All About Autism
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Hi everyone. My Son is 21 months now and we noticed some red flag for autism. We are just wondering if we should be worry? As his mum I am very worry and kind of getting paranoid on this as there’s no answer whether he is having ASD or not. We have been to child development unit the Pediatrician who access him told us it’s too early to tell if he has ASD and currently we are seeing a speech therapist for his speech delay… twice a month. We use to let him watch youtube on tv with phonics and nursery rhythm Everyday (approx 8hrs) But recently we had stop and reduce to less than 1 hr a day. He also goes to childcare from 9am to 5pm on mon to fri since July 2018.
Things he doesn’t do which is red flag for autism:
1) don’t call us papa or mama. Speech delay, know less than 3 words.
2) he doesn’t point at things he wants.
3) he doesn’t react to us when his name was called most of the time.
4) haven’t seen him play with other children before but occasionally will go and touch them.
Things he does:
1) love playing peekaboo and will follow by using his hand to cover his face
2) he wave goodbye occasionally when he want to
3) he will bring toys to us or anything that he need help with.
4) he able to clap when we sing “if you happy and you know you clap your hand”
5) he also gave eye contact.
6) he likes to hold on to his fav car on one of his hand. But can do without it if we hide it.
7) he point at alphabet or numbers or fruits on poster pasted at home or animals/pictures in story books.
knows how to say “mum mum = food” and understand mum mum is food.
9) flapping arms at random time. Notice he flap a lot when we bring him down to playground.
I really hope anyone can share your exp with me. I have been reading up online and seeing video about ASD. Sorry for the Long post. Thanks! -
It’s too early to tell. Some kids are just less social anyway, but not necessarily ASD. Just encourage interaction and wait and see.
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Prawny,
Good that you wrote details. Some signs are good, others not so good e.g flapping. Agree that it is still too early to assess. I have 3 NT kids, the eldest and brightest spoke only at 21 months. The other 2 about 6 months slower. My aspie at 3.5 y.o. My eldest first words were not mommy or daddy too. They were "ah pern please" because she wanted us to open her christmas present.
One thing I didnt like though. Stop letting your child watch youtube. Not even 1 hour. My aspie watched tv for >8 hours when he was about your child’s age. We thought he was learning something. It kept him quiet too. You know, too many kids and we wanted some peace. Turns out he was sucked into a world that is void of reality and human interactions. The TV exacerbated his condition, and may have even been the cause of it imo. So we went cold turkey. Zero tv, ipads, youtube etc. He was then forced to interact. And yea, do spend more time interacting with your child. -
Thanks for the reply. We are trying to cut down to no tv at all. Unfortunately as we are working full time my parents will be the main caretaker during weekdays before he goes to school and after he back from school. I couldn’t control my parents but told them not to let him watch so much tv. Right now they restrict to early morning once (15mins) and only during dinner time when he is having his meals. At times I really think he has ASD as he has all the red flags but sometimes he did something which let us feels he ok and normal. Recently, We start to bring him down to playground on weekend he doesn’t play with other kids but instead goes to those Uncle and aunties seated on the chair to hug them and smile at them. We taught him to throw tissue in the bin at home he also able to follo. Maybe I should really wait and see and continue doing all this interaction.
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How do your parents interact with him? Do they do to-and-fro interaction, or do they mostly do all the talking and giving instructions? More to-and-fro is better - asking questions and waiting for an answer (can be an action, not necessarily speech), turn-taking, making him ask for things rather than pre-empting his wants etc. Childcare may help, but if the adult to child ratio is low, you can’t expect much. I also feel that the 8 hrs of TV a day may have something to do with his behaviour, and you may need to wait a while for the effects to wear off.
At his age, most kids don’t interact with other kids much, so it’s quite normal. They only start to interact at around 3yo, I think.
Non-ASD related, but I think that TV during meals is not a good idea. The child should be aware of what he is eating, and not just eat while his attention is on the TV. He should participate in meals and learn to sense when he is full. Watching TV during meals enables the feeders to feed the child quickly and usually more than the child would eat of his own accord, and it builds up poor eating habits in the long run. -
Prawny,
Autism is a spectrum. Your son could be on the mild end, or not at all. If it is, don’t despair. My boy is on the mid end. He exhibits patchy and variegated traits of autism. Like yours. At 8 now, my boy operates like any other NT child. Friends and relatives tell me he is normal. Keep your doctors appointments. Check for developmental milestones. Increase/force the human interactions. Read more about early interventions - thats your best defence.
Edit: I don’t want to give you the wrong impression about my son. He didn’t become normal "naturally". My journey was as tough as other parents here. What I was trying to say is, It is not the end of the world. If it happens, stay positive and work through the challenges. -
Prawny
You may also want to gather feedback from your son’s teachers about his behaviour in school, given that children may behave differently at home and in school. While school’s words are not be all end all, it does provide another source of information for you to possibly place the puzzle pieces together.
I can totally understand the anxiety of is it or is it not and having to wait to get an answer. Grit through it. -
Prawny
You may also want to gather feedback from your son’s teachers about his behaviour in school, given that children may behave differently at home and in school. While school’s words are not be all end all, it does provide another source of information for you to possibly place the puzzle pieces together.
I can totally understand the anxiety of is it or is it not and having to wait to get an answer. Grit through it. -
Anyone heard of redox signaling ? My friend who has an autistic kid is taking a redox signaling supplement and he is getting better. It helps to renew,repair and rejuvenate the cells.She shared that kids having ADHD or adults having dementia also working well on them.
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