Hallo everyone, hope to get some guidance here and some useful knowledge to share. Let me go straight to the point about my 15 mths old son's conditions. (Sorry for the long post)
I had tested the M-CHAT's 23 questions, and the result is worrying.
Eye contact -
SERIOUS WARNING -
he very seldom has eye contact, even if there is, its about only 1 second, not sure if he gives my wife longer eye contact.
However, when watching his favourite children TV show, when he is excited, he will walk very close to the TV to see, abit bouncy on the legs when excited, and may turn and look at my wife for a while and smile.
But he never does that to me, maybe sons at younger age are closer to mum?
Sometimes we think he can't hear us -
SERIOUS WARNING SIGN
We had his ears checked, and it is fine.
Problem is when we call his name, he does not "hear" us at all when he is playing with toys or glued to watching TV.
Only sometimes he responds to our calls, when he is doing nothing.
He gazes or stares at nothing -
It looks like he is sometimes in serious thoughts when he stares at nothing. This seems to have reduced gradually.
Speech -
Still unable to speak, he does make a variety of sound, but no speech yet, he does sometimes call papapapa..... but I don't think he mean to call me.
Fingers pointing
SERIOUS WARNING SIGN
He has not done this at all.
The most he had done is if we do something that attracts his attention with our hands, for example, touching some hanging lamp which is out of his reach, he will hold my hand and raise my hand to the direction of the lamp, then i touch the lamp,...the lamp moves,...then he holds my hand and raise my hand to the direction of lamp again....he is asking us to do that by raising my hand to the lamp's direction.
Another instance on the weighing machine, the needle's movement caught his attention, he does not know how to do it, but realise my hand pressing on the platform causes the needle movement, so he moves my hand to the platform.
He repeats such gestures a few times, maybe 5 or 6 times only.
Sometimes when he wants to leave the room, instead of pointing, he will push me, or pull his grandma's skirt.
Interaction and communication with us -
He seldoms communicates with us.
But when he saw food from far away,...he will start faking his cry and tears, walk to us, and mumbled "mam..mam...mam...mam.."
He has good appetite.
He does the same (cry and walk to me) when he sees me dressed differently or hears me holding the key to the door. Because he loves to go outside.
When he is sleepy, he may cry, we understand that, but is that enough of sign of communication? he does not use his finger to point to his bedroom.
When he was younger (about 6 months), he wakes up very early maybe 5 a.m., he "talks" to himself, scratches the pillow, when you wake up and open your eyes, he smiles at you. I am not sure if he does that now, I wake up earlier than him now... And sometimes if he wakes up earlier, I pretend to sleep, if he knows I am awake, he will start to cry because he wants to get out of the room to play in living area.
But I am too tired...thus I pretend to sleep.
He does NOT pay attention to other children (both older and younger).
Sometimes when they play games in children playground, he realized what they are doing, and goes there and play by himself, instead of having some interaction and look at what they do.
This is a warning sign I guess.
He has a 3 years old cousin (a girl), which he lives with Monday to Friday.
Seldom interact with her, he does his own things, and if he realize his cousin playing some toys, he will go there to play the toy, but not to interact.
Sometimes, some of the thing his cousin does, can make him laugh...
eg. throwing pillow around, or some kind of jumps / dance....but not often
Playing with toys
I am confused about the signs here.
He loves wheels, spinning the wheels. At first this looked like a cute gesture, but upon further research it is a warning sign of Autism,...fixated at things, and playing it quite awhile.
However, its a bit conflicting signs I see.
Warning signs -
- he loves spinning the wheels, anything with wheels, he will turn the toy car upside down and start spinning the wheels.
He plays with wheels of bicycle, and his baby stroller. And if he sees stationary car, he may go and touch the wheels.
Though, my wife told me, very recently, he start playing toy cars in a more proper way,...like pushing it on the floor.
- He plays toys sometimes in a different manner, he loves to spin things
- Not sure if this is a warning sign, but he is totally in love with my notebook, but I do not let him play with it, because his hands will hit on the keypad quite hard.
Not so worrying signs -
- he is not fixated on a toy for too long, even when playing the wheels, probably the longest it lasts him is 20 to 30 minutes,...most of the time he gets bored quicker.
- He is not fixated to only one toy
He likes to be carried / hugged
Since very small till today, he likes to be carried around by my wife, myself, aunts, grandparents, strangers (its the case of 50-50,..depends).
Only time he struggles is if he wants to go down and walk in shopping complex, if he sees something that attracts him in the complex (such as children's play area, or in the Toys R Us store)
Motor and coordination skill
I think he has reasonable motor and coordination skills, started walking at 13 months age, and can now climb up and down stairs standing while holding to the rails.
He loves to climb on sofa,..anywhere.
Other things about him,
- Loves bathtub, he will start using his hands to splash on the water, if you remove him out of the bathtub too early, he starts crying and protest.
- hates changing clothes and diapers, will protest and cry abit most of the times. But crying stop immediately once it is done.
- he likes to put his fingers into his mouth,... is it teething itchiness problem? Or he has some worrying lust for some taste?
He does sometimes put his foot with shoes into his mouth.
Whenever he does such things, we stick the pacifier into his mouth.
Sorry for the long first post, I just want to give as much info as possible so that my son's conditions can be better understood.
I had tested the M-CHAT's 23 questions, and the result is worrying.
Eye contact -
SERIOUS WARNING -
he very seldom has eye contact, even if there is, its about only 1 second, not sure if he gives my wife longer eye contact.
However, when watching his favourite children TV show, when he is excited, he will walk very close to the TV to see, abit bouncy on the legs when excited, and may turn and look at my wife for a while and smile.
But he never does that to me, maybe sons at younger age are closer to mum?
Sometimes we think he can't hear us -
SERIOUS WARNING SIGN
We had his ears checked, and it is fine.
Problem is when we call his name, he does not "hear" us at all when he is playing with toys or glued to watching TV.
Only sometimes he responds to our calls, when he is doing nothing.
He gazes or stares at nothing -
It looks like he is sometimes in serious thoughts when he stares at nothing. This seems to have reduced gradually.
Speech -
Still unable to speak, he does make a variety of sound, but no speech yet, he does sometimes call papapapa..... but I don't think he mean to call me.
Fingers pointing
SERIOUS WARNING SIGN
He has not done this at all.
The most he had done is if we do something that attracts his attention with our hands, for example, touching some hanging lamp which is out of his reach, he will hold my hand and raise my hand to the direction of the lamp, then i touch the lamp,...the lamp moves,...then he holds my hand and raise my hand to the direction of lamp again....he is asking us to do that by raising my hand to the lamp's direction.
Another instance on the weighing machine, the needle's movement caught his attention, he does not know how to do it, but realise my hand pressing on the platform causes the needle movement, so he moves my hand to the platform.
He repeats such gestures a few times, maybe 5 or 6 times only.
Sometimes when he wants to leave the room, instead of pointing, he will push me, or pull his grandma's skirt.
Interaction and communication with us -
He seldoms communicates with us.
But when he saw food from far away,...he will start faking his cry and tears, walk to us, and mumbled "mam..mam...mam...mam.."
He has good appetite.
He does the same (cry and walk to me) when he sees me dressed differently or hears me holding the key to the door. Because he loves to go outside.
When he is sleepy, he may cry, we understand that, but is that enough of sign of communication? he does not use his finger to point to his bedroom.
When he was younger (about 6 months), he wakes up very early maybe 5 a.m., he "talks" to himself, scratches the pillow, when you wake up and open your eyes, he smiles at you. I am not sure if he does that now, I wake up earlier than him now... And sometimes if he wakes up earlier, I pretend to sleep, if he knows I am awake, he will start to cry because he wants to get out of the room to play in living area.
But I am too tired...thus I pretend to sleep.
He does NOT pay attention to other children (both older and younger).
Sometimes when they play games in children playground, he realized what they are doing, and goes there and play by himself, instead of having some interaction and look at what they do.
This is a warning sign I guess.
He has a 3 years old cousin (a girl), which he lives with Monday to Friday.
Seldom interact with her, he does his own things, and if he realize his cousin playing some toys, he will go there to play the toy, but not to interact.
Sometimes, some of the thing his cousin does, can make him laugh...
eg. throwing pillow around, or some kind of jumps / dance....but not often
Playing with toys
I am confused about the signs here.
He loves wheels, spinning the wheels. At first this looked like a cute gesture, but upon further research it is a warning sign of Autism,...fixated at things, and playing it quite awhile.
However, its a bit conflicting signs I see.
Warning signs -
- he loves spinning the wheels, anything with wheels, he will turn the toy car upside down and start spinning the wheels.
He plays with wheels of bicycle, and his baby stroller. And if he sees stationary car, he may go and touch the wheels.
Though, my wife told me, very recently, he start playing toy cars in a more proper way,...like pushing it on the floor.
- He plays toys sometimes in a different manner, he loves to spin things
- Not sure if this is a warning sign, but he is totally in love with my notebook, but I do not let him play with it, because his hands will hit on the keypad quite hard.
Not so worrying signs -
- he is not fixated on a toy for too long, even when playing the wheels, probably the longest it lasts him is 20 to 30 minutes,...most of the time he gets bored quicker.
- He is not fixated to only one toy
He likes to be carried / hugged
Since very small till today, he likes to be carried around by my wife, myself, aunts, grandparents, strangers (its the case of 50-50,..depends).
Only time he struggles is if he wants to go down and walk in shopping complex, if he sees something that attracts him in the complex (such as children's play area, or in the Toys R Us store)
Motor and coordination skill
I think he has reasonable motor and coordination skills, started walking at 13 months age, and can now climb up and down stairs standing while holding to the rails.
He loves to climb on sofa,..anywhere.
Other things about him,
- Loves bathtub, he will start using his hands to splash on the water, if you remove him out of the bathtub too early, he starts crying and protest.
- hates changing clothes and diapers, will protest and cry abit most of the times. But crying stop immediately once it is done.
- he likes to put his fingers into his mouth,... is it teething itchiness problem? Or he has some worrying lust for some taste?
He does sometimes put his foot with shoes into his mouth.
Whenever he does such things, we stick the pacifier into his mouth.
Sorry for the long first post, I just want to give as much info as possible so that my son's conditions can be better understood.
