He was her fourth child, and he seemed behind developmentally.

“He started showing signs, questionable things. Nothing terrible, but not following me around the room with his eyes,” Hinson said. With two older children who have autism, she worried little Noah was headed in that same direction. “No one was super concerned, but at 9 months he was showing significant delays.”

A child isn’t typically diagnosed with autism until age 3 or later. While the signs for autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, may be hard to detect in infants, researchers suggest there may be some early indications if you know what to watch for.

Children with autism often don’t produce many sounds or use their voices to communicate. They may engage in frequent repetitive behavior. They stare at their hands or at objects for long periods of time.

Sally Rogers, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral studies at UC Davis MIND Institute, wondered what would happen if a parent could intervene before a child is officially diagnosed with autism.  

Other research on early intervention has shown some promise.

Rogers asked Hinson if she would be interested in becoming part of a study. Since the study involved behavioral modification therapy, if Noah wasn’t diagnosed with autism there would be no harm. 

Hinson said yes, as did six other parents with children between the ages of 7 months and 15 months who showed some signs of autism.

“As a parent, I’ll take anything that can help my child,” Hinson said.

For the study, she and the other parents visited Rogers’ clinic once a week for 12 weeks. There the researchers taught the parents behavioral modification techniques they could use on their children.

The techniques were simple exercises: Hinson would play “piggies” with Noah, reciting the classic poem about pigs going to market and touching Noah’s feet. Often children with autism become distressed when they are touched. Other times she would play “airplane” with Noah’s food as she fed him. Or they’d focus on songs and rhymes.

“Basic things you do as a mom, but really are cuing into the responses he is making and really reinforcing the responses to get him to engage with me,” Hinson said. “The wonderful thing about it was that most of what they taught me, they taught me how to use in my general day-to-day routines with Noah.”

Scientists thought parents would be more apt to do exercises that could be woven into daily life.

At about 15 months in, there were still concerns, but Hinson had noticed improvement in Noah’s interactions with her. At 18 months, he seemed to be back on track developmentally.

“It was like this beautiful thing happened.”

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