Should I be concerned or am I overthinking?
My little boy is 15 months old, he’s recently taken his first steps and he says mamma and dadda and baba (he has said these for months) we’ve filled out the paperwork for his 12-14 month review and it looks like he isn’t meeting many of his milestones.
He doesn’t copy actions, point, clap etc. He doesn’t react when being spoken to, or to his name. He actively avoids eye contact.
He was so unresponsive to sound that we just had his hearing tested concerned he was deaf. They found that he could hear so he is just choosing not to react to any noises or sounds.
Has anyone else had similar experiences with their little ones? Should I be raising this with the health visitor and ask to be assessed for neurodivergent issue or a social communication problem like autism?
I don’t want to just slap a label on him, but I do feel that there are real concerns. All opinions welcome!!
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Early intervention can do an assessment if you’re concerned. Doesn’t hurt to inquire
Are you in the US? Every state has an early intervention program. He can be evaluated for free and given therapies if need be. But as someone who has worked with autistic children my whole life the things you listed can absolutely be markers. This also around the age many start to notice signs and begin to get diagnosed. I’m not saying this is the case but I would absolutely go for and evaluation. That being said if this is the case please know this does not mean anything is WRONG with your baby he simply recieves the world differently. It’s not slapping a label but getting the best resources to make the world work best for him. Early intervention & consistency is key. Do lots of research and ALWAYS ADVOCATE for your baby. Prayers and Love to you and baby boy💙
I would be concerned given what you’ve outlined. I imagine the health visitor will be too once she sees he’s not meeting those milestones. Usually people on here ask this and their child is just demonstrating developmentally normal behaviours, but your post is different.
I would be a concerned. My son only said 2 words (though had regressed to 1) and wasn't communicating non-verbally by 15 months. He was diagnosed with a severe speech delay and last year with autism and possible ADHD. We got his hearing checked too and he was fine.
I found (that even now) we sometimes have to stand in front of him, get down to his eye level, pause the TV, interrupt his game or play, squeeze his shoulder or gently, stroke his hand etc to get his attention sometimes.
I am a huge advocate for early intervention, the earlier the better.
If you have concerns then it does no harm to address them.
So I just had this talk with my daughter’s doctor. The only concern that I have is that she isn’t pointing or shaking head to yes or no. My son has speech delay and adhd this can be genetic. So I made an appointment for an early intervention and she doesn’t qualify because she is doing other stuff. And isn’t delayed yet. They said they will check on her when she is 18 months because it’s too early to know if she has autism or some type of delay. Now for you I recommend looking up early intervention he isn’t doing things that can be considered “red flags” and if they don’t do the early intervention then monitor and write down what you noticed that he isn’t doing and what he is doing. Some toddlers need time that’s what my daughters doctor said but you are your babies advocate. you know him more than the doctors know him if you know something’s wrong get the help you don’t even need a doctors referral. If you have any questions or concerns message me !
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