My son has been worrying us for a while. We called him a few pet names when he was young – but have been consistently using his given name for the last 2 weeks. His response is inconsistent. Sometimes he looks, at other times he does not. He has a fav toy – a seahorse that lights and plays music. He likes to hold it and walk around and gets upset if I take it away. If I hide it under a blanket or under a pile of clothes, he is able to look for it and grab it immediately. Though after a while of carrying it – he does throw it away and tries tofish something else out of his toy basket. He plays pee ka boo and gives a hi 5. He waves bye – inconsistently. He also holds his own bottle and is able to recognize when I am going out – if I have work clothes on and put on my shoes he runs to me and grabs me, pulls my pants, cries wanting to go out. He loves being cuddled and will cuddle back. He loves books and will sit and be read to for as long as 15 mins. Of late he has started reading them on his own – he opens the book and will flip the pages looking intently at the pics. Those are the positives. There are however a few things that worry me about him
1) His eye contact is inconsistent. He will look at me when I sing ring around the rosies or how big is the baby etc. He will chase me from room to room and find where I am hiding if I am calling his name. But if he is in the same room he will not look at you if your calling his name. Its like he is deaf some times. He can hear the doorbell and the phone and will run to them when it rings – but he mostly ignores us.
2) He started some worrying tics. He shakes his head like he is saying no and runs around. Its pronounced when I come back from work and he is very excited to see me. He will run into my arms , cuddle and when I set him on the floor he does this running thing for a bit before settling down. He also seems to use it to say no…when he is done eating or wont do something that we want him to
2) He does not show us anything. If he wants something he will make the utmost effort to get it himself and if he cant he cries. My iphone and b’berry are of great interest and he gets upset if we have it in our hands and dont give it to him
3) There are no words from him. The only consistent sound he makes is “ath” and its non specific. There is also very little babbling with no consonants
4) He is very affectionate and loves the rough and tumble games with his dad. He likes being bounced around on my knee and likes playing hide and seek under the quilt. But he is not able to vocalise any request
5) He loves going out and esp into the elevator. He knows directions and knows which way to turn to get to our apartment. He goes into the lobby and runs around. If the lobby TV is on we cannot peel him away from it and he will not look at you no matter how many times you call his name
6) He loves opening and shutting the cabinet doors and flapping the dresser handles. He however can be distracted from it.
7) He likes all the push button musical toys and knows how to press them to hear music.
We took him to a b’day party. There were alot of people – but he did not cry. He went in and initially wanted to run out…then he spotted a play table and ran towards it. He played on it alongside a little girl but did not play with her. He did reach out to her once though to touch her face – he did this with another kid at the mall. He played with balloons etc. but mostly played on his own. He did not make eye contact with many of the adults – most people said he is so self driven!
10) At the playground he was more interested in touching all the surfaces that observing anyone. He did not cry when we put him on the swing and did not mind climbing up and down the bridge. But other than that he was fully engrossed in exploring the floor, the bench with holes in it, the slide etc.
11) He is a calm little guy with no tantrums. I have never seen him react violently to anything. He does cry when hurt but we are able to calm him easily.
My parents watched him for a year and now my in laws watch him. He does not go on very many playdates and I dont think my inlaws engaged him as much between 12 -15months. I think they just allowed him to run around. He starts daycare next week and I am hoping that helps.
His dr thinks he is fine and that boys are slower than girls. He said my sons eyes are alert and that he does not think that he is autistic at all. What should I do…are these alarming signs?
Thanks