First Signs

I met a mom who, during our conversation, shared her suspicions of her son's behaviour, that it might be related to autism. She said she had been noticing some behaviours in her son which have been nagging at her but have been dismissed by friends and relatives as just typical. This is a common situation for most parents. They may also fall victim to denying the possibility and easily give in to the opinion of those around them. This is the point where parents, especially mothers, have to trust their instinct and not attempt to squash their inner feeling that something's not right with their child. Even if just for the sake of ruling it out, take the child to a developmental paediatrician for assessment. Any intervention/s for autism-related behaviours, experts say, are most effective when the child is under four to five years of age. The following link: http://www.firstsigns.org/ may be helpful to parents in making that decision to take their child for medical assessment.