Shall I Be Concerned?

Lately I noticed this traits in WH…

It’s very hard to get eye contact from him.  When he asked for something from us, he will never look into our eyes and simply look somewhere else. Eventhough when he’s able to say “Thank You so and so” automatically  after we gave him something he wants but he never look into our face to say it.  Each time when I say “Look into mummy’s eye” , it’s almost very hard for me to get him do so, if he does, he would switched his sight away in spilt second. Same thing when he want to ask for something, he can say “Please, so and so” but never look into the eyes or the face, he would usually look somewhere else. He can call everybody in the sweetest tone like “jie jie, mummy, daddy, ah kong, ah mah, uncle dik” but he never look at us when he call, he face or mind is usually somewhere else.

He’s very into solidary play which I thought earlier that he is much for independent than his sister. When he’s very into what he’s doing, no matter how we call to him, usually we failed to hail his attention as if he never hear us. Again this make me very confused, because according to Montessori, there will be time when the child is full on concentration on the work he’s interest in. I dont know whether he’s really full of concentration of has he filtered out the voice around him and working in solitude.

Each time it’s very hard to get a hug and kiss from WH. Each time when we bid goodbye to the grandparents and aunties, we usually get the children to hug and kiss the elderly, JS will do it spontaneously as for WH, we need to ask many times before he does so, and even that, his mind is somewhere else and the hug and kisses were vague.

One more thing that I wasn’t so worried before was his speech development. But now with all the traits above,  I start to worry. Though he’s picking up a little now, but still it’s quite slow. He only know one song and he cannot sing in full tune and doesn’t know the full lyrics. The words that he’s able to speak is not very clear. Thus far, he longest sentence is “mummy, pao pao me”, most time it’s one word or 2 words pharse.

He’s also very much into his imaginary world that i initially thought it’s no big deal…but a little worried now.

According to the book,  it says possible symptoms of autism are : social withdrawal, hearing abnormalities, avoidance of eye contact, speech disorders, repetitive behaviour patterns (a bit confusing, because Montessori noted that kids love repetition) , indifference to pain.

I’m worried (have I been hearing and reading too much until I become so paranoid?), but at the same time I knew that many of his behaviours apart from the mentioned above can counter the symptom of autism. 

My boy certainly loves to smile and he likes to mix with the neighbour especially those Abang. When he sees my father or PIL, he’s very happy and will squeek. Besides solidary play, he’s also quite capable in role play with his sister. So this has definately countered the social withdrawal, I guess..

Of course when I extended out my arms to him, not all time but most time he will come rushing to me for a good snuggle.

Other than that he’s also quite capable to express to us his needs and preferences with his limited vocubulary instead of just crying and wailing.

I’m really confused and concerned especially each time when he try to avoid eye contact. It’s really that big deal?