Published on 12, July, 2020
My daughter is fascinated with lights, when we turn the lights on at night she walks about staring at them. If we go anywhere that has lights she keeps looking at them and doesn't pay attention where she is walking. We got her toys that has flashing lights and changes colour, she puts her face right on the lights and stares at them. We have also noticed that she is repetitive with her play time. She would turn her toys upside down and keeps spinning the wheels and stuff that spins. She also goes to all the cupboards and open and shuts them constantly. She has started to flap her arms sometimes and sometimes walks on her tip toes. I feel at times she just ignores me when I speak to her, most of the time she doesn't listen to me.
I'm just a bit worried as autism runs in both our families. On my side I have 4 nephews that have ADHD and one nephew is severely autistic. I myself have borderline personality disorder. On my partners side she has 2 brothers with ADHD and a sister with autism. We told the health visitor about our concerns and she just brushed it of and said that is expected behaviour in kids that age, this is our first child but do all kids act like this? She said it is to early to be diagnosed with autism, I think she said 3 years and upwards? she did say if my child is still showing symptoms at her 2 year assessment she will act on it.
So am I being over the top? Is my child acting normal?
Cheers
I’m actually really glad I just saw this post as it reminded me of my own 22 month old daughter. It’s understandable with the family history of autism that you are concerned. She is showing some traits but do you mind me asking if she has any developmental delays? Maybe keep a diary of any behaviours she displays to show your health visitor when you next see her.
My own daughter is not yet walking or talking. rolling, sitting and crawling we’re all delayed but she mastered them eventually, she doesn’t use gestures at all, she rarely responds to her name, her eye contact which used to be good is going ‘off’ now, she likes to be cuddled on her terms but doesn’t like it if others initiate cuddling, she’s also not very tolerant of being touched, except she does like her feet being tickled or massaged and a back scratch is sometimes accepted depending on her mood. She also has always been drawn to lights since birth, she loves spinning things, office type chairs are her favourite and she will literally sit for hours spinning them. I’ve had to get her toys that light up etc as she is more inclined to play with them. She’s a sensory seeker too and shakes her head for long periods of time (to make herself dizzy), does frequent head inversions (to get the blood rush to the head effect) she also pulls her hair sadly, though it’s more of a sensory thing as she seems to like the feeling of raking her fingers through her hair. She’s not always aware of pain either, I barely know when she’s teething and she rarely makes a fuss if she falls and bangs herself on something.
Luckily she’s already under the paediatrician, physiotherapist and occupational therapist due to the delay in rolling/sitting/crawling/walking. The health visitor has also referred her to SALT (speech and language therapy) for under 3’s. She is my 3rd child and this is NOT normal. I myself am recently diagnosed ASD (Aspergers) and I’m pretty sure that my eldest daughter and most of my mums side of the family have ASD (Aspergers). I’ve raised my concerns that she is autistic with the physio and OT but they just dismiss it saying she doesn’t have the autistic facial dymorphology (she does have some facial dysmorphology) She has a review with the paediatrician at the end of February (6 months late!!) so I fully intend to insist that she is referred for assessment for ASD, never underestimate an Aspie on a mission :-) They can diagnose under 3 by the way although it’s not as common. It’s so frustrating having to play the waiting game though!