Lack of facial expression when you were a baby?

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I am wondering whether lack of facial expression or a continuous 'serious' expression would be a potential sign of autism in a baby or not?

I am wondering about being assessed for ASD but one thing that potentially flaws the theory that that is what is wrong with me, is the fact there seems to be little in my childhood that suggests it - symptoms have only got worse since I was around 12. Furthermore, my family say there was nothing about me when I was a baby that suggested autism, and as a child I seemed fine playing with others kids etc. So the only thing I wonder about is my facial expressions as a young baby. When I compare my baby photos with my brother's - he has quite animated facial expressions, he is smiling and giggling. However on all my baby photos up until around 2 my expression seems to be the same - I always look very very serious, and I never smile. After around 2 though, I do begin to smile and giggle.

I don't know if this is relevant at all, to point out to a specialist if I see one? I can't seem to find much info about it online and about what normal rate of development of facial expression in a baby is meant to be.

My baby and infant photos don't tell me much but I noticed, while in school, I seemed to lack "facial mobility." I'd look in the mirror and try to make my face look understanding, intrigued or thoughtful (etc.) as I'd seen others do, and always failed. At the time I just "racked-it-up" as not having the right genetic background (severe Teutonic vs. everything else) and let it go as something else I'd never achieve. This was while early in high school in the late '50s. The knowledge didn't seem to affect my socialization one way or the other, but I guess I'll never win any awards for acting, even today.

denny

There are baby pictures of me where I show very obvious joy.
I also liked being picked up and always wanted attention and company.

Thankyou for these replies!

Skilpadde - I guess your reply suggests also that liking being touched (picked up) as a kid and wanting company doesn't necessarily rule out autism, as I see you are diagnosed?

I am struggling as I am aware a child is born autistic, if they are, therefore there really should have been some signs in my childhood even if they were not noticed at the time - I just wonder whether they were subtle. But I am worried about a doctor refusing to refer me for assessment and saying if I appeared to enjoy social company as a young child, I couldn't possibly have autism, as I know that is what many people think, what my parents think, and what I thought too, before reading more about it.

(was in the middle of posting then my PC crashed, yay)
Anyways, going to write a short answer this time.

Like the above poster, I also showed joy and smiles and stuff from photo proof.
I think it's more if you're sort of quite Autistic that you'd probably not be very emotional in the face, and this 'motor problem' they speak of.

I was walking at 8 months, so I had no problem with any of all that.

Wind - thanks for that info! Maybe that is where I have got the autistic babies lacking facial expression idea from - descriptions of very severely obviously autistic children I may vaguely remember reading in the past, and then more recently wondered whether I lacked facial expression a bit. But now I realise that my facial expression was probably still well within the normal range. I don't think I've ever had any motor problems, so maybe I was just a serious baby and there are probably plenty of non-autistic serious babies so it may not be relevant.

I have seen baby photos of me smiling. I didn't seem to smile as much when I was deaf though. I have seen movies of me and photos and I didn't see any facial expressions and then when I could hear again I was laughing and running and smiling. Then I seemed quiet and didn't smile much when I was three. I think I had phases.

My mom told be I didn't smile when I was a baby and in all my baby and toddler pictures I was not smiling.
My grandson was the same way. We would try all kinds of antics to get him to smile for a picture, but he was just intently interested in getting at the camera.
I don't think it is related to severity of autism though.

According to my parents I loved being picked up and I loved being tickled. I also loved attention, period. I've been told that I would cry when they left the room and stop crying the moment they returned. (baby and toddler age) I loved being held while I jumped (roughly six months of age), and I loved it when they played with me or read to me.

Yes, I am diagnosed with Asperger and my psychiatrist called me a fairly obvious case, so obviously there are aspies who like that.

From what I have picked up along the way, aspies enjoy being with their family, even if they don't like being social otherwise. It's not uncommon for us that our family is our social life.

I stopped being okay with being touched when I hit puberty.

hi gizalba,
am definitely fitting the traits have mentioned,here are a good few baby,toddler and child photos of mine; http://autistadventures.blogspot.co.uk/
from what see of photographs,am still very much the same unless experiencing something very very good.


gizalba-ever heard of mirror neurons?
these are said to be dysfunctional in many of us with autism,in those with dysfunctional mirror neurons the person is unable to mimick behaviors,mannerisms etc.
just a thought-sounds like this might be connected.

If you didn't display any signs of autism when you were young, then I'd say your social problems are due to shyness, anxiety and so on...

Thankyou for the link to your pictures, they were interesting to see. Also - twinkle looked like a lovely cat. Your story about her was sad, but nice too - I am glad she had a such an impact on you. I am a big cat fan!

No I had not heard of mirror neurons, but am now researching them thanks

I did not show any obvious signs when I was young - the only thing I can think of beyond my lack of expression as a young baby was my tendency to take things too literally, however my parents just found that funny/slightly irritating at times. It was only when I was 11/12 and moved to secondary school that things became a problem - the uniform, the silly rules, the loudness, no longer being able to communicate with peers as we no longer played 'pretend' games that I wanted to keep playing, I didn't know what to say anymore so tried scripting ideas of what to say in conversations, but it just failed so I'd generally stay pretty silent. I developed anorexia nervosa and was hospitalised for that, but the professionals said that my raging and head-banging was not part of the eating disorder - they couldn't tell me what it was though. My eating problems and the head-banging remain now, 10 years later - my rituals around food, anxiety around people, obsessions. and outbursts of rage/panic/frustration especially if I am in a loud environment where the noise scares me further and then my panic gets worse as I struggle to escape the situation, means that I have had to have years off university on medical concession and am unable to get a job. Therefore it isn't just social problems or shyness I struggle with. Is it the case that if a child doesn't display autistic signs as a kid that were obvious enough to be picked up on by parents or teachers, that they can't have autism no-matter how autistic their symptoms may become in later life? I just wonder, from reading, whether the environment I was in up until I was 11 meant that any abnormalities I had may not have been seen because my first school was so small, friendly, routined and quiet compared to the chaos and confusion I faced when I entered secondary school. But I don't know - bipolar or borderline personality disorder has been suggested by the odd professional however they haven't diagnosed me with either, and when I look at those in the DSM, I don't agree that they describe many of my symptoms. Whereas when I look at the ASD criteria, that seems to match me much more, unless I am interpreting the criteria wrong.

It would be difficult for parents and teachers to notice no apparent deviations from normal development in an autistic kid until age 11 or 12. Some people are not diagnosed until adulthood, but the abnormalities were noticed in childhood during childhood, just there was no knowledge of autism to account for them, or maybe parents didn't want to evaluate their children for anything. There is no way for autistic children to mask their autistic behaviors or compensate for lack of neurotypical behaviors in early childhood. If you developed problems starting from 11 or 12 and lacked autistic traits as child (like not fitting criteria when you were five), then you don't have autism no matter the development of autistic-like behaviors in later life. Many disorders have traits that appear similar to autistic traits, but underlying causes are different and not good to label autism without variety of autistic traits and fitting criteria in childhood.

I have pictures of my daughter smiling brightly and looking directly at me. But the truth is, if I go through all of my photographs of her, there is an unusual preponderance of photos where she has a blank stare. The blank stare pictures are the most common. Though she looks very beautiful in them, fast forwarding a number of years, I am aware that it was because of autism that we had not yet recognized.

Well might just be an anomaly
but as a kid was "Zen" baby
or so my mum told me
didn't cry until my injections
and when the lady came over, was sleeping and mum woke me up
was just grinning
and the lady was like
"he wakes up smiling??!?!?!?!?"