I have been worried about my now 6-month-old step-grandson since he was just a couple of weeks old. He has always been difficult to engage – vacant gaze, no eye contact, no smiling or laughing, and he cries when someone persists at trying to engage with him. Now that his behavior is a more volitional he moves his head to avoid eye contact, especially when he is being held. He scans his environment but shows more interest in objects than in people. At 6 months old he is not babbling. I am the mother of 2 children (19 & 22), I am an Occupational Therapist, and I also have a degree in Psychology so I have some life experience and some education in childhood development – but it has been years since I spent a lot of time with a baby and this is a specialized and sensitive subject. I thought I might be overreacting but now my 19-year-old daughter independently came to the same conclusion. His parents have not expressed any concern, at least to us. What should I do?
What, if any, are the signs of autism in an infant?
Posted by admin on May 25th, 2011
Posted in children a trisk for autism 
Tags: amp, childhood development, conclusion, degree in psychology, education, eye contact, gaze, life experience, occupational therapist, parents, sensitive subject, step grandson, volitional
Here is a list of early warning signs:
Excessive passivity (lack of crying, lack of interest in surroundings)
Excessive activity (lack of physical calmness, incessant crying)
Refusal or resistance to feeding or nursing (breastfeeding/others)
Lack of reaction to voice or presence of a parent (doesn’t turn his head, doesn’t smile, doesn’t babble)
Aversion to parental touch (or any other person)
Lack of direct eye contact (can follow objects)
Delayed motor development (followed by hypotonic/high stiff muscle tone)
Rapid growth of the circumference of the head (in relation to the initial point).
All infants have a problem adjusting after the trauma of birth. They are all autistic, but most outgrow it. If the baby is highly intelligent, the trauma is more intense than with normal babies. That’s why geniuses are almost always at least slightly autistic.
It seems to me like your grandson is at risk, at least for ADHD or infantile neurosis if not full-blown autism.
Anyway, be really careful when choosing a child therapist. A lot of them act like they understand autism, or talk about "early intervention" with no idea of what to do.
Here is a website you can visit that I think you will find really useful for this particular issue:
http://www.mifne-autism.com/int_pre_autism_network.htm