Description

This video by TV360 offers you expert advice on how to tell if your child is autistic and at what age is can be determined.

Transcript

How to Tell if Your Child Is Autistic Karen: Hi, I'm Karen. I'm 30 and one of my friends just had a baby and I was curious to know at what age can a child be diagnosed with autism? Catherine Rice: Karen, the symptoms of autism are almost always present before the age of three. In some cases, it can be identified as early as 18 months. However, we found from many children they’re not being identified or diagnosed until much later, age 4 ½ to 5 ½. We need to do a better job of looking for those early signs so we can identify kids and diagnose them before the age of three, much sooner if possible. Some of the signs we look for are not responding to their name by a year of age without a hearing loss, not pointing, not babbling by a year of age or using words by 16 months or phrases by 24 months or at any time, using very unusual language like repeating what other people are saying without really meaning behind it or loss of language at any time. Another thing we look for as well as pointing or sharing or showing things to fellow members or other people in toddler age. So if any of those signs are present, it would be very important to talk to your child’s health care provider about doing a developmental screening.