It's hard to tell if your baby has Autism Spectrum Disorder because it does not show itself through physical symptoms. Instead, there are subtle signs and hints that parents need to look for to realize that their baby has Autism and needs immediate assistance. To identify whether your baby has Autism or not, you can look out for the following signs:
A Decline in Eye Contact
Babies tend to make eye contact with almost everyone present in the room, including animals. From a very early age, babies can easily find faces around them and make successful eye contact with them. Later, babies use this method to build social relationships with the people around them and gain information about their surroundings. Research has suggested that babies who have developed Autism will begin to make less and less eye contact with other people around the age of 2 months. So, you might want to closely monitor how much your baby is making eye contact with everyone since this is an early indicator.
Lack of Pointing
Another thing that babies love doing from an early age is pointing and gesturing at things that interest them. Babies learn to gesture before they get to the talking phase. Babies and children with Autism have been observed to point much less than non-autistic ones. Less gesturing and pointing is also an indication of a possibility of a delayed speaking phase. Another strong indicator is that your baby fails to follow your finger and look at something you are pointing at. The skill to successfully follow someone's lead and look at the intended target is called joint attention, which Autism significantly decreases.
Other indicators include:
Little to no Response when you call out their names.
Reduced emotional facial expressions.
Significant delay in speech & language skills.
Losing the progress of learning skills.