If you are like a lot of parents you are watching your child develop and grow very closely and sometimes you may see things in them not developing like other children. In a lot of these cases the question of autism is in the air. The crazy thing about this concern is, every child shows some sort of symptoms of autism, but most grow out of it. I tell you one thing don’t stress yourself out about it. My first bit of advice is to get a hold of a milestone chart -either from a doctor or I am sure you can find one online.

Just keep this close and keep an eye on things your child should be doing and if you have worries, go ahead and write them down so you are able to talk about it with their doctor. A lot of the times the caregivers are the ones that see these signs. Above all, if you honestly are losing sleep about something - go see the pediatrician and talk about it. That could help no matter what the conclusion. There are a lot of doctors out there doing research on how to detect the autism signs earlier and earlier, so the child can be treated as soon as possible.

Symptoms or Signs found in children are:

*If you notice by 6 months your baby has not smiled

*Babbling by 12 months

*If they are not talking - saying words by 16 months old

*A child should be saying two word phrases by the time they are two years old

*If they learn how to do things, then all of a sudden they regress

*A lot of times you cannot have eye contact with your child because they are sooo interested in a certain object

*Some cannot communicate very well and look as to not give any effort to try to communicate

*Violent tantrums for no reason is a symptom

*Does it look like your child is a “loner” only because his/her interest is not in other kids, they could really careless about socializing.

*Sometimes hearing is an issue, you may suspect your child is deaf. There may be a loud noise such as a book case falling and your child doesn’t budge while the rest of the room thinks there was a bomb.

There are a ton of signs and many can be seen very early in a child’s life. You just have to pay very close attention. I actually make it sound easy - but it’s not. If you don’t detect it, when they are 6 months, it doesn’t make you a bad parent. But if you do have questions you should speak to their doctor and talk to their caregiver, the caregiver can give you an idea of how they see things as well.

Sincerely, Carisma Corianno