Expert: Paul Johnson - 3/28/2010

Question
My 17 month old is acting weird. He can say few words. He call me mommy,  he calls daddy, he says ball and he tries to say a lot of things but he spells wrong...he says buddy for bunny and sometimes he says the same word for a lot of things. If a go to the playground he likes to be around childrens but if he does not see me he start to call me and come to me. He loves to play with ball...he likes to be around babies, but he doesn't seem to play with them and look at them. He has good eye contact some times...but when I put him close to my face he will not look at me. Also he is pointing, but it seems his finger is broken when his is pointing, like the top of his finger is broken. He recognizes me, my husband, her grammy...and he does not worry to be around people. He does not like the vaccum cleaner...but if I am with him, holding him he is ok with the vaccumm. He also point to his body parts when he is asked. My concern is that sometimes he likes to stomp his feet on the floor and he likes the noise. He like to play outside, but he can not touch the leaves...he start to cry. He eats well, sleep well, and he never had a fever or anything. But sometimes he is confusing with what he wants. Ah, he also like pretend to feed a doll and he likes to give me cookies. My biggest concern is when he is stomping his feet a make a hard face expression...also the way that he points make his finger looks like is brooking and also he does not like to be close to my face...thanks a lot

Answer
Dear Rita,

Thank you for you interesting and challenging question.

I do not see a pattern of any so called disorders in your question, much less see Autism.
As I have said previously though it is crucial to get an early diagnosis of a child, Any diagnosis before three years of age will be a challenge in terms of validity. A child of this age will not developed enough of an interaction to be able to accurately say if he is Autistic or not.

I believe informing your self about the symptoms of Autism and close observation for the next year is the best thing to do right now. Should your son continue to display Autistic like behaviors, have him examined by a clinician that is trained with understanding Autism.