I have heard that autistic children prefer to look sideways, not straight. I have concerns about my childs development for a few reasons. She is 4.5 months. She is more willing to make eye contact if we look at her while standing behind her head and looking down, while she is on her back. (She is thus Rolling her eyes up to look at us). Should we engage her in this manner? Or is this reinforcing whatever behaviors we would like to avoid? Our pediatrician has encouraged a lot of eye contact, facial expressions to encourage engaging with us.
1 Answer
If your question is "Can I make my kid not autistic by changing my behaviors", the answer is "no".
Does your pediatrician think this is a problem? Lots of kid grow up with their parents not in their face 24/7, and they are fine.
-
1The question might also be, should I try to not encourage behavior that will convince me she is autistic and thus make the next few months/2years a very stresfull time until it turns out she's actually fine and I just don't know how to diagnose autism. This isn't meant snidely by the way. It is very hard to get rid of fears about your child even if you have a really good idea that you might be overreacting. As a side note 4.5 months is too early to diagnose autism. 6-12 months is the earliest that signs seem to show but only around 18 month do professionals usually try to diagnose it.– DRFMay 18, 2020 at 13:13