I have been working with children with Autism for the last 8 years and will like to share with any parents that have any questions relating to autism. I will answer to the best of my knowledge of hope it helps in understanding more about autism.
I hope you are still able to share your expertise with me. These are my questions regarding autism and what my DS displays.
My DS is 13 month old. My DH and I see some signs and symptoms that suggest that he does not particularly engage in joint attention. However we are quite unclear would like to consult with professionals. Would you kindly advise on how you can help us with our concerns. I would also be appreciate it if you could respond to the following inquiries.
1. When do children typically develop tridiac joint attention?
2. When do children typically develop the habit of showing objects?
3. I understand from peer reviewed literature that children should engage in proto-declrative and proto-imperative pointing, waving and showing of objects. My son engages in both types of pointing but he does not look back at our faces regularly to complete tridiac joint attention. Additionally when we taught him waving, he does not always do it on cue when saying goodbye. Occasionally he only waves after involved parties have left his field of view. We are not really sure if he also shows objects as part of social interaction. He would periodically hold objects and flap his hands when looking at us but does not really extend it out to us. I feel that his level of eye contact is satisfactory. In these regards should we be concerned about a lack of joint attention.
4 Do typicaly developing 13 month old enjoy playing with wheels of cars and toys that spin? DS also has a habit of playing with objects that spin. (Wheels of cars, toys that roll, spin). He would not obsess over them but still spends some time playing in that way. This is less so now compared to 11 months.
5. DS said mama quite regularly at 11 months. But he does not use it intentionally to address me. He also uses the word much less frequently now. However he does use the words ‘Car’ and ‘ Aiyah’. However he does not always use ‘Car’ intentionally to address the object. He is able to point to several objects we name such that I am not concerned about his receptive language. Should we be concerned about regression of expressive language?
