Children who have an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can be given additional help and support if diagnosed early, but reaching that important early diagnosis can be an extremely difficult task. Most children are not diagnosed until they are between the ages of two and three at the very earliest, and it can be much later before signs are picked up and support is accessed, when family wellness can then be restored.
Researchers from the Kennedy Krieger Institute have recently produced a list of ten signs of autism to watch out for in children as young as six to 12 months, to help parents and doctors work towards a possible diagnosis and gain the best possible family wellness. Since this, more researchers have revealed that autism signs appear to occur in specific patterns. The Kennedy Krieger Institute collaborated with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the Aging Brain Centre at the Institute for Aging Research and Hebrew Senior Life in Harvard Medical School and the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on this startling piece of research, testing 235 children over six to 36 months. It identified the areas where development differs between children with ASD and those without.
The study showed that by 14 months, children with early ASD had less language and social smiling compared to the children without ASD, and by 18 months they had even greater delays in their expressive and receptive language skills. Other delays were also exhibited by the age of 14 months, apart from fine motor skills, by the children with ASD.
These studies show that early development does provide clues to the later development of ASD and, interestingly, parents who had concerns about their child’s early development were often proved to be right. Due to this, if you have any concern about your child’s developmental wellbeing, you should speak to your doctor and voice those concerns.
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