My daughter is turning 1 this week and I’m concerned she might have signs of autism. I’m looking for any advice or shared experiences from others. Her cousin has mild autism. Her older sister is neurotypical. She doesn’t have any words yet, though her older sister didn’t either when she was 1 and had a speech therapist. It was until 19 months when her older sister started talking. My main red flag is that she rarely responds to her name, but she will respond when I sing a familiar song or make a funny sound that she likes. She’ll look directly at me, at my eyes and my mouth as I sing the song. But not when I call her name. She signs more when she likes what she’s eating. No eating issues. No sleep issues she’s actually always been an excellent sleeper. She’s a little harder to make smile than my first child was. She doesn’t just smile when we smile at her. We have to make a funny noise, tickle her, sing a song, play peek a boo, etc. And then we’ll get a smile or a laugh. She does crawl up to us and climb on us. She claps. Also when I sing the horn on the bus goes beep beep beep, I’ll stop and she’ll hit her chest three times to mimic my beep beep beep. I’ve been working on that. She shows really no interested in my 3 year old though. Physically, she’s crawling, pulling up, and cruising. She won’t try the walker though and doesn’t like walking while we hold her hands. She sees a PT because she has torticollis which is now resolved. And they aren’t concerned with any physical development. She loves to roll around on our bed and she cracks up at that. My nephew who has autism also used to love that.

I think the main red flag is her lack of responding to her name, not consistent eye contact, and a little harder to social smile. I don’t know if I’m just comparing too much and also on high alert because of my nephew. Thank you for your comments!