Expert: James Michael Roan - 8/29/2006

Question
I am worried about my 5 1/2 month old daughter.  Socially, she doesn't seem to be "normal".  All other physical development is fine, but she doesn't laugh very often, maybe once a day when being played with or talked to(not counting when she's tickled).  She does make good eye contact and smiles, usually when she's not being held facing me in my lap.  When I talk to her and try to play with her in my lap she's not very responsive, and rarely talks back with me. She seems to make more noises when she's playing by herself, and it's mostly squeeling and blowing bubbles rather than different sounds.  The lack of laughing, "fun" interaction and baby noises has me worried.  In your opinion, could these be signs of autism?

Answer
Hi Diane:

It is very difficult to diagnose autism at such an early age. The premier researcher in this area, in my opinion, is Dr. Geraldine Dawson at the University of Washington. She has written an article on this at http://faculty.washington.edu/dawson/CurrentResearchActivities/EarlyMark.html

Dr. Dawson notes: "In 2000, we also published a study that showed that autism symptoms are apparent as early as 8-10 months of age. We found that 8-10 month old infants later diagnosed with autism often fail to orient to their name and fail to use communicative babbling (Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 2000, 30, 157-162)."

This having been said, your daughter's related symptoms do not necessarily indicate autism. I must admit I am slightly concerned though. Continue to play with her and download off the Internet the M-CHAT at:
http://www.firstsigns.org/downloads/m-chat.PDF

and the scoring key at:
http://www.firstsigns.org/downloads/m-chat_scoring.PDF

Please remember that this screening tool is for children aged 18-36 months and you should ONLY use it as a guide for what to expect of your daughter's social development in the months to come. Most of the critical item such as poiting to onjects of interest begin around 12-15 months.

Play and interact with her as often as you have time for and make sure her hearing is good as well.

Kind Regards,
James