HealthWatch-Autism

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends all children be screened for autism spectrum disorder at their 18 and 24 month well-child check-ups. Doctor Cara Hamilton from Black Hills Pediatrics has some thoughts on what to look for in this week’s edition of HealthWatch.

“Autism is defined as delayed development in social and language areas. And because most social and language development occurs after the age of one, this is typically when we’re going to start seeing these issues. There’s lots of reasons a child might have some language delays, including hearing problems, a child who lived in a home with multiple languages being spoken might take a little longer to learn language. But still overall better that they’re in that home hearing lots of languages but it can just delay the development of their language. Of course, a lack of exposure, a child who isn’t interacted with to the same degree might not learn language as early. A child who’s not around other children might not learn language as early. Or the personality or the child, if they’re pretty shy, it might take them longer to speak out. In terms of social development, typically in that second year, we expect a child to start to look into your eyes, start to look to you to level responses if they come across a new scenario. they might start mimicking certain actions including feeding a baby, talking on a phone. Even the inflections of their gibberish language should kind of mimic adult speech if they’re paying attention and developing socially. The reasons they might not develop socially could be similar to the language development if they’re not exposed, if they’re not around other children or if their adults are not speaking directly to them and interacting with them socially, they might have some delays. As always, if you have some concerns about your child’s development, especially in the areas of social and language development, make sure you’re talking to your child’s pediatrician. This is Dr. Cara Hamilton at Black Hills Pediatrics with your HealthWatch.”

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