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Is Your Toddler's Obsession a Sign of Autism?

Exploring a Toddler's One-track Mind

By Melinda Copp

According to Jean Ruttenberg, executive director of the Center for Autism in Philadelphia, Pa., autism occurs in about one out of every 166 kids. And of those, three out of four autistic children are boys.

"Autism is a complicated condition because you can have any range of behaviors, and autism can be very profound," Ruttenberg says. Autism is a spectrum disorder, and an autistic child's behavior and abilities will range depending on where he or she falls on that spectrum. Sometimes signs of autism start to present at birth – the child is never affectionate and snuggly, for example – and sometimes the lights just go out on seemingly normal children. The signs can also be hard to discern from many normal toddler behaviors.

"We remember our son was growing and developing like a typical child," says Katherine Alvarez, a mom from Las Vegas, Nev. "He was meeting and exceeding his milestones. Around 18 months things changed or I started to notice the changes."

Alvarez's son babbled less, and stopped saying the few words he knew. He sometimes appeared deaf, and didn't respond to other people or loud noises. But when Elmo came on the television, he'd run from the other room to watch. He also started lining up his toys, which seemed normal to the Alvarezes at first.

"I think that all children to some extent do that," Alvarez says. "However, now looking back he would become very upset if you tried to disrupt his pattern."

Because the signs of autism can be mistaken for normal toddler behaviors, parents, especially new ones, can overlook them, or justify them.

"The best way it was described to me, when my 2-year-old was going through the evaluations, was this: The behavioral red flags for autism spectrum disorders are the same behaviors exhibited by all typically developing kids," says Sam Butler, a dad from Seattle, Wash. "The difference is in the packaging and frequency."

Want to see more?

• Is My Baby Autistic? Research May Result in Earliest Diagnosis of Autism
• One up on Autism: Learn the Signs of Autism and Act Early
• An Attack on Autism: Early Diagnosis, Genetics and Intervention
• Jenny McCarthy and Autism: A Mom on a Mission for Change
• Join the discussion on our Family.com community!

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