About a toddler

[Iamnotarabot]

Hi, I went to a family reunion for a birthday for a 1yo toddler.

I am stubborn and I want to find out if my mother has asperger or not , in her side of the family some people have mental health problems that are the common missdiagnosis of autism especially in women.
So I am investigating, I am sure that with todays knowledges if the kid is autistic it will be spotted by professionals, but i am not so sure if the kid remains mostly HF.

Anyway...The kid is born premature , one month earlier, so I think that the fact that he is physically a bit less developped than others is expected. Also it might explain why he doesnt interract that much with others because of the early experience he had in the hospital instead of being with his parents.

He is very calm, many people took the toddler with them he didnt cry ect...he was a bit anxious when most of the people came in but shortly after he was ok.

What caught my attention is the fact that he doesnt respond very well to his name , he reacts to his mother calling him but if a stranger calls his name he doesnt react, he doesnt react to his father and the eye contact isnt realy there neither, it's like a split second.

He reacts more to little objects and texture, for instance when someone picked him I think he didnt realy realize someone was picking him but he was very focus on the necklace of that person.
And the person he reacts the more to is his grandmother , I think it is because she over acts a lot, she is very loud with him and expressive to that catches his attention.( that's great so)

And the thing that realy caught my attention is the fact that he could take a spoon for a minute and make noise with it.
He was also very interested in some textures and the texture of the napkin he put his hand flat and moved in circle with it like he was cleaning lol.

Anyway, I don't want to talk about it to his family, I dont know them this much, and I dont think this is enought to diagnos anything, especially because he is born premature in the next months all will be fine.
In addition I went there with the intention to "spot" some signs, so I have a confirmaiton bias I think.

To make it clear I just wanted to know if the few things i'v listed could be related to autism or if it is normal to do that for a baby , maybe we should consider him as 11months olds instead of 1YO in term of developpement since he is born premature and I know that many changes can happen in one month.

 

[Autistamatic]

I think it might be an idea for you to read the thread linked below from a few days ago, paying particular attention to post#8 from @Pats
The thread was started by a father of a boy a few months older than the child you are talking about, but the conversation is as relevant to this child as the one under discussion

Signs of autism?

 

[Pats]

You're right in considering the age thing. And, babies are constantly learning - including textures, sounds that things make, everything. All babies are unique - and, just like they naturally know who mom and dad are, I think they instinctually know who Gramma is, too. Some babies are very social and others are not at all, and they do normally tend to look at neck lines when being held, but I don't know why that is, except it's what is mostly in their line of vision. My oldest daughter is not autistic that I know of or can tell, but when she was a toddler there was 4 people she would react with and would ignore anyone else. Once she got in school she became much more social - still always very stubborn, though.
I think the reason they can't really diagnose this early is because all babies learn at their own speed and in their own way, and parents also play a role in their development and how much they interact with them. They start developing their individuality around 2-3 years.
I'm curious as to why you went with the intention of spotting signs in this baby. It's the adults you should have been paying attention to if you were trying to confirm autism in the family. Just my opinion.
Thanks @Autistamatic - for your referral.

 

[Iamnotarabot]

It's the adults you should have been paying attention to if you were trying to confirm autism in the family

You are right, they seem NT ; or at least they dont have obvious autistic behaviours(socially weird) like my father have in public, so its hard to tell, and in any case it was just because I dont know if my mother has asperger this is why i am interested in this kid, his grand mother is diagnoed bipolar.

It is too early to think about that you are right.