Give me a break. I am so sick of putting the label of autism on every child that doesn’t do exactly what we think they should be doing at any given age. It’s a disgrace and a terrible lifelong stigma for the child.
My daughter responded to her name and had typical speech development until 19 months, when I had another baby. So the first baby’s progressive hearing loss went unnoticed for several months...I think parents do need to be aware of what could happen. Although, I am in slight agreement that autism (and no offense meant to anybody with a child who is autistic) may be getting diagnosed to the extent to where any thing that’s “different” is autistic because according to the spectrum, it is.
Autism is grossly overdiagnosed these days. It seems to be a convenient catch-all.
There are many other reasons why a year-old baby doesn’t respond to his name. He could have a hearing disability. His parents, grandparents, and sibs may all have different names for him ...that’s confusing to a baby.
Or he/she may be a baby genius, too absorbed in his/her deep thoughts to bother responding to a parent.
Dogs always respond to their names. Cats never do. Are all cats autistic?