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Name: Tullia
[ Original Post ]
Hello,

I am writing about the 10.5 month old daughter of two good friends.

Something seems not quite right about her (the last time I felt this way, the child was diagnosed with autism: I have a NT 7 year old, but ASD in my family, so I have some experience with this), but I can't quite pin it down. I'd like to throw this out to parents with experience with ASD infants, to see if I can get any feedback I might (eventually, maybe, carefully) help forward to my friends (if need be).

She's always been an exceptionally mild and quiet baby. Always happy to sit in a lap—for hours, even now—but never really interacts with the adult holding her.

She still does not respond to her name with any regularity. Indeed, I have never seen her respond to her name, but they say that she does (and so I believe them: but I have never *seen* it, and I see her fairly regularly).

I have never seen her respond to any voice prompt, such as "look!" "there!" "dog!" "do you want?" or anything. She doesn't look if you point, and she doesn't point. Early on, I wondered if she had a hearing problem (I noticed this as well with my nephew, who ended up with an Aspie dx).

Although she smiles, she does so very irregularly, and they are very rarely social smiles—smiles *at* a person, or in response *to* a person smiling. She recognizes her parents, but does not seem to recognize others she sees frequently.

She does not babble. She blows bubbles, and mainly makes a high-pitched squealing noise. She has no words... but this is still in the acceptable range for having no words, right?

At 10.5 months, she is still on soft baby purees, and seems to have trouble with any texture in her mouth. She gags very easily.

She doesn't ever seem to focus on anything other than maybe an object right in front of her. Early on, I thought she might have vision problems. She might. But she has a gaze that is very odd to me (and one of her parents has commented to me about how she seems to "space out" all the time and stare at nothing.)

Although she doesn't seem to avoid eye contact, she doesn't really look at people.

She crawled at about 9 months, and walked at about 10 months of age or so, but her arm / hand strength and coordination lag behind. Her fists are still often clenched, and her arms are often rigid.

She just doesn't seem to try to communicate or have interest in people.

My son was an early developer. By her age, he'd been walking for two months, had a vocabulary of 15 or so words, had favorite books, followed 3-part "commands," and was showing a sense of humor. I know I can't use him as a comparison, and I often remind myself of this.

But still... *something* seems off with this child. And I'm becoming increasingly worried.

She may be NT, and I hope that she is. But there are too many things going on here that keep bugging me. She's such a lovely, sweet, easy child. She's wonderful. But something just seems off.

Does any of this ring a bell?

Please be assured that I have dealt with parents learning that their children have ASD before, and I don't intend to run to them and say "Ah Hah! Look what I just heard back on the internets!" I'm not an alarmist. But if any of this sounds familiar, then I'd like to know, so that if she continues to present in this way, I might be able to have a delicate conversation suggesting evaluation.

Many thanks.
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Name: Edwardliu | Date: Oct 5th, 2011 8:41 AM
If I were you, I had better say nothing.
Autism is nightmare to every parents. Parents are very important to enjoy their baby. Specially when they are little.
I do see a girl not response to anything, no smile at all when she was one year old and now she is three years old and very OK.
I don't believe anything good for their parents when they find their daughter have problem. Leave it until she is 18 months old.
Crawl about 9 months is very OK. Walk some of baby about 1 years and three months walk OK. I see a lot of normal children like that. 

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