Expert: Trey McGowan - 3/31/2008

Question
Your question was

my son just turnes 1 on march 11. i am very worried about him having
autism because my eldest brother has it. my son is doing everything it
seems normally. he rolled over crawled and walked right on time. he is
very social and plays great with other children and myself. he makes
great eye contact and loves to play hide and go seek. his pincher skills
are also wonderful and eats a wide variety of foods by himself and drinks
from a sippee cup. now my concerns are because he is not clapping,
pointing, shaking his head for yes or no, or waving bye bye. hes just not
interested. it seems sometimes he has a short attention span at times.
he doesnt watch tv. could care less. he loves to get into things and
climb on stuff. he does play with toys properly(puts balls in right
containers, turns pages in books, puses cars on floor like theyre moving)
and always looks for hidden objects when you hide them. he's also a great
swimmer, he can go under water and moves his legs and arms in swimming
motion when in a pool. he doesnt have a large vocabulary though, he
can only say dada gaga baba yaya nana which he says all the time. its
just the not pointing, clapping and waving that really concerns me. and
also i feel he doesnt repond to his name every time i call him. sometimes
he will respond on the first call but sometimes it can take like 4 or
5 times. am i just being a parraniod parent or do you think i have
reason to be concerned. his nana and poppy which he sees everyday think he
is just fine but they are older and havent delt with autism like i
have. so i am just soooo worried. please help.


Answer
Hi there, Suzanne!

If I may be rather blunt about this (because I have sort of deliberated and can't come up with any other way to say it), the fact that you have dealt with autism makes you more sensitive to the 'oddities' that happen, definitely... but sometimes in both directions. At 1 year old, while the speech may be a slight bit delayed, it doesn't seem to be terribly much so. And there are quite a few children who are slower in some things and faster than others, when it comes to development.

If there is genuine concern on your side, then I suggest rather than asking an 'expert', you should talk to a genuine expert who can give your child an assessment and figure out whether there is cause for alarm. Just hearing things, and seeing them in direct observation, are as different as apples and elephants.

I understand the fear of having an autistic child and knowing that there's the possibility the next will be, but for the moment, I think that relaxing, taking a deep breath, and giving it some time is probably the best. But then, I'm neither a worried mother nor a doctor, so your mileage may vary. Considerably. :)

If there are any questions, comments, suggestions, feedback, follow-ups, or whatever, feel free to send them my way. I wish you the best with your littlest and his development!

Trey