will be able to access early intervention, if they say he's not, I'd try not to worry but just watch carefully then if need be as another poster said have him reassessed at a later stage.

thank you so much for all of your advice=) i will keep my eye out for further motor or speech delays. His motor delay seems to only be large motor because his fine motor skills are incredible, we joke that hes going to be a brain sugeon. He does make eye contact, he actually seems obsessed with it and will stare a hole through you. He will smile in response to a smile or when he sees a familiar face. He will laugh if we tickle him, but i cant get him to laugh at things i do. Somtimes he just starts laughing out of nowhere, like this morning he was playing with his toys and just started cracking up. He does like to make us laugh and will repeat things if we laugh at them. He has an mri scheduled on the 8th to check his brain growth so i will talk to the dr after i get those results. i I really love this website, i think it is so important for people with like experiences to be able to help and encourage eachother. I have found so many encouraging stories from those of you who have or are dealing with asd it definately calmed some of my fears. Thank you so much again!