Keep an Eye Out: 10 Early Signs of Autism That Are Easy to Miss

Keep an Eye Out: 10 Early Signs of Autism That Are Easy to Miss

If you’re a concerned parent, learning about autism is one the best things you can do for your kiddo.

We’ve all seen the headlines about the rate of autism in children being higher than it has ever been. However, what’s not so well known is this fact – Children who are diagnosed early (around 2 or 3 years of age) and receive expert, highly individualized care when it has the greatest impact (from birth to 5 years of age) achieve the best outcomes. 

Acting early is THE key for your child’s well-being. Early signs. Early assessment. Early diagnosis. Early treatment. Earlier to a brighter future for your child and family!

The basics about autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Before we jump into the early signs of autism to look out for, it’s helpful to understand some basics.

  • Autism is a condition where differences in the brain impact how a child communicates, learns, behaves, and socially interacts with others.
  • Autism can and does look different in every sweet child. There’s a wide range of symptoms (the “spectrum” in autism spectrum disorder), and not every child has the same symptoms or combination of symptoms. The intensity of symptoms varies from child to child as well.
  • Signs of autism can appear as early as six months old. However, if you see signs of autism in your child that doesn’t necessarily mean your child has
  • The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends all children from 18 to 24 months old get screened for possible developmental delays like autism.
  • ABA therapy is the gold standard in early autism care, helping children in all areas of their developmental.

Are you overlooking these early signs of autism?

According to the National Autism Data Center, the average age children in the U.S. are diagnosed with autism is not until they are 5 years old. This may sound early. However, a diagnosis at 5 means children won’t get treatment in their most formative years from birth to 5 years of age, when their brains are developing faster than at any other time in their lives.

One of the best ways to ensure your child gets the early treatment that offers the best outcomes is to watch for signs of autism at an early age, starting around 6 months old. The following list can help. Keep in mind these signs can be subtle and look like typical childhood behaviors. That’s why they’re easy to miss.

So, do any of these early signs of autism describe your kiddo?

  1. Your child doesn’t make eye contact. Having unusual gaze patterns is a symptom of autism, where children focus more on things in their environment rather than looking at people’s faces and making eye contact.
  2. Your child doesn’t join you in looking at something. Children with autism can have a lack of joint attention, meaning they have difficulty following where you point and looking at an object that you’re looking at. They also won’t look at you to see your reaction to something.
  3. Your child doesn’t use gestures to communicate. Toddlers typically use non-verbal ways to communicate, like pointing and waving, to tell you what they want or need.
  4. Your child doesn’t imitate what they see. Children with autism can have difficulty copying what they see others doing, whether sounds and movements like someone laughing or smiling or more complicated behaviors like playing house.
  5. Your child isn’t babbling or is only making a few sounds. This sign could signify a delay in speech development which is a common symptom of autism.
  6. Your child doesn’t respond to their name. This is also common with children with autism. It can stem from difficulties with social interaction, sensory sensitivities, or communication challenges.
  7. Your child doesn’t smile when you approach them. This is known as social smiling and can be absent or infrequent in children with autism due to differences in social interaction and communication.
  8. Your child has repetitive behaviors. They might frequently move their bodies in unusual ways, like stiffening their arms and legs, rotating their hands at the wrist, or flap their hands.
  9. Your child hasn’t learned to roll over, push up, or crawl. Children typically learn these movements at 4-6 months, 3-5 months, and 6-10 months, respectively. A delay in motor development is a symptom of autism.
  10. Your child doesn’t reach up when you go to pick them up. This lack of response could mean your child is having difficulty reading social cues and with social communication often experienced by children with autism.

Don't wait and see what happens

If you see any of these early signs of autism in your child, make sure you tell your pediatrician as soon as possible – even if your child isn’t old enough to be reliably assessed for autism,  which is around two years old. Starting the conversation early is always better than your child missing out on early intervention, like ABA therapy, when it matters the most, before kids start school.

As a leading Behavioral Health Center of Excellence® in North Texas, The Behavior Exchange is ready to help you along your autism journey. We can help you find a pediatrician who has experience with autism, do an assessment of your child that your doctor can use to make a diagnosis, and provide life-changing ABA therapy services individualized for the unique needs of your child.

Contact us today.

We can’t wait to hear from you!

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Ashvina attended University of Bombay and graduated with a Bachelors of Commerce. She got her Montessori Diploma in 1985 and taught ever since. Ashvina came to TBE in January of 2016 as Admin Assistant. During the years she got the opportunity to learn and work in different departments such as HR, Finance, Office Manager and Executive Assistant. Last summer TBE bought billing in house and her current focus area is Revenue Cycle Management. She is detail oriented and enjoys working with people. Ashvina volunteers to deliver meals to seniors and local shelters on the weekend. She loves to spend time with her family and grandkids. Ashvina loves her job because she enjoys hearing different points of view, and she feels her contributions help fuel the direction of our company.

Working with children comes naturally to Angela. Her mom was a special education teacher for 30 years and often had Angela join her for Take Your Child to Work Day. And in high school, Angela spent every summer as the nanny for a little boy with an autism spectrum disorder. It was this experience where her passion for working with children with autism started to blossom.

From there, she went on to graduate from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Family Sciences. She learned about Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in a non-normative development class and from that moment knew that ABA would be her life’s work.

Angela moved to the DFW area shortly after and began working at The Behavior Exchange as a therapist. She worked on her Master’s in Behavior Analysis at the same time. A year after graduating, she earned certification as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst.

Now, as a Clinical Director at The Behavior Exchange, she brings a life-long passion to her work, holding a special place in her heart for children with limited language skills and working closely with families to develop healthy sleep habits.

Danielle’s passion for working with families is deeply personal and from the heart. Her younger brother has an autism spectrum disorder, and through their journey as a family, she found her purpose in life as an advocate for individuals with special needs.

After graduating from the University of North Texas with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies, Danielle began volunteering at The Behavior Exchange. She saw passionate therapists, meaningful change for clients, and families with hope for the future. After a summer of volunteering, she officially joined the team as Director of Admissions and found her home with The Behavior Exchange family.

With her extensive experience working as a client advocate with insurance providers, Danielle perseveres to help individuals of all ages and abilities receive the services they need to reach their full potential. She feels truly honored by each and every family who entrusts The Behavior Exchange to be part of their journey and is committed to the organization’s core values, mission, and goal of being a beacon of hope for the community.

Adam has always had a passion for helping individuals of all ages thrive and reach their full potential. He’s also an enthusiastic musician, songwriter, leader, and devoted family man, who has been helping children and team members grow with The Behavior Exchange since 2010.

Prior to joining the team at The Behavior Exchange, Adam was a mortgage loan consultant and grad student, pursuing his master’s degree in Education at the University of North Texas. He graduated in 2013 and also earned a graduate academic certificate in Autism Intervention. The following year, after years as a Behavior Therapist and seeing first-hand the power of ABA and the meaningful impact it can have on children and their families, Adam became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. He then commenced from the Stagen Leadership Academy after completing the Integral Leadership Program (ILP), a 52-week practice-based program designed to develop executives serious about transforming themselves, their teams, and their organizations.

Adam is truly grateful to be a part of a dynamic, inspiring and compassionate team, and he’s dedicated to bettering the lives of all children and their families through the delivery of the highest quality of ABA services, while supporting the amazing team at The Behavior Exchange.

Soraya is from South Africa and moved to Texas in 1996. She graduated from The University of Texas and pursued a career, at that time, in Education. Soraya taught at a Montessori school for a few years and then took on a leadership role.

During her time in the education system, Soraya realized her passion was to assist children with special needs. So she joined The Behavior Exchange as a therapist, transitioned into a supervisory role in 2017, and a year and a half later, was promoted to Clinical Operations Manager.

She quickly learned the ins and outs of ABA operations and scheduling and successfully collaborates across departments to ensure The Behavior Exchange continues to provide quality services to clients and their families. She’s thankful to be part of such an amazing organization and excited to see what the future holds.

You could say Walter’s career started when he spent hours as a young child drawing superheroes and coloring maps. This passion, along with extraordinary swimming skills, landed him a full swimming scholarship at Texas Christian University, where he graduated in 1997 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Graphics.

During the next 13 years, his design and art direction skills, conceptual-thinking abilities, and marketing-savvy know-how were honed at a few prestigious advertising and marketing agencies around the Dallas area. In the mid 2000s, he helped his wife Tammy Cline-Soza (founder and CEO of The Behavior Exchange) create a unique and concise brand for her new business. From logos and websites to uniforms, brand voice and visuals, Walter has been the main creative force for all things The Behavior Exchange.

Aside from giving birth to The Behavior Exchange brand, Walter is helping Tammy raise two amazing, beautiful children, River and Sierra. In his spare time (the two minutes he’s got per week), you can find Walter illustrating iconic landmarks of Dallas and Texas or looking around for this next open-water swim. Once he gets back in shape.

After 20 years of building The Behavior Exchange, literally from the ground up,
Tammy couldn’t be more proud of the team, culture, and organization that it has become.

As a family helping families, The Behavior Exchanges looks for opportunities that will make the biggest impact and produce life-changing outcomes – for clients, families, and even for team members. Tammy believes that if a team, a family, a community takes care of each other, the possibilities are endless and the relationships built along the way can make life more enriching and challenges easier to navigate. You could say her goal has been to build a kind of utopia full of support, love, and expertise that brings the best services possible to the community and ensures more families have access to those services.

Tammy and her family have dedicated their lives to the mission of The Behavior Exchange and continue to grow, learn, cultivate, challenge, support, and create better models for success. To that end, she is committed to her own leadership development and actively participates in advanced training, mentoring, and deep self-exploration on how to live out her purpose to love and support her family and help others reach their full potential. She takes her position very seriously and tries to serve as a channel for what the universe wants to come to fruition.

She also loves travel, gardening, being creative, MUSIC!, tennis, yoga, meditation, journaling, reading, being in nature, adventures, and more than anything, spending time with her husband Walter and their two beautiful children, River and Sierra.