Expert: James Michael Roan - 5/1/2008

Question
QUESTION: my name is sue and i've recently become concerned about my 13 month old son having autistic tendencies. i was raised in a house with an older autistic brother so i am slightly paranoid about it and find myself constantly worried about it. i am from america but moved to australia to have my son, so its hard because my mom is not around (someone that knows autism well) so she can not look at my son and tell me if he seems normal. my boyfriends parents are here and they think he is fine, we are living with them at the moment.

ive been looking at things on the iternet and i am going mad with worry fist let me tell you about my son.

Pros
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•Responds to name 70% of the time
•Feeds himself and loves to share his food if you ask for a bite
•Engages in play activities with parents (pushing a car back and forth)
•Does not mind being cuddled, likes being tickled
•walks very well runs infact
•Smiles and makes great eye contact
•Shows interest in other children
•sleeps through the night great sleeper in fact 2 naps a day too
•babbles frequently says gaga dada yaya baba nana but no momma
.shy around strangers but eventually warms up to them
.points to things but not of interest
.loves to swim great swimmer in fact
.loves to play hide and seek
.plays with toys properly pushes cars and throws balls
.does not like tv
.is very active

Cons
---------------------
.does not play peek a boo
.does not clap hands
•Does not use any words with meaning or context
•does not imagitive play
.when his dad comes home from work he does not get excited but if i leave a room cries and when i came back from anywhere he gets excited i feel he should be more excited about his dad as well since he sees him everyday
.started waving bye bye about 2 months ago but have not seen him do this for 2 weeks
.does not know how to tell you what he wants i feel

i did the m chat and he failed 5 6 13 21 22  

he is a great child and very happy and is extremly active and loves to explore please tell me am i being really paranoid or should i have him checked out for early interventon please help
sorry this is so long
sue

ANSWER: Hi Sue;

He's too young to use the M-chat. We expect pointing to occur by 12-15 months so he has some time. We do expect some facial imitation. Look for examples of him "trying" to imitate. How much language do you think he understands?

When you play peek-a-boo with him what is he doing back? Include details about eye contact, facial expression, attempts to cover his eyes, etc.

So far it doesn't sound like he's on the spectrum at all.

Kind regards,
James



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: james,
when we play peek a boo he just smiles and laughs he doesnt try to imitate it. the only imitating he does is when you say like baba or gaga he will try and repeat it. and when you dance, he will do a little dance too. he does like to play hide and seek if you hide he will find you(in same room) and then he will try to hide. he does make great eye contact and smiles when you smile. what am i to think about the waving? he was doing that a while back and i havent seen him do it in a couple weeks. sometimes i feel like he has a very short attention span he wont sit still and focus on anything for to long.
he doesnt shake his head for yes and no. he understands no SOMETIMES.
he wont give a hug or kiss if you ask. its like when you ask i feel like he doesnt even know what your talking about. if you get down on his level and spread your arms out he will come and hug you then. i dont feel like he understands very much language at all. he doesnt know the meaning to many words at all, only car, dog, momma. like if we told him go find daddy he wouldnt know what your talking about. he doesnt even get that excited when he sees his daddy, and he has a great daddy he sees everyday. i guess i should of told you this yesterday. im sorry, i was just trying to point out his positives first cause there are alot of those to i feel like. james what do i do? do you feel now he is on the spectrum? do you see my cause for concern. i am so worried about this! especially having lived with it all my life.
thanks sue

Answer
Hi Sue;

Here are the links for the screener and the scoring. I advise you let me score it and get back to you. Can you scan the completed screener and email it to me : roanpsych@gmail.com

Protocol:
http://www.brookespublishing.com/store/books/wetherby-csbsdp/CSBSDP_Checklist.pd


Scoring:

http://www.brookespublishing.com/store/books/wetherby-csbsdp/checklist.htm






He sounds okay to me, with the exception of possible imitation and receptive language delays. I am not sure if your education system in Australia has any early intervention services, but start there. I am sure there are organizations there that can evaluate your baby in these areas. Actually, when I get to my office I can send you a link for a screening tool for all these areas. It's standardized and will help assess whether he is really behind in these areas for his age. Ask me a short question after you read this otherwise I cannot get an email back to you.

Regards,
James