Expert: James Michael Roan - 11/12/2006

Question
My son is one of two fraternal twins born at 34 weeks.  The twin at issue spent nine days in NICU-his brother came home with me.  The twins are now almost 4 months old, and I am concerned because my son does not make good eye contact under certain circumstances.  If he is in his bouncy seat or feeding in my arms, he generally maintains eye contact very well, he smiles joyfully, laughs and babbles and coos, including responding to our baby talk to him.  However, when I sit him in my lap he turns his head to one side or the other and won't look at me (although he is starting to do it a little).  Also, if I get really close to his face he will turn his eyes away from me.
He is actually pretty vocal with babbling and cooing, but the eye contact makes me worry about autism.  Your thoughts?

Answer
Hi Michelle;

Although there are some basic things to watch for, your son is still rather young to tell. Geraldine Dawson at the University of Washington has been studying 9 month olds retroactively be looking at home movies of children later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. What she has found was that a lack of eye contact, a lack of reaching to be picked up, and an aversion to eye contact or social contact were fairly good predictors at 9 months of age. At 9 months many observable social behaviors, as I have outlined, begin to make their presence known.

Play with your baby boy as much as you can. Exaggerate voice and facial expression. Stay in touch with further concerns.

Kind Regards,
James