Every child is beautiful and unique in his own way. Even the growth rate of every baby and toddler is different. They have their own speed of saying their first word or taking their first step and even start grasping the little concepts of daily life like bathing, brushing, etc. While these all fluctuate from school;d to child, sometimes there is a child whose mental growth rate is too slow from other babies.
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?
Autism or more specifically Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurological and developmental disorder. This disorder could affect various aspects of life like social skills, general day to day life activities like playing, learning, and communicating, etc.
Like fever, autism has a range too. It ranges from low where the symptoms and affects are always negligible to mild where the child still could live a normal life like other children but with difficulties in some certain aspects of life to serve where even a stranger can easily grasp that there is something different in a child from other children. What to keep in mind is that every autistic child is unique in its own way and has different behavioural aspects of showing autism.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made some estimations regarding the autism spectrum disorder like:-
- In the present scenario of the global population, every 1 of 36 babies have the autism spectrum disorder.
- There are slightly more chances of a male infant to be born with autism than a girl child.
Reasons and Cause: Why Does a Person Have Autism?
Although the clear reason or proven cause of why autism may develop in a baby or toddler still not known yet, there are some events that are like a trigger or addition to the already existing condition of autism in an infant. These are:-
- Having a history or autism or any other mental disorder in the family
- A sibling that has autism spectrum disorder
- Premature birth
- Low birth weight
- Pregnancy or delivery complications
- Certain genetic or chromosomal conditions
- Being conceived by parents of advanced age
Clear Signs of Autism in Babies and Toddlers-
The age of showing signs or symptoms of a baby having autism could differ and even the symptoms change with age. Spotting autism in a newborn baby or within the months of birth is hard and confusing, but not fully impossible and remember, early the detection, early the treatment could begin. So, here is how you can look for possibility in your child of suffering from autism spectrum disorder according to his/ her age:-
0 to 3 Months
- The infant is poor at recognising faces even if they see them occasionally.
- Won’t follow moving objects with his eyes, as babies are curious and always keep on looking for new things.
- Very sensitive to noises.
- His/ her facial expressions are very limited.
4 to 7 Months
- Does not follow a sound, means if a sound or noise is coming from a certain direction, the baby just won’t take a slight interest in moving to that direction turning his face in that way.
- Though babies of 4 to 7 months are too small to show any affection, still the mother is someone the baby spends the most time with and always looks for them when they are not around. If a baby doesn’t show this, it may be a sign of having a lack of the emotion called affection.
- A toddler who could not form a proper word or sentence did a lot of babbling in his growing days because of always ewing people talking around and then trying to imitate them. If a baby just doesn’t blabber much, he may be showing the presence of autism.
- A limited verbal expression like making weird noises or squealing on random things and lack facial expression, like always having a poker or straight, not smiling at all or laughing in random movements.
- Not reaching for objects or grasping or holding onto objects.
8 to 12 Months
- Most babies start to walk around not properly but at least with the help of holding onto things around. However, if a baby has not even started crawling around by 8 to 12 months and also is not able to stand even when properly supported it may be a sign of autism.
- Avoid eye contact a lot, even with his parents
- Has not uttered a single proper word.
- Does not point to objects or people and does not grasp common gestures like waving or shaking his head, etc.
There are other very common symptoms of autism like Repetitive behaviors, obsessive interests, and challenges with food and eating, etc.
What to keep in mind is that these are just signs and are clear evidence or proof of anything. It is advised to always go and see a specialized doctor if you observe these symptoms in your toddler and to not take any random solution by yourself to treat your child, as it can lead to making the situation or disorder worse.
