Motor stereotypy in 12 month old?

Re: Motor stereotypy in 12 month old?

• MummyGruetzie member

  February 2012

  Poppywedding:

   Can you shed any light? My dd is 12 months and when she is excited she says, "ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho..." huffing and puffing while quite vigorously rolling her hands and feet. She seems so "normal/typical" to me???

  Typically developing children engage in repetitive movements (thumb sucking, nail biting, etc). Its soothing. In terms of language, you typically see a lot of this at the beginning of various stages of language. Ie. Repetitive cooing such as "mmm mmm mmm" comes before more advanced cooing or the word "Mama" typically comes before "Mommy". When a child is just beginning to talk and has few other sounds or words its a necessary part of development.

  With that said, there are children who's repetitive behaviors become a red flag for a bigger picture problem. A cause for concern would be if the child can not get past the repetitive stage to further manipulate sounds or motor movements, if the motor behaviors are especially unusual or if the intensity becomes so severe that it distracts the child from engaging in age-appropriate activities. If you are concerned about these things, you should discuss it with your pediatrician and ask about whether further evaluation from a neurologist or whether it would be necessary to schedule an evaluation with your local early intervention. 

  Poppywedding:

   

  At 9 months she was evaluated by an ophthalmologist for not tracking toys with her eyes.

  She refuses to eat any soft, slimy or pur?ed foods.

  She  responds to her name......waves bye bye......loves peek-a-boo.

  I am worried about "motor stereotypy diagnosis". Is she ok? Is it just a passing "thing"? Has your child done this? 

  Without knowing the results of your ophthalmology evaluation, its difficult for us to tie these together. Was your daughter given any vision diagnosis. Is she tracking toys now? Does she make eye contact? Avoidance of specific textures could be a personal preference or a sensory issue (either on its own or part of a bigger picture diagnosis). 

  Again, its really impossible for us to tell you that your daughter is or is not okay. Without seeing a behavior's intensity and frequency, those things aren't just a "given" one way or the other.  If your "Mommy gut" is telling you something isn't right, then check into it. Start with the talking to your pediatrician. Try to take a video of the specific issues/repetitive behaviors--let the doctor see the "ho ho ho"ing for themselves and decide. Show multiple examples if you can. If you aren't satisfied with their answer or things aren't adding up, a neurologist would be a good next step and won't take as long to get into as a developmental pediatrician. Beyond that an early intervention or Child Find evaluation will also give you some insight. Every state has an early intervention program that services children through age three, followed by a pre-school special education program which conducts similar evaluations after age 3. The specifics vary a lot from state to state, but across the board the evaluation is free. You will either go to a center or have professionals come to your home who will evaluate your daughter on several aspects of her development. They'll share her developmental scores and (if needed) share options on how to help her. Either through therapy with their group or private therapies.  

  But please don't put yourself through the emotional trauma of jumping to conclusions on which diagnosis (if any) she might have without seeking further evaluations. If you're concerned enough to have a specific diagnosis in mind, you need to talk to someone. 

  Edited: for grammar. 

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