What, if anything, do you remember first noticing or wondering about your child that tipped you off to autism?

It was actually a online friend. I went on a another mommy board and was posting my concerns. I honestly knew squat about autism. She said it sounded like he ASD. So I started doing my research and it fitted him.

I noticed from infancy that he was rather unresponsive and avoided eye contact but the ped kept telling me that if he makes eye contact at all he was fine. And then as he got older and I saw him in a large group of children we realized something was very wrong/different. He was totally out of it in comparison.

When Grace was dx with sensory processing disorder about 3 years ago, we also looked at info on Aspergers. My husband said that he would have gotten the dx of Aspergers as a kid, and many things still fit. As Grace has gotten older, and gotten more dx's (auditory processing disorder, developmental dyspraxia, sensory modulation dysfunction) I have discovered that she is more and more like my husband. She has not yet been evaluated for being on the spectrum, but in doing reading about Aspergers, I am understanding her better. Having a diagnosis of ASD is not currently necessary for school or anything, but it would explain a lot of things and give me a wider circle of reading material and support.

The first red flags were his fixation on spinning objects and his fear of laughter and clapping. Of course I had no idea that it could be autism because I really didn't know what autism is, but those were the first issues that made me suspicious that something was up.

Lack of speech, behavorial issues..

I want to say that I do not have a diagnosis but remember thinking he was on the spectrum at some point around 18 months. What's bad is that I can't really remember what I saw... I just remember how I felt. There was a boy 3 months older in the apt. right beside of us and I couldn't help but compare him. Is it bad that I can't remember?? Did I block it out? He is almost 10 now

the only real thing I had was his speech. It was the only solid thing that I could look at and say "that's not right". Everything else, I either dismissed or didn't know was associated with ASD.