Early indications that your child may be autistic.

A thread 1/

These are largely based on my own experiences, everyone’s experiences will differ but it’s a question I’m regularly asked by parents so here are some earlier indicators & things to look for 2/

Eye contact - reduced eye contact, not following where you point to or not looking at the person speaking to them 3/

Stimming - Self Stimulatory Behaviours present in many different ways, some common and more obvious stims are hand flapping, rocking & flicking fingers. These can happen when happy or distressed 4/

Meltdowns - Meltdowns are different to tantrums. They can be prolonged and extremely distressful 5/

Not responding to their name 6/

Sensory seeking - Likes touchy feely textures such as slime 7/

Sensory avoidance - Trouble wearing clothes. This can be because of fabric, labels, stitching & the same with shoes 8/

Prefers to play alone 9/

Does not understand danger. For example will climb too high or wonder into the road 10/

Can miss social cues 11/

Does not like loud noise. Although noise doesn’t have to be loud for it to cause a problem. May benefit from wearing noise cancelling headphones 12/

Humming, shouting, making their own sounds 13/

Can be overly social - Doesn’t understand when someone is their friend or not...will stand too close and hug people inappropriately. Will talk to strangers 14/

Delayed speech - Using Echolalia - sometimes referred to as meaningless repetition - Repetitive speech 15/

Repetitive play. A child can play with the same toys continuously. They may play by lining their toys up. They may not use or understand pretend play such as feeding a dolly 16/

Not coping with change - Needing a routine...if the routine is changed the child may not cope and this will cause them distress. This can be something as small (to us) as lunch five minutes later than usual.

Using the same cup/plate/cutlery.

Not being able to use cutlery 17/

Teeth brushing can be distressful.

Bath time can be distressful.

Teeth brushing can be sensory heaven.

Bath time can be sensory heaven 18/

A restricted diet. Commonly consisting of dry, plain, beige foods but can be anything in between.

Will only eat certain brands.

Lining food up before eating it.

Not liking their food touching on the plate 19/

Can become distressed in busy environments for example when out shopping 20/

Having ‘special’ interests, sometimes unusual for their age 21/

If you think that your child may be autistic then contact your GP or Health Visitor in the first instance. It can be a lengthy road to diagnosis - I will do a thread on the diagnosis process at a later date. Hope this helps.