Expert: Trey McGowan - 11/28/2009

Question
Trey,
I have questions in reguards to social emotional milestones. My nine month old smiles, laughs, and has good eye contact unless being held. Then it is fair. He has not started imitating gestures yet like waving or showing toys. Should I expect this of him? He also seems to play with toys without checking in with me very often. Should he be doing this? Also if you have any knowledge on testing name response could you tell me how to do it and what to expect? Thanks, Sarah

Answer
Hi there, Sarah!

First off, remember that even for normal children, being held is a bit overwhelming at times. It may not be an unpleasant thing, but he is suddenly many feet in the air. The world looks quite different! It's natural for some children to be a little slow with eye contact simply because they're too busy looking at everything else from this new vantage point. If the child seems to stiffen up or show discomfort with being held, I would be much more worried than if they are simply a bit busy with looking at everything except 'Talking Mama'. So while I am not an expert, I would certainly say that this in itself is nothing to worry about.

For a list of the milestones, so you can confirm for yourself:
http://www.uic.edu/classes/sped/sped506/milestones.html

While waving and showing toys are not on this list, it gives a good idea of the general milestones you should be looking for in this timeline. From what you are saying, the rest seem to have been reached in good schedule.

Toy-showing, pointing, waving, and the like tend to come later in life. Generally, look for these to have developed by around 12 months (i.e. by their first birthday). At nine months, you are on the lower end of where this sort of milestone shows up, so if you have not seen it yet, that only means that your child still has a few months to 'get the hang of it'. As well, even if one or two milestones are not reached in time, it's nothing to worry about. Some children are simply a little slow on some things (while potentially being fast on others).

Finally, you ask about testing name response. One of the easiest ways to do this is to let your child engage in some action they enjoy on their own (i.e. playing with a favorite toy), then simply call their name out while out of immediate visual range, such as off to their left or right. If the child reacts to it by looking around, looking at you, smiling, or otherwise indicating the sound 'means something' to them, it is a good measure for them recognizing their name. You can also use their name while holding and playing with them, and see if it gets a different reaction to other sounds made (smiling, laughing, et cetera). If the child takes more than twice for them to react to their name, or does not react at all, they can be said to have 'failed' this test. This can be done as early as one year old, to ensure that the child has had time for the 'name recognition' to fully develop.

Remember: a failed test does not automatically indicate autism, or any learning disorder. Before you start panicking, if the child does not pass the test, I suggest assessing them for hearing difficulties before asking for assessment in the developmental scale. Being deaf in one ear or hard of hearing in both can certainly cause the same effect of name-recognition-lack!

Hope my answers were easy enough to understand for you! Questions, comments, feedback, follow-ups, feel free to ask!

Trey