Early Warning Signs

It's been a while since I last posted, but we've just been chugging along. Dealing with early puberty... learning to tie shoes at last (much relief!)... learning to write multi-paragraph papers... etc..

Recently I spotted the "Red Flags" list at Autism Speaks for what are being called absolute indicators for atypical development in a young child. They are:

* No big smiles or other warm, joyful expressions by six months or thereafter

* No back-and-forth sharing of sounds, smiles, or other facial expressions by nine months or thereafter

* No babbling by 12 months

* No back-and-forth gestures, such as pointing, showing, reaching, or waving by 12 months

* No words by 16 months

* No two-word meaningful phrases (without imitating or repeating) by 24 months

* Any loss of speech or babbling or social skills at any age


Rose only missed one of these. She was a very early talker, and a happy, smiling baby. Granted, some of her early talk (complex sentences and big words) was parroted, but it always made sense in context, and little kids do that. She was making verbal jokes and puns at 12 months. No surprise that autism didn't occur to us.

The one thing that she was missing, in retrospect, was the reciprocal gestures. I do remember her reaching for things, and waving to people. But no gestures that would say to someone else, "Hey, look at this with me!" No pointing, and no pointing and then turning back to look at our faces to see our responses.

It still seems strange to label what we originally identified as a personality quirk as a "symptom." Rose only seemed a little self-absorbed and indifferent to our opinions - a very self-confident, opinionated little kid. We laughed, and shook our heads, and said that she was living in the vivid fantasy world that we remembered so clearly from childhood. I still hate to pathologize this, as it's also one of her - our - great strengths - the ability to become absorbed in thought, to concentrate and dismiss outside irrelevancies, and unleash a powerful creative capacity. But on the other hand, if we had realized that our family had these issues, we could also have arranged for help with social issues and speech difficulties at a much earlier age, and they might not be as much of a problem now.