When can you diagnose autism in a baby?

Question

And what are the signs and symptoms?

Answer 1

From these studies, five distinct areas of development are flagged for consideration. All parents should consider these "Big Five" if they suspect that their child may have autism.

1) Does the baby respond to his or her name when called by the caregiver? Within the first few months of life, babies respond to their own name by orienting toward the person who called them. Typical babies are very responsive to the voices of familiar people, and often respond with smiles and looks.

In contrast, infants later diagnosed with autism often fail to respond to their own name. That is, when called by name, they tend to turn and look at the person only about 20% of the time as found- in the videotaped one year-old birthday parties of children with autism. They also are often selectively responsive to sounds. They may ignore some sounds and respond to others that are of the same loudness. Thus, they may fail to respond to their parent calling their name, but immediately respond to the television being turned on. It is not unusual for parents to suspect their child has a hearing loss.

2) Does the young child engage in "joint attention"? Near the end of the first year of life, most infants begin to join with their caregivers in looking at the same object or event. To aid in this process of "joint attention", typical infants begin to shift their gaze from toys to people, follow other's points, monitor the gaze of others, point to objects or events to share interest, and show toys to others. These behaviors have a distinct sharing quality to them. For example, the young infant may point to an airplane flying over head, and look to the parent, as if to say, "do you see that!"

In contrast, young children with autism have particular difficulties in jointly attending with others. They rarely follow another's points, do not often shift their gaze back and forth from objects to people, and do not seem to share "being with" the caregiver as they watch and talk about objects, people, or events. They also tend not to "show" a toy to the parent.

3) Does the child imitate others? Typical infants are mimics. Very young infants can imitate facial movements (e.g., sticking out their tongue). As early as 8-10 months, mothers and infants say the same sounds one after another, or clap or make other movements. Indeed, imitation is a major part of such common infant games as pat-a-cake and So Big ("How big is baby? Soooo big!" as infant raises hands to sky).

Young children with autism, however, less often imitate others. They show less imitation of body and facial movements (waving, making faces, playing infant games), and less imitation with objects.

4) Does the child respond emotionally to others? Typical infants are socially responsive to others. They smile when others smile at them, and they initiate smiles and laughs when playing with toys and others. When typical infants observe another child crying, they may cry themselves, or looked concerned. Somewhat older infants may crawl near the person, pat, or in other ways offer comfort. These latter behaviors are suggestive of empathy and are commonly observed among children in the second year of life.

In contrast, children with autism may seem unaware of the emotions of others. They may not take notice of the social smiles of others, and thus may not look and smile in response to other's smiles. They also may ignore the distress of others. Several researchers have now shown that when an adult feigns pain and distress after hitting herself with a toy, or banging her knee, young children with autism are less likely to look at the adult, or show facial concern.

5) Does the baby engage in pretend play? Someone once noted that "play is the work of children." Young children love to pretend-to be a mother, father, or baby, to be a firefighter or police officer. Although children start to play with toys around six months or so, play does not take on a pretend quality until the end of the first year. Their first actions may involve pretending to feed themselves, their mother or a doll, brush the doll's hair, or wipe the doll's nose. Nearer their second birthday, children engage in truly imaginative play as dolls may take on human qualities of talking or engaging in household routines. Children may pretend that a sponge is a piece of food, a block is a hat, or a plastic bowl is a swimming pool that contains water.

In contrast, the play of children with autism may be lacking in several ways. The young child may not be interested in objects at all, paying more attention to the movement of his hands, or a piece of string. If interested in toys, only certain ones may catch his interest, and these may be used in a repetitive way that is not consistent with how most children would play with the toy. They may be more interested in turning a toy car upside down and spinning the wheels than pushing the car back and forth. Overall, pretend qualities are nearly absent in the play of children with autism under 2 years of age.

It is important to note that in each of the 5 areas we have flagged, we are most concerned with behaviors that are absent or occur at very low rates. The absence of certain behaviors may be more difficult to pinpoint than the presence of atypical behaviors. But concerns in any of the above areas should prompt a parent to investigate screening their child for autism. Several screening measures are now available, and information from the screener will help to determine if the parent should pursue further evaluations. If the parent is convinced their child has autism, then they should seek an evaluation with an expert in autism. Most likely, this evaluation will involve an interview with the parents to obtain a complete developmental history of the child, and direct observations of the child in different situations.

Luckily, Timmy and his parents were able to get the diagnosis of autism before Timmy's third birthday. They began intensive treatment with Timmy, and he made immediate progress. They are hoping for the best outcome, and feel confident that his early diagnosis was critical in getting him the help he needs to reach his potential.



http://www.bridges4kids.org/articles/1-03/EP12-02.html


or
http://www.mugsy.org/pmh.htm

Answer 2

Here's some information from a book of mine that I think you might find very helpful.

"Autism

What is it?
An inability, that dates from birth or develops within the first two and a half years of life, to develop normal human relationships, even with parents. Babies don't smile or respond to parents of anyone else in any way, and dislike being picked up or touched. There are usually extreme problems in speaking (including bizarre speech patterns such as echolalia, in which the child echoes the words just heard rather than replying), strange positions and mannerisms, erratic and inappropriate behaviour (compulsivness and ritualism, screaming fits and arm flapping) and sometimes, self destructiveness. TThe child may have normal intelligence but appear to be retarded or dead because of the lack of responsiveness. Autism may sometimes be confused with chlidhood schizophrenia, and occasionally may precede it.

How common is it?
There are an estimated 2 to 7 cases per 10,000 babies.

Who is suspectible:
Male children are three to four times more likely to be autistic than females

What causes it?
Probably, according to a recent study, autosomal recessive inheritance; both parents must pass on the recessive genes for the baby to be affected. There seem to be smoe differences in brain wave patterns in autistic children, which may be related to their condition. It is not related to parenting.

Related problems:
Behaviour and developmental problems

Treatment:
At present there is no cure, but some children can be helped with behaviour modification therapy, stimulation, special traiing, and sometimes, drugs. When possible, the child remains at home, but sometimes the stress is more than a family can tolerate, and institutionalisation becomes necessary. Day-care programs can sometimes help alleviate the stress while allowing the child to remain at home. Counselling is often helpful for the rest of the family.

Prognosis:
At present, about a third of children recover sufficiently to function fairly normally, but most remain autistic and need special institutional care. Outlook is best when a child can be taught to use meaningful speech before age five"

Hope this could help you!

I'm going to include the link to a parenting forum that I think you might find interesting. It's full of supportive women with boundless knowledge about these issues. I learnt so much there that I doubt I would have learnt otherwise.

Answer 3

The research is showing that identification is getting earlier and earlier. The first noted sign is usually the absence or significant delay of the true 'social smile'. Other noted signs generally occur later with the absence of speech or the onset of speech followed by its disappearance. There are also signs that might indicate autism including lack of interaction with family or caregivers, 'difficult' babies, babies that do not like physical hugging. However, these are also personality traits, so please do not be overly concerned if your baby demonstrates any of these. I have worked with 100's of children with autism over the last 15 years and the majority of parents report more obvious things like the smile or lack of speech. Talk to your doctor.

Answer 4

diagnosis is rarely made before the age of 2. there may be signs of it early on and you may feel that something is wrong, but no official diagnosis can be made quite yet. there are 3 major signs of autism in young babies... maybe this will help. the majority of them seem to be placid and undemanding, they are content and lie in their crib all day, they are known as "angel babies". the other scream day and night and cannot be conforted of soothed. and then you have the ones who are later diagnosed who showed no unusual features at a very early stage.

i am in school to work specifically with children with autism. if there is anything else that i can help you with, feel free to email me, [e-mail] good luck to you and your baby

Answer 5

2 years and older

a person with autism will have a hard time looking you in the eye - they don't smile then tend to do repetative things flap ther hands non verbal

If you think there is something wrong with your baby - first have his ears checked

Answer 6

there are many forms of autism. set up an appointment with the pediatrician and ask! write down all of the things that you question about your childs actions, moods, behaviors... that way you don't forget to tell something that COULD be important.
please take a moment to check out this link:
http://www.medicinenet.com/autism/article.htm

Answer 7

Autistic children tend to hate change. If your child has a hard time with change that could be a sign. Usually autistic children hate when things are different and usually act up and misbehave when there is change around them.

Answer 8

you will have to get a psychologists to diasognit it right
but my son has asperger and its hard
to find about it
my son 7 years old and we just find out on Jan 2 so its hard to diagonist .
my son is now getting help and things he needs
and he is going into 2nd grade with a a b grades from frist grade