Expert: Trey McGowan - 11/8/2008

Question
my 6 month old daughter doesn't seem to know her name. She is very social, makes eye contact with everyone, laughs, smiles, and is right on track with everything except for her name. Weirdly enough she knows the word clap (she will sometimes clap when you say "clap, clap") and she seems to recognize the words "brother", "mama", "daddy", and "doggie/Oakley" but when we call her name as often as not, she won't respond. Her hearing is fine, she looks around at noises all the time.In fact, we think when she does respond to her name it is because she heard a noise, not because she knows her name. I read somewhere she should know her own name by 4 months. Should I be looking into some testing or is this fairly normal? I can't find anything online about a baby this old not knowing her name except as a sign of autism.


Answer
Hi there, Melissa!

Something that is important to remember in a situation like this is that autism is not a single symptom out of many. It is a developmental disorder that gets classified as a multitude of symptoms. The eye contact, behaviour, social skills, and the like are all a part of it.

As I have mentioned before, children can be behind on development. The fact that she's ahead in others doesn't mean that she will be ahead on all of them, after all! And it may just be that she is behind her peers when it comes to recognizing that she has a name. She is only one month behind on this (as the number is five months). Give her some time before you start worrying. If after three months she isn't, then best to get her checked out.

Hopefully that reassurance will help a bit, and good luck with your lovely child! Questions, comments, follow-ups, feedback, all that fun, can be sent here!

Trey