A:
First of all, an adoptive parent needs to understand
that any institutionalized child will be behind on pretty much
all developmental milestones. Speech and language development
are especially vulnerable because of an obvious lack of mediation
by adults in the institutions. So, the lack of any vocalizations
or speech, taken separately, is not yet a sign of any specific
problem at the age of 18 months.
Some other behaviors
should be noticeable and accompany a lack of speech--these may
indicate autistic features in an infant.
These behaviors include
passivity, few gestures, a tendency to fixate on objects, reduced
social interaction, and lack of facial expression. These signs
may be attributed to many issues and delays, typical for orphanage
children (institutional
autism among them). The bottom line is, it's very difficult
even for a professional to differentiate between some developmental
delays, real autism and institutional autism. In such cases parents
should collect as much information as possible and ask for a professional
opinion.
