My oldest son went through 2 phases doing this. First when he was about 2 1/2. We thought it very strange because he only did it around his infant brother's crib. He would sit across the room from his brother and watch the ceiling while tracking back and forth. He was non-verbal so we couldn't ask him what he saw. We always joked he could see his brother's guardian angel. Later when he was 5 he began doing it again, coincidentally it started right after we had our 3rd son. This time it didn't only happen in the room with the crib, we could be anywhere and he would freeze gaze at the ceiling and begin tracking back and forth. Since he was now verbal we would ask him what he saw and he would tell us light orbs named Ingrid. He told us the light orbs only appear when babies were in the room. We are a spiritual family and do believe in guardian angels but at the same time we wonder since he does have many sensory sensitivities could he just be more sensitive to beams of light and this be a form of stimming. He has a deep obsession with ghosts and ghostly images could this have fed into what he is seeing. He is still a daydreamer and is often caught just staring into space but doesn't seem to track what he sees anymore.

My granddaughter will be walking around the living room talking to someone and moving her hands too.The weird thing is she just turned 2 and she is nonverbal.. well.. she talks all the time but rarely anything we can decipher. I dont recall ever seeing my kids do this..
someone told me that she is playing.. but.. she does not play. It kind of freaks me out because I am wondering if she has something else going on besides the autism diagnosis??

my son did that when he was smaller and still does from time to time .for example when im drving he stars looking around and just star laughing, nonstop i dont know if he is remeing somthing or what , but whatever it is has him craking up !! At first it would freak me out after a while i just excepted it whatever it is its not harming him ..i just try to get his foces on something else ...he does it much less now .

My grandson did that until he was about 4 1/2. Actually, that's the first words he ever said when he was 2 1/2. He was jabbering away in the back seat and looking at the ceiling. Then he'd laugh and start jabbering again, so I asked him who he was talking too and he pointed at the ceiling and said "Monkey!!".

My son did this a few times when he was about 3.5yrs. He'd suddenly whip his head up at an angle with a fixed gaze as if he was studying something. Then he'd track the object to the other side of the room. It reminded me of a cat watching a toy with very abrupt movements. He'd sometimes say 'huh?' as he watched the invisible object moving. He is verbal, so I'd ask him what he was looking at or what he was doing. I never got an answer, and it seemed like he was in his own little world during these episodes as well.