12 Signs of Autism in Babies

12 Signs of Autism in Babies from our family home videos. In this video, we share some of the signs of autism that we've learned over the years. Put your questions in the comments, and we'll answer them to the best of our ability!

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[Aheadfamily]

Hey Friends, here's how we can support you, and how you can support us ❤

[paddyo]

My 24 yo grandson had a lot of these features, he always seemed lost in his own world, he would entertain himself for hours focused on toy cars but did not actually play with them in typical ways but instead memorized the make and models and spun the wheels like you mentioned… he taught himself to read by studying new car adverts in the newspaper, he was also fascinated with maps, google earth and begged to be taken on random trips in the car, memorized all the routes and road signs, he could already read in preschool and in grade school his IQ was tested at genius level and he was put in advanced classes but because had no real interest in the subjects, being taught got average grades, except for music, geography and languages…played clarinet in band but taught himself drums, piano and guitar, was
In Spanish club also all through hs …

Went away for college graduated with a degree in linguistics, lives on his own, and is going to China to teach English this fall…


some levels of autism are really an advanced degree of fierce concentration for self learning

[lourobin]

My only son also named Simon, was diagnosed autistic at the age of 4. A lot of what you mentioned Simon did the same as a baby. He is now 29 and has a full time job and even wrote and published a fantasy novel. So proud of my boy and how far he has come.

[april]

My 34 year old son was misdiagnosed with AD/HD and ODD when 7, and I never thought those matched him. He was diagnosed with Asperger's and Tourette's at 14 by a psychologist. Asperger's was new and I had previously been told by a dr that he was not autistic because he was affectionate and loving with me.
My son pretty much looks like everyone else and people expect him to be normal. I learned to advocate for him and numerous times had to stand up for him with the schools
He is my first child, so I pretty much winged it raising him. One of the hardest things was I really didn't have any family support, though I sure was told what I should do when negative things happened to Nic.
He was the most sleep deprived child I knew of. I'm so glad I followed his lead raising him and did what was appropriate for his needs. I understood the developmental delay's, and knew he would not be as mature as a typical 21 year old till he was in his 30's.
Unfortunately, after they are 18, it is challenging to be able to protect them. I now am his power of attorney for whatever is necessary. He has had some meth issues. He finally found rehabilitation where they teach a 12 step program and got him on the meds he needs to function normally. He is doing great and gets out next Monday.
Follow your instincts and always research what the Dr's attempt to diagnose your child with. They are not an expert on your child, and are only guessing. Tell them when they are incorrect, I did it numerous times when they tried to diagnose Nic with all sorts of "behavioral disorders", when it was all neurological. Remember you are the expert on your child. No one else.

[caninescentdetection]

I can think of 2 other signs. The first is joint attention. If your baby is sitting in a high chair and they drop their spoon before they have object permanence they don’t know the object still exists. That is typical. However, most babies will look at mom when she says “Oh oh” and she looks down at the object most babies will look where mom is looking (joint attention) this is how babies get important information about the world. Children with Autism do not know to look where others are looking so they miss important information. The second is point following. When dad says, “There’s a puppy. “. And points does the child look where dad is pointing? Children with Autism often do not follow a point. I love the video you made and I love how you love and accept all of your children for who they are!

[debrachapman]

I have two boys with high funtioning autism. They're both completly different.
My eldest doesn't give eye contact, never liked being in his papoose, he used to lean away when being held, had an obsession with cars, made screeching noises to cover noises he didnt like, didn't answer to his name (when young. Hes now 17), difficulties getting off to sleep and would run off regularly.
My youngest was very cuddly and still is (he's 13), gives some eye contact, used to spin his toys, never played make believe games, hates sharp noises, bright lights etc... has had difficulty with food since birth and has been diagnosed with ARFID, has difficulty following three step instructions eg.. pop upstairs and bring your cup down from your room.
I love them both with all my heart.
I love your openness and your transparency with what to look out for.
Thank you. From the UK 🇬🇧

[maggiekelley]

As a late diagnosed (going on 40) autistic woman, this made me sob. I don't have my mom or dad to ask as I lost them 10 and 30 years ago, but this even covers "The Stare" I've been trying to explain to people. "It's like my mind is a thousand little tiny fingers, and wants to take in and understand all what I see as important or fascinating." That's how my mind gets lost. When I'm volunteering at the farm/doing horse therapy (it's an exchange), sometimes I'll just stare at the fields. What people don't seem to get is most of the time I'm actually evaluating little details in the fields to make sure a fence post isn't out of order due to my pattern recognition skills. I've lived with very high masking level 2 autism my whole life, and at one point. I just collapsed. I always have at least low level anxiety, live in the moderate to high anxiety range. It's interpreted by our brains and our bodies as abuse, regardless of the intent, when our needs are constantly unmet as children. When we are not supported, or shown how to support ourselves as adults, like neurotypicals are, we flounder. I think there's a term for it: The lost generations. It's the generation where people who score 98th percentile in the sciences in the United States are facing consequences of the lack of support. These consequences have resulted in the following: Can't stay at properties for more than a year or two because I get priced out. The constant threat of poverty if you fill out your disability form wrong. Liver damage from severe chronic gastritis because of my anxiety levels. I don't even drink. Multiple SAs as a child because I was not protected. Multiple SAs as an adult because I didn't know how to protect myself. Multiple concussions from head banging as a child throughout early adulthood, and currently being evaluated for CTE. And now having NO IDEA who we are because our parents tried to use psychiatric medications and therapy to get the then unknown thing called "Just existing with autism" out of us.

Please support your autistic children so we have a chance to be able to cope with the normal hard things, like grief, loss, and trauma. Those are already difficult and can sometimes break just regular people. Imagine coming at it from a different angle, like how your kid would hold up a car to the light at a neat angle. I used to do that with lego trains btw. We already are at a disadvantage because therapy does not usually integrate being autistic as well.

Please take this to heart, and please take *her viewpoint to heart*. As activist and model Chloe Hayden says in her book title, we're "Different, Not Less."

[cindyloomis-torvi]

I raised three sons with OCD, ADHD, AND autism, and yes, as babies they were different. Even at 4 months old my eldest would get completely over stimulated. He was also a fussy eater, had some food allergies too. By six months, he stopped taking naps. My eldest loved to laugh and smile when happy-and not over stimulated. By 13-15, he needed head phones and music to break the over stimulation of high school with 700 other people. He also has learning issues, reading disorder. So, he’s adapted to audio books to enjoy his love of reading. One thing my ex and I agreed was that every available blue program, medical need for our children would be addressed. Both of us graduated high school in the 1984-86 years, so the knowledge about these neurological conditions was really in its infancy. Eldest son got more introverted as he got older but has a great sense of humor and is a great parent. Both my grand daughter, grand son have autism.

My middle son is a huge introvert, extremely bright, and still can get over stimulated as an adult. He was also the sleeper, eater, cuddle child until he was roughly 8-9. He was a wonderful sleeper whereas big brother was still not sleeping through the night until he was nine months old. Extremely bright, he was learning Russian on his own by 12. He was also the kid with perfect musical pitch, and wanted to learn everything. He was extremely polite at school, but simply wouldn’t do homework, or some days did not work in class at all. This was the kid who came home from home every day, and hid in his blanket, all the way to middle school. This was my huge 9lb baby who at six months was the size of his brother who was 19 months older. These days he wears a 13.5 shoe. Big guy, big bones, but severe auto immune disorder that prevents him from working or attending university successfully.

Third son: oh boy, where to start. The pregnancy was extremely treacherous for both of us, and he was born six weeks early, only one artery in his umbilical cord, developed seizures, was able to hear, but neurologically the wiring between hearing and speech was missing. When he was born he didn’t cry, he croaked. He spent a week in NICU being evaluated while I recovered from an after birth near death event. He was also on the “failure to thrive “ growth chart even though he ate and digested far better than his elder brother. At nine months, he was the size of a six month old. At 29, he weighs 130 lbs soaking wet, is 5’7” in height, and has the small bone structure of both great grand fathers, two of my aunts. He’s married to a lovely woman and they have a great relationship, because during his educational process, he was taught all the necessary relationship, working in teams skills that weren’t parent of his parents curriculum. He’s working two jobs, slowly making his way through university, and I’m very proud of him.

Things the boys loved: Legos (all those engineering, mechanically inclined men in both families), music, such as all the Disney movie music, construction equipment, gardening, and then as they came intobeing, visual video games with active role play.
And yes, it was alll about the vehicles- they were raised among people who worked in the metro Detroit auto industry, went to old car shows, ect. So their memory for make models, reading vehicle manuals straight from the glove box and telling someone all about it.

We knew my ex had the same diagnosis as the boys, with other mental health, toxic narcissist thrown in as well, but I had no sign, nothing that would be enough to test me. I come from a family of super musically inclined, super bright people. My mother started kindergarten at 4, graduated high school at 16, graduated university with a degree in teaching at 19. She taught for 42 years, while also having a full on singing career, and volunteered as part of the women’s group in our local congregation. My father, equally gifted was ready to graduate high school at 16, but the school district refused him that honor. So, he went to vocational school twice. He was also a jazz musician, built a house onto a house, farmed, and in his spare time, sang in choral groups, musical theatre.

My youngest brother started playing piano at three. He was also extremely mechanical, needing to see something only one time to perform the same task(my middle son was the same way. He started popping off the tops of paint cans at 18 months, graduating to “fixing” the tv and vcr controllers by exchanging the circuit boards. My father rebuilt an entire radio at 7).

My eldest and youngest sisters appeared perfectly normal for our time period. No extremely extra anything. Great at school, played musical instruments except my middle sister because she was nearly deaf. Singing and playing music wasnt optional between two parents that were musically gifted. But only my younger brother and I have music degrees and gone onto our Masters. I have two.

Me: I didn’t know what the word hyperlexic was until I was 41. All I know was by 9 months old I could say compound words like “cookie”, and by 2, my most often used sentence was “Read me”. I was reading chapter books by four, and whole novels like the “Little House on the Prairie” by second grade, while following the actual show on tv (1970s). Our parents did not have the tv on for all hours of the day. They listened to radio, read books, magazines, news papers and didn’t get cable tv until 1990. We watched mostly educational programs with exception of Disney’s Saturday night at the movies program. We also watched PBS tv, including the Boston Pops and Live at the Met, because my mother sang opera until she was fired for being married, and expecting a child. In 1965, the men could marry, but the women could not. So, she did local musical theatre, choral groups, etc.

So. In sixth grade I started taking courses half days at the junior high. I was already reading at college level by fifth grade. My parents refused to advance me as well as other parents (there were five of us), so this was the solution. I started Advanced Placement classes in 8th grade, having enough test scores, certificates of completion to test completely out of the first 1.5 years of university. A C in any class was completely unacceptable, punishable, even though I didn’t understand math, nor taught it very well. If someone had explained it as a language, I would’ve understood, as I was already trilingual. I took logic, advanced logic among other things to substitute for many a higher math course. Those classes were easy to me in comparison.

I-started choir school at 4, musical theatre at five, made my stage debut at 6. By 7, I had a schedule as full as most adults I knew, receiving my first calendar to keep bags for events, and due dates straight. Playtime usually only happened at holiday breaks, but with my father’s assistance I played 3-4 sports a year until 8th grade. This also meant I had no friends outside of the ones chosen by my mother. So, usually I was alone on holiday breaks.

With a super extrovert mother, extrovert father, I was not allowed to be anything they didn’t want me to be- including an introvert. Things that might’ve helped my frustration level (drawing, reading in a quiet atmosphere in a room separate from parents, not taking big roles on musical theatre, or choir, occasionally not playing a musical instrument to my utmost best) was not allowed.
My parents were both born in the 1930s and that generation of parenting comes from the Victorian, Edwardian age, in which children were to be seen, not heard, nor offer an opinion, nor ask questions. It’s extremely strict, and strictly controlling. Manipulation, triangulation, domination are tricks of the parenting trade for this generation, learned at the knee of their Victorian or Edwardian born parents.

It was a stifling atmosphere, one filled with all sorts of denial about the reality of many things, including the fact I really needed medical attention, and Ineeded to be tested for Autism, which was brought up to my mother by two teaching friends that thought it would help me do better at university. “How dare you. There is nothing wrong with her.” She literally never spoke to them outside civil greetings again. I learned all this as my mother was placed in care for dementia (which of course all my siblings denied was happening-too late for the drugs that might’ve given her more time). I cannot tell you how angry Iwas for quite a while.

But after I left the anger behind, I was able to see all the things I didn’t understand, didn’t like and why that was. I can’t stand mean girls or bullies. My own mother was a bully and chief manipulator, which I wasn’t able to put words to, comprehend until I was in my forties. I wasn’t able to make a female friend until my mid forties, because I instinctively didn’t want to be at the mercy of another female. I’ve always had plenty of male friends and been blessed with their presence on my life. I’m now 58. Married second time to an introvert, which is such a blessing to me. Books about women and girls with autism started appearing 4-5 years ago, and I am most grateful they exist, so my grand daughter doesn’t have to go through what I went through.

[anng]

Interesting. As a Nana with a 10 year grandson with Autism, it has been a learning time for me. I knew what normal child was like, and I saw the signs way before my daughter did. With 3 other grandchildren around I could see the differences. My daughter would get angry if I said anything. So for about 2 years I watched, and waited as the parents went through all the testing. Finally coming to terms with the diagnose of her son. Our grandson is doing amazing. Excellent reader, he takes piano lessons, he loves gymnastics, and has OT every week. So I would say he has it mild Autism.

[gailrodgers]

I have a 40 year old autistic son. He is a treasure. He is completely independently at this point in time. Self employeed and doing a job he loves. He was already showing problems in the 4 days we were in the hospital. saw other signs along the way. I believe on top of many mental health problems his father was autistic. I remember being at church on day and a woman started talking to my husband and he turned his back on her and left. A home he complained that no one talked to him! Had my son in the grocery store one day and a child he went to kindergarten with came up and started talking to him. He turned his back on him! Back then autistism was rarely diagnosed so although he did go to special school from 18 months, he was officially diagnosed at 19. I only went through that in case he needed help getting a job. As he got older and saw his differences compared to others he worked on some of the problems he had. You didn't mention your kids having food problems, and my son did.

I will give a tip that I used with my boy as a young adult. I would watch him watching TV with the laugh track and laughing. We ended up with DVDs of The Office, King of the Hill, and Monk. With just the two of us in the room we would watch the shows and whenever he laughed I would ask him what was funny. At first he never knew. After a year of intensive watching these DVDs he was comprehending the humor, etc. so much better. In King of the Hill there is an episode called Isle 9, where Connie who was left at the Hills while her parents were out of town and Peggy was away from home, Connie had to tell Hank that her period had started. I think they did everything in that show to help answer questions such as Isle 9 with the sanitary products. Who would have though that slowly going over these, my son learned so many things. It was just the two of us in the room as I would never embarrass him in front of others, but he sure learned a lot. It has only been in the last month that I have heard of autism being numbered. My son didn't talk until two weeks before his second birthday when he came over to me and patted me on the cheek and said mama. I cried,

He never talked babytalk but immediately started speaking in sentences. He hung around while I was helping his older brother with reading homework. What I didn't realize was he was teaching himself to read. One day while driving in town he pointed to a siign and told me an old lady from our church lived on that road. We had NEVER been to her house. I had no clue where she lived. He had memorized the entire church directory when he was 4!!!

[zigzag]

I had 5 children also. Number3 and 4 are on the spectrum. 3 has autism . Both boys. I’m grateful that it wasn’t my first. I wouldn’t have known any better. Both grown now. Asbergers son has a bachelor’s degree. Autistic son has a great job that he loves. I would have never guessed they would be where they are now if you had asked me when they were little. They WILL suprise you.❤️ I taught both of them to drive at night. Too many distractions in the daytime. No problem now. Both great drivers. They are also each other’s best friend. It’s really nice to have siblings. One of the best things for your boys too. They are lucky to have you as a mom. 👍

[myriambraun]

I wish my autistic son didn’t cry. He cried non stop the first 2 years of his life and barely slept. He needed to be held constantly and would scream immediately if we put him down. We finally decided to cosleep with him which allowed us to get our sanity back. He finally slept (not great, but better), because he felt comforted touching one of us at night.

[elibell]

There are other extremes to two of your signs. One is if instead of not wanting to be held, they prefer to be swaddled really tightly and held very tightly. They are sensory seeking instead of sensory avoiding. They may feel overwhelming in their seeking of this sensory input. Also, instead of being socially avoidant (or at least neurotypically socially avoidant) they can be hypersocial instead. Being overly friendly and extra social can often make an autism diagnosis take more time. Remember, if you have met one person with autism, you have met one person with autism. Thanks so much for your video!

[DornishPrincessGaming]

My son is not diagnosed, but people meeting him can tell right away. He is a sweet hyper focused kid that will tell anyone who will listen about math and planets and human anatomy. I knew he was not typical and now he does long division for FUN at 5.

[Alfredo_]

I'm an 18 year old with autism, I love your videos. Keep uploading great content. 👍

[JonBrase]

449 months, and I still haven't learned to social-smile. 😂

[thomasschoeck]

Not always responding when someone tried to get my attention was (I have been told) the reason why my hearing was tested by a specialist when I was about nine or ten years old (third or fourth grade). Apparently in class my teacher or teacher’s aide would call my name or try to get my attention and I wouldn’t always notice it.

When my hearing was tested it was actually found to be better than average. Because my parents were not told that my reason for not responding was autism-related (even though I was first diagnosed shortly after my two-year checkup) they thought (and told me) that I was trying to make them worry (and that it was “not very nice to do that”) and that this was obviously just my way of trying to be the center of attention.

In actuality I was not trying to be the center of attention at all and (despite what some people in my family alleged) it was not “a sibling rivalry thing”.

I could go into more detail but this probably conveys the basic idea.

[rosesoulgold]

Great content, so informative! My oldest son 4 years old, is autistic. His younger 3year old brother is not, but he’s so great at teaching his brother how to engage with him in play time and communication. Thank you for sharing, beautiful family ❤

[madisonistheshiz]

You're doing a Great job! I am a Paraprofessional for a Special Needs class in a middle school and your information is spot on with the experience I've had with Autistic children.

[RatsPicklesandMusic]

I'm autistic and 31 years old. This is a great video. So accepting of the autistic traits, which is invaluable for the children!! I have video footage of autistic traits in me as a little one too!